The road to my wings
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| Date | 19-06-2010 |
| Location |  |
| Message | (Saturday 2305) I didn't have a very eventful week. I got another sim done, this time the NA1S, which is the first low level navigation sim. It was fun to fly the planned route at just about 300 feet over the ground at 420kt and then hit the planned targets on the second. I can't wait to try it out in the plane. My only concern is the birds who seem to have a jet engine magnet installed in them and those towers and masts which can be so hard to spot. Tomorrow I have a practise sim in the morning and then I'll spend most of the day preparing the map for the next NAV sim. The good thing about NAV missions on the Hawk is that you design your own route and pick your own target, unlike on the Harvard where you had assigned routes and targets every time you flew nav missions. On the other hand, it's hard to be creative sometimes and come up with a route and target every time. Today we (most of the Danes) watched the football game against Cameroon and fortunately it turned out ok. Time is running out. I cannot believe that I'll be out of here in less than two months time. I've been here for almost two years now and kind of feel at home. Have a good Sunday. /GEA |
| Date | 15-06-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Tuesday 2140) I had my FM1S today, which stands for Formation 1 Sim. It went well and got me turned back on after the "defeat" that I had this weekend. The sim IP was an ex RAF fighter pilot, who flew on the Hunter and Harrier among other aircraft. He also took part in the Falklands war during his time on the Harrier so I have to find an opportunity to make him tell me some war stories from back in the days. At one point he was also the test pilot on his Harrier squadron which got me to think about the chief Harrier test pilot, whom my dad knew and used to tell me about when I was a child. So I asked the IP if he knew John Farley and he promptly said that he knew him very well ineed! "I often used to give him a call to get something confirmed after a test flight and he would often chat for a whole hour or so," he said. What a small world! He also told me about a book that John Farley wrote, which I simply have to read at some point. The book is called "A view from the hover." I had hoped for my first formation trip in the Hawk tomorrow but by the looks of it I don't have a formation partner so either they'll put me on a short hold until one of the next students is ready with his phase and can start formation or else they'll kick me off into the low level navigation phase. Whichever phase I get to do, it's going to be aweseom fun. Tomorrow I'm on for a night sim, preparing me for the only night flight in the Hawk. Somebody once told me that the aviation business is full of disappointments and I dismissed that comment right away, but at times like last Sunday I really start to wonder whether he was right. I was really down yesterday and today, but as they say: What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. It's just in my charachter I guess, that after a blow like that I just want to fight even harder to make things good again. It was just unfortunate, that the only one bad flight I'd had on the Hawk, happened to be on a test, and on an easy test too, at least compared to the other tests. It sure will bring my average grade down but there's nothing to do about that now. /GEA |
| Date | 13-06-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Sunday 2040) I did my final instrument test and passed - but it was one crap flight. I simply couldn't concentrate on anything. I had too much going on in my head in the background and I should have called the flight off before it happened but I decided to go. It's a fine line between postponing the flight because you don't feel fit to go and then maybe it gets interpreted as an excuse because you're not prepared or something. I'm really disappointed but to be honest I felt ten times worse seeing the German IP's afterwards who came over and asked how it went. I told them that I had barely passed and they just couldn't believe it. I flew the pre-test with one of them last Thursday and he said it was the strongest pre-test he'd ever seen. They were almost more disappointed than I was. I felt bad cancelling the flight considering that many people had to come to work on a Sunday just to get the guys on my course and me to fly, so I pushed on. I hate myself right now. Not getting the F16 because of politics is one thing, but doing bad on a test because I decided to fly when I shouldn't have is just unacceptable. Anyway, I have the day "off" tomorrow as my wife is getting operated so I'll spend the day with her. It's only a small procedure but it's over in Regina and she doesn't look forward to it. On the bright side of things, having passed the test means that I now have an instrument flight rating on the Hawk, also known as "the ticket" and I'm done with the IF phase. The next IF flight will be at the end of the course where I'll take a jet on my own (or with a buddy) and fly to Calgary or wherever we decide to go. /GEA |
| Date | 11-06-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Saturday 0005) Just a quick note to mention that I didn't get the test done because of weather. I'm scheduled for it on Sunday. And then Monday it's on to formation flying,starting with a sim. I can't wait! /GEA |
| Date | 10-06-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Thursday 2120) The crappy weather didn't get better this afternoon, but it didn't get worse either. So at about 1430 one of the German IP's came in and said: "GEA, ready for the pre-test?" I thought he was kidding. By that time, half of the people had gone home and nobody was flying. So he gave me ten minutes to do the planning. Fortunately I had done almost all of the planning earlier before I got cancelled. So I replanned according to the new winds etc. and off we went. The only option was Swift Current as everywhere else they were reporting icing in the clouds. The flight went really well so tomorrow I'm scheduled for the test, however I really doubt if we'll launch with this forecast... In any case, I'll be ready. In the morning we have ground school about Air to Surface tactics. I suppose it's how to drop bombs. Should be interesting. Hopefully it won't take all my attention away from the test which is scheduled for 1420. /GEA |
| Date | 10-06-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Thursday 1225) Yesterday's flight was actually quite a learning experience. Apart from being busy, my IP wanted me to try out some new stuff which isn't part of the syllabus. So when we got back home to Moose Jaw he asked to controllers for a "minimum fuel PAR." A PAR (Precision approach radar), also known as GCA in Europe (Ground Controlled Approach) is basically when the controller looks at his precision radar which shows the runway centerline and the 3 degree glide path down to the runway. You follow his instructions carefully and if both controller and pilot are doing a good job, he'll bring you right down to the runway even though you cannot see anything because of low clouds or bad visibility. You ask for a min fuel PAR when you're about to run out of fuel and you simply have to get down in bad weather. The controller vectors you tightly on to final approach and brings you down in as little time as possible. So my IP said "Ok GEA, we're going to simulate a min fuel PAR. Two things: Don't get us killed and don't break the plane, other than that I'm gonna let you do it whichever way you think is best." So we simulated having only nine minutes of fuel left, so the controller vectored me around the airfield and got me on a five mile final approach before I broke out of clouds and saw the runway right ahead of me. It was lots of fun and I also elected not to use flaps or extend the landing gear until the last moment to reduce drag and conserve my little fuel. It must have looked sketchy from the ground to see a Hawk rocketing down through clouds with the gear still retracted on short final. A good experience to see what it really looks like when you only have fumes left in the fuel tank. /GEA |
| Date | 10-06-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Thursday 1125) Yesterday's weather wasn't exactly good but it was good enough for my flight so I flew to Swift Current airport, then on to Saskatoon and back home. It was a busy trip but all went really well. Afterwards I had the last IF sim and today I was supposed to fly my pre-test but guess what. The weather is pretty bad. The sun is actualy shining right now with scattered clouds but there's nasty weather on the way. My parents and my brother will be coming over at the end of July for my graduation August 6th. I look forward to it as I haven't seen them for a couple of years now. I planned some trips, among other things a trip to the Rockies. I can't wait to see the mountains again, and this time it will be with minimal snow. That's it for now. /GEA |
| Date | 08-06-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Tuesday 1055) And yet another day with terrible weather, so that's two consecutive days without any X's, which is not good at all. At least I got my closed book IF written exam done so that's one less obstacle in the way. The weather should clear up later on today but I think it's going to be too late for us. As long as I get my instrument flight test done by the end of the week, I'll be happy. All that's left is a flight, a sim, the pre-test and then the test itself. If you're reading and have any excess good weather, send it this way. /GEA |
| Date | 07-06-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Monday 1815) We had another crappy weather day with rain all day and icing in clouds so I didn't get my flight done. And since the flight was a pre-requisit for the sim, I didn't get the sim done either. On the other hand I got a bunch of other things done. One of them was a mass briefing for a few of us who are almost done with the IF phase. The brief was about formation flying, which is going to be the next phase for us but by the looks of it, we'll also start the navigation phase at the same time, but we haven't got the mass brief for that yet. I also did my open book IF written exam and tomorrow I'll get the closed book IF exam and if all goes well, I'll be ready to fly my ticket ride, or in plain English, my final Instrument test which will give me an IF rating. I think the weather's gonna be better tomorrow which means I'll get the flight and the sim done...and the written exam of course! /GEA |
| Date | 06-06-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Sunday 1045) No, I'm not at church. I'm at work instead. I did a practise sim this morning where I practised some advanced IF stuff to prepare myself for the test which will probably take place Wednesday, weather permitting of course. Now I'm doing some flight planning for tomorrow's flight. Friday I flew to Yorkton and the plan was to fly to Regina from there and then back to Moose Jaw, but the approach I wanted to do in Regina was not possible due to winds and traffic so I just told them that I'll proceed directly to Moose Jaw from Yorkton and then did a couple of approaches in Moose Jaw. The weather in Yorkton was pretty hairy. Lots of CB's (Cumulonimbus clouds) and I even flew through some heavy rain on final approach. You feel powerful flying the Hawk but when you get close to one of those huge clouds you really feel humble and insignificant. At one point on the way to Yorkton, ATC calls me up and tells me that there's another Hawk right ahead of me, flying in the opposite direction, one thousand feet below me. So I started looking and I picked it up at ten miles or so. It was easy to see that dark blue plane with a very bright white cloud background and bright sunshine. However, not many seconds went by before it zoomed by me. I glanced at my ground speed and I was doing 450kt ground speed and he was probably doing the same. That means we had a 900 knot closure, which is pretty crazy when you think about it. That equates to almost 1700km/h. The Hawk looked awesome when it went by. "Fucking hell what a sweet plane" I thought to myself...and then realized that I was sitting in one, and it surely put a nasty smile on my face. Now I better get back to flight planning so I can get back home and spend a bit of time with my kid before he has to go to some birthday party this afternoon - and I get time to study. /GEA |
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