Phase II here I come

Phase I is officially history! On Thursday we took our last test of Phase I and now we will be transitioning into phase II. Phase I was primarily academics. It was a lot different than I expected. I thought that our days were going to be filled with classes and lectures and such. We pretty much have been teaching ourselves for the last 6 weeks. Every week we start a new topic and usually on the Friday of that week we have a test. Each topic has a gigantic book that corresponds to computer based training lessons. We are responsible for going to the computer lab and finishing the lessons. A typical day goes something like this: Wake up, eat, go to the computer lab, log on, study lessons, 4 hours later eat, go back to the computer lab, study for a couple more hours, then we might have an hour or two lesson by an actual real live instructor to review the things that we learned in the computer lab, then I go home, eat, and start studying again. Most of the nights we meet up with some friends and study in little groups. The last couple of weeks we have been going to the simulators to practice the things we learn about in the computer lab. The sims are actually pretty impressive. The cockpit is exactly the same as the real deal and enclosed in a gigantic circular shaped pod. The cockpit is surrounded by a circular screen that goes almost all the way around and almost all the way overhead. We practice departures, arrivals, area maneuvers, and emergency procedures in them. It is so realistic that I almost got a little queasy while practicing spin recoveries the other day. I hit the flight line on Tuesday. I can't wait. Gotta go!

A couple of pictures of the T-6

Here are some pictures of the T-6. This is what I will be in after I'm done with academics in a few more weeks.

The first couple of weeks of class

Wow, it is crazy how fast time is flying. Let me see, where should I begin.....well class started on the 15th of May. Well that was the official class start date but in reality they had us busy doing all kinds of in processing and medical stuff for a good week before class started. The first day primarily consisted of briefings and more briefings and then we had to take a boldface/ops limits test. Boldface...oh how I love boldface. Boldface are checklist items that are performed during an emergency. They have to be completely memorized and for the test have to be written from memory....perfectly. It's all about attention to detail. Every letter has to be capitalized and punctuation has to be perfect. There were a couple of people that didn't pass which means that now we have to wear dress blues to class now instead of our flight suits (which are basically like pajamas). The first week we learned about aerospace physiology. Basically we learned about the effects that flight has on the human body. We also learned how to properly eject from the T-6 and how to land properly. I though that week was super interesting. We got to drag each other around by parachute cords while the person being drug had to release his cables. It was fun. We took a test at the end of the week, it wasn't too bad, I think 2 questions. The second week was all about systems. We spent hours and hours learning about thinks like hydraulic systems, communication systems, flight instruments, blah blah blah. The T-6 actually has some pretty impressive technology.
On the weekends I've been able to see some cool local places and have started to love kayaking. I've gone almost every weekend since I've been here and love it. I want to buy a kayak now but the only trick is going to be convincing my wife that we need one.

PIctures from Mississippi and White Sands

Here are a couple of random pictures from Mississippi and the drive from Mesa.
This is at a little lake close to our new home in Mississippi.

This picture is actually from the drive from White Sands National Monument, New Mexico. This was probably my favorite stop along the way from Mesa to Mississippi.

We had to break down and get a little flight suit for Porter. This picture was taken in front of our little home here on Columbus Air Force Base.

It is so green here. Definately a change from Az.

Me and Porter.

We made it to MIssissippi!

Alright, I know I haven't been keeping this blog up to date like I wanted, but now that I have started class there is a lot more going on and I will post more often. I arrived here at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi just a little over two weeks ago and I started class this last friday. I actualy drove here with my wife and 1.5 year old son from Mesa Arizona. That was quite an adventure....I'll just say if it weren't for portable dvd players and the movie "Cars" we might not have made it, go Lightning Mcqueen! We left on Monday the 27th of April and arrived here on that Friday. We stopped at some cool places along the way, but my favorite was at White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. Porter had a blast but for some reason thought that he had to eat all of the sand.
I spent the last couple of weeks unpacking boxes, getting the house put together, and spending time with my wife and son. The Air Force gave us a little home that was probably built in the 60's. It has some interesting features like bright turqois tile in the bathroom, but it is actually not too bad. I just like that I don't have to pay for it. I don't think that I told you, but my wife is pregnant and is due on the 12th of June. Since I am going to be so busy now that pilot training has started we decided that it would be best for her to be back in AZ to have the baby where she will live with her family and have her mom to help take care of her and Porter. She flew back home a couple of days ago and won't come back until the end of July. I am going to miss them a ton, but since she is going to have a C-section I already got approval from my commander to fly back to Az for the birth. I will only miss one day of training.
It is getting late and I have to go in early tomorrow so I've got to get to bed. I'll post again soon.

a couple more pics

These are some pictures from IFS in Pueblo, Co. The ones from the dunes are from a detour that I took while driving home from Pueblo to Mesa, Az. A couple of pictures are from a weekend that we drove up to the Air Force Academy and found a mountain to hike up. The patch is our class patch during IFS.

A few pictures