Chris's Short Lived            JSUPT Diary

Ride #2...........

OK, well things ramp up pretty quick at UPT and you’d better be prepared to deal. I was a little down on the flying list and several of my flight mates were on to their third ride already. It was starting to get warm in OK and given the lack on AC on the T-37, several folks were getting sick. None of us were eating anything with color. We all drank a lot of water and several of us carried mint gum to avoid chunking in the jet. I had gotten a little queasy on my dollar ride, but I was having to much fun to care. But again, I was flying again, I had spent the morning in the sim and was desperately trying to re-hydrate before my afternoon flight.

It’s not that the sim is bad, actually compared other things, it was OK. But it’s not always pleasant. When the seat cushions in the T-37 get too thing to keep in the jet (and trust me, they aren’t that good to start with) they go into the sim. Later in training as you actually start to effectively task manage and have a little breathing room you realize how uncomfortable that jet really is. We had heard a few terms, our favorite being “Tweet ass.” Basically after and hour and 20 minutes in that jet, your but was numb.

Well in the sim it was worse, so I was nursing a nice case of “sim butt” and trying to catch my breath after sucking air through a three foot hose for and hour plus and sweating like a pig with the helmut fire I had from trying to do all the crap required of me in sim. I had some time to eat before my number two flight, but I couldn’t eat much. For breakfast I had eaten some toast and tortilla shells. (Someone had already made the mistake of cereal with milk, uuuggghh!!) and for lunch I was having the same. I actually love tortilla shells, but you really get grumpy eating only bland foods. Plus I had been skipping coffee as well. So a day of shells and water later I was ready to fly. …..or so I thought

This flight was scheduled for 1551, but was rolled back until 1605. So at 1505 I reported to my instructor and began the breif.

Another bit about pilot training, is in the beginning, the instructors are flying three times a day, it’s hard work, and there is still a full class of UPT students they have to manage. These poor guys have about two hours between flight to debrief the previous student and brief up the next. It is not an uncommon sight to see your instructor wolfing down a sandwich and guzzling Gatorade while you’re briefing just to keep going.

I was trying to take things slow and not make any mistakes when I got out of life support and to the jet, my instructor flight out told me that my manner was not working for him at all and I needed to step it up.

Yet another gorgeous blue sky day in OK. Spring is a great time there, Yes, there are some nasty T-storms and the occasional twister, but I can see why Vance is a UPT base. It was always great flying weather.

My flow again way too slow and I stumbled over the radio calls to ground and to the tower. My instructor wisely let me goof all of these calls up knowing that the humiliation would prompt me to practice more and get it right next time.

As we taxied I had a miserable time trying to keep the jet straight. Like a C172 you of course steer with your feet. In the T-37, a button on the stick engages the front wheel. I had a problem overcorrecting and letting go of the button. When I realized the jet wasn’t responding I would remember and engage the button only to have the aircraft snap in the opposite direction. Needless to say it was ugly but I eventually got the jet to the line up

Oh yeah, my time, my jet, my show. As we taxied on the active runway I engaged the canopy and locked it down (then steered the jet straight again as I wobbled into place) I looked like an imbecile, but it was my jet. I engaged the brakes, throttled up and made the call; “line on line on line, point on point on point, three green, no red or amber, two good engines, off at …. (whatever time we got off). And I dumped the brakes, after a few seconds the jet began to pickup speed. Man was this thing hard to steer in the wind. I let go of the wheel button and steered with the controls. I scared the beejezus out of my self the way this thing was skipping across the runway, but my instructor kept his hands to himself, finally 87 miles an hour and the jet rose into the air. I kept trying to maintian a runway heading, change the radios and keep climbing but my head was already on fire. I almost over sped the gear because I forgot to pull up the wheels, the first instructor catch, the second was when he had to grab the stick and pull back because when I leaned forward to change the radio, I pushed the jet forward. Oops.

Once in the area, we practiced power on stalls, traffic pattern stalls and slow flight. As you might suspect, I was terrible at all of them. In addition, I had real issues with area orientation, the letdown and the pattern entry. We did a few patterns and landings. I goofed every one of them, including the straight-in and the normal landing. My instructor demonstrated a closed pattern while we were in the pattern and that was cool. You come in a few feet off the ground ask for permission for closed and depending on the level of traffic, get it. When you do you execute what is called a closed pull-up. For those who have always wanted to fly, this is the reason. You’re cooking along at about 130 knots and roll into a tight climbing turn to pattern altitude. On a good cold day you can really yank some G’s

I also goofed my gear down calls but we safely landed. Hey any landing you can wak away from right?

In the debrief I tanked my EP, but I did OK on my GK. Everything I did was graded USAT, but I wasn’t dangerous and at this stage that’s what they want. I was given a “GOOD” for the ride.

I left the debreif covered in sweat, quesy and grinning like an idiot. Man was this ever cool! Done flying I finally had a microwave burrito and a coke. What a day!

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