Chris's Short Lived
JSUPT Diary
The dollar ride...........
This was a non graded ride, but it wasn't free. This would be the first ride taken with my primary instructor. I was actually getting into the AF $750K twin engine jet trainer. I would feel G's, breath forced O2 and actually get to feel like a military pilot.
Sweet!
My second sim was on a Friday, so we enjoyed our last semi free weekend and had nice party out at the ranch. I spent the rest of the weekend boning up on my knowledge and readying my dollar.
See even though everybody gives dollar, the idea is not to give the instructor money, it's a keep sake. Many of the instructor display these on their desk, it is a source of pride for them. These dollars can be as simple as a signature with a date, or elaborately decorated plaques.One of my roommates glued his to a beer bottle with some alterations made to the bill.
I took and old flask I had and wrapped the bill around it, encasing the rest in leather. There is no rule that says the bill has to be ready at the moment the flight ends, but I consider myself a traditionalist and I wanted to do this. So I had it ready on Monday.
The flight was at about 9 am, at 8 I started my brief. Because it was the first flight, my instructor went through the briefing guide, explaining to me that the next time it would be my task to brief up the flight. Our jet got slipped back we were finally wheels up at 1030.
When I was eliminated from pilot training, I wished I had never gone. I hated being at that base and hearing jets take off knowing that I wasn't flying them. I wish I had never known how cool it was to fly a jet, becuase then I wouldn't know what I was missing. But a year and half later, I am glad I had the experience. I had flown a Cessna 172 for about 40 hours, and that was really cool, but nothing compared to this.
The T-37 is one of the oldest frames in the military, it was new in the 50's. In comparison to the new stuff, like the T-6, it is a pig, slow unresponsive and piggish, but to me that day it was an unbelievable machine. It roared down the runway and leaped into the air.
The day was gorgeous, blue sky with just a few broken clouds at about 3k feet. Becuase we were under ATC control we flew right through one. Being always VFR in a 172, I had always avoided them, but poof, through we went. We climbed to altitude and my instructor showed me the primary ground references on our way to the practice airfield. Lemme tell you, Oklahoma is FLAT!
Then we moved to the practice area and worked on our basic maneuvers that I would soon be flying. The majority of the flight I sat with my hands in my lap to pay attention to the ground references, but some things did require my hand on the controls. I also got to return the jet to the pattern and land the T-37. My instructor was there with the hand on the stick as well, but I was doing it. Both of these items would be graded Unsat, but hey any landing you can walk away from.
I wasn't graded on my brief, or the takeoff or departure, that was all done by the instructor. My ground ops were graded Unsat. It was a new process to be actually doing it in the cockpit and I kept referring to my checklist, also I was a bit over fascinated with the idea of doing it, so I didn't move with any purpose, I was having to much fun. Fun is great, but not what they are looking for at this stage.
Another downgrade was my basic A/C control. You have to be even more subtle in the jet and lead your corrections. It is definitely something you have to develop a feel for. I wasn't any good at my traffic pattern stalls, this would haunt me for a while.
The most dangerous time in an aircraft is the landing. If you get to slow, you will stall on approach and you do not have the altitude to recover. An unfortunate reality in the JSUPT is this is how most students are lost. For the amount of people flying out of the four JSUPT bases (now 5) it is amazing how seldom it does happen, and this is due in large part to an emphasis on this practice.
You climb to a safe altitude in a practice area and pretend to land at a set altitude. For example, you climb to 22K and pretend you're landing at 20K. This is done a few time over, what the intrsuctors want is for you to stall the aircraft on purpose and then recover safely before the floor you have set. You have to learn the approach to stall indicators and how to recover without thinking. This is to keep the both of you alive when you are landing.
My issue was simple, I had the same issue when I was learning in Cessna 172's. I don't like to stall. The plane wants to fly, I want to let it, why stall? A great safe attitude but it does squat for me when I need to learn something. This would be a perennial thorn in my side for a little while.
I was also Unsat in communication (it's different when you are really on the radio with 16 others folks) Clearing, in-flight checks, decision making, situational awareness, and task management. All of these are closely related concepts and if one slips, it usually takes the others with it.
But my sit down EP went well and my GK was up to speed. Again, no grade on the flight, and overall it wasn't to bad. And wow, was that ever cool.
The JSUPT page In the Beginning.. On the Flightline....... Avoiding Airsickness ....
So here it is, summed up in a few flights and a handful of sims, kinda depressing when I see it laid out so simply, so small, so short. I only made it a few flights after solo. But if it helps anyone or entertains anyone, then maybe it was worth it Sim 1 Sim 2 Flight 1 Sim 3 Flight 2 Flight 3 Flight 4 Flight 5 Sim 4 Sim 5 Flight 6 Flight 7 Sim 6 Flight 8 Flight 9 Flight 10 Sim7 Sim 8 Flight 11 Flight 12 Sim 9 Flight 13 Flight14 Sim 10 Flight 15 Flight 16 Flight 17 Flight 18 Flight 19 Flight 20 Flight 21 Flight 22 Flight 23 Flight 24 Flight 25 Flight 26 Flight 27 Flight 28
