The road to my wings
Please do not press the "Sign Guestbook" button as this will put an entry into the blog.
Sign Guestbook Back to Jetfighters.dk
| Date | 20-03-2010 |
| Location |  |
| Message | (Saturday 1320) I got alot of emails and messages, especially on Facebook, since yesterday and it's really overwhelming. I've heard from people who I didn't even know read my blog. Thank you all so much for the support! I've also done alot of thinking and didn't get much sleep last night. I guess it's my way of coping with the big change of direction. It's not easy to have been working in such a focused manner towards a goal for so many years and suddenly have to get used to the thought that your goal has changed. Some people asked if I'm pissed off at the Air Force or why I stay so loyal. Well, I'm not mad at the Air Force in any way. The Air Force work from the guidelines and terms that they get from the politicians and most of the time, especially in the past few years, those terms have been very unreasonable and almost impossible to work from. So even though it's the Air Force who has to take all the hard decisions, they're all based on orders that they get from above. At the end of the day, don't forget that the Air Force hasn't fired me or anything like that. I still have my paycheck coming in at the end of every month, they still paid for my fighter pilot training and now also the helicopter pilot training. I've been through some great adventures, flown planes that I almost not dared to dream of even getting close to and been to places that I always wanted to visit but never had the opportunity. Whatever I end up flying, I think I'll have a great carreer and an awesome job with a great network of collegues and lots of friends and people who I would have never met if I hadn't joined. So don't worry too much about me. This is no failure - not even close. It just wasn't meant to be. I have no regrets whatsoever and if I had to do it all over again - I would without the slightest hesitation!/GEA |
| Date | 19-03-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Friday 1450) It's the end of the line for my fighter dreams. Today it was decided who will go on with the course at Cold Lake and who will go to the helo course in Alabama. Unfortunately I wasn't one of the lucky ones. It was a photo finish between me and another guy but the decision was made that he was probably the best choice. It took a while for me to realize that once again, my life will be turned upside down but I'm trying to come to terms with it. So what it means in practise is that I'll start flying the Hawk, most probably this coming week and get my wings on the Hawk in August in order for me to be ready to start the helo course mid August in Alabama. Two others from my class share the same fate. Nothing to do about it. It just had to go this way. I'm writing a few emails around to try and see if I can swap my helo spot with someone who is waiting to start on the CL604 Challenger course, who would prefer to fly helos than transports. If that can be done, I'd be really happy. Otherwise, I'll just do the best out of it and enjoy it while it lasts. It's been a great adventure so far and I'm almost tempted to say it's over, but really it just took a new direction. Not one that I wished for or hoped for in any way, but one that had been anticipated by all of us, knowing how the situation is back home. Back when I moved to Denmark the Air Force had 62 F16's. Now they have less than half so it's not surprising that they don't need us as fighter pilots. To become a fighter pilot demands great skills but also a great deal of luck ot be the right person at the right place at the right time. I wasn't that person. It sucks but there's no other way around it. On the other hand, having gotten the wings on the Hawk means that the fighter option is still there if the opportunity should arise at some point down the line but there are many other factors to consider too. I'm 30, have a family and by the time I finish this course and the next one and then maybe the opportunity arises a few years down the line, I doubt if I'll be in a position where I would want to get into the fighter business. That's it for now. Have a great weekend. /GEA |
| Date | 16-03-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Tuesday 1210) Another interesting day in the Air Force. The guy in charge of us back home at the Tactical Air Command came over for his yearly meeting with the Danish instructors and the school, so we asked for a meeting with him where he could maybe enlighten us on what to expect when we get home from Canada. Alot of stuff has happened since last year but not much has changed for our situation. A bit has changed and it's not to our favour. The way things look right now is that we'll (the five of us) all get the wings on the Hawk and finish our course here. However only two to three of us will be sent on to Cold Lake and the rest of the fighter pilot training. The remaining will, once again, be sent on helos or transports. I had a feeling that not all of us would make it all the way to the F16 - but I didn't think that some of us would be stopped before even going to Cold Lake for the Fighter Lead In course. So at the end of the day we're where we've always been: All that matters is that we do our best and try to place within the top ones in class. On the positive side is that we won't get fired and we're pretty sure that we'll get a flying job after the training, whatever that may be. That's it for now. /GEA |
| Date | 15-03-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Monday 1520) Another week is on and the debate back home about which fighter should replace the F16 is raging and has reached new heights. Today, the Danish Defence announced that they don't point at the JSF as their favorite but given the information that they have at hand right now, and the tasks that the new fighter should perform, the F18 Super Hornet would be the best choice for Denmark and they will therefore suggest that to the politicians when the decision has to be made. Honestly I'm happy about that because the JSF has come under alot of criticism lately and it seems to have gone into an evil circle. The "price" for the fighter has more than doubled since they started developing the aircraft and there is still no idea of what the final price will be, especially after all the delays that the programme has experienced. One of the problems is that as the price increased, more of the potential customers have decided to cut down on the number of aircraft that they wanted to buy, which in turn made the price go even higher and make the customers even more reluctant to buy it. Apart from that, we still don't really know what the aircraft will be capable of, whereas aircraft like the Typhoon, Gripen and Super Hornet are all aircraft in service and we know what they're capabale of and what they cost. As I always said, it's going to be exciting to see the outcome, whatever the choice will be...as long as they do decide to replace the F16 and not drop the Danish fighter force all together.../GEA |
| Date | 11-03-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Thursday 1300) Done for the day! We had our AOI final exam and the red pages exam and all went well. Most of us got 100% in both so we don't have anything to complain about. Then our groundschool instructor went through the cockpit checks with us and showed us a couple of HUD videos of normal take offs and a straight-in approach and landing. I got really turned on by them and I simply can't wait to fly the plane. I don't think I've ever been so excited about flying anything as much as I am about the Hawk - not even when I was waiting to get my back-seat rides in the F16. From tomorrow on we could be on the schedule for the CPT's (cockpit procedure trainers) which is basically three sessions of basic stuff in the simulator, where we go through all the ground checks and if there's time we'll do a take-off, a bit of flying with emphasis on the airborne checks and then land the bird. The idea is for them to make sure that we know all the checks and normal operating procedures before starting any mission. So tonight I'll start studying the "white pages" which is basically all the cockpit checks and I hope that I know most of them by tomorrow. Then it's on to reading the MFT (manual of flying training) which basically tells you how to fly the plane, how to perform different manoeuvrs, stalls, landings etc. That's it for today! /GEA |
| Date | 11-03-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Wednesday 2155) I'll be on my way to bed soon as my head is about to explode after several hours of studying emergency procedures and aircraft limitations. The guy who taught us AOI's for the Hawk is a retired fighter pilot who now teaches Hawk ground school and runs the Hawk simulator at school. He's in his mid 60's I would think and often has great stories to tell us, especially back from the days when he flew F104's. Back then flying was very different. They had very few rules and being a pilot was much more about flying than anything else. I always say that I was born 20 years too late and when I meet a guy like that, it just confirms it for me. I'm almost done editing the video from my second cross country trip by the way, which I'll upload once it's done. Now I'm off to bed so I'm not too tired in the morning. It sucks sitting at an exam and the numbers in your head don't make any sense because you're tired. /GEA |
| Date | 10-03-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Wednesday 1220) We had our first seat check on the Hawk this morning. I must admit that I always had a bit of a relaxed attitude to seat checks on the T6 but I want to change my attitude and really try to make the most out of every seat check and egress drill on the Hawk. Ejection seats can save your life but they can also take it from you if you don't have enough respect for them. Once you start flying ejection seat aircraft, things become very serious and you don't want to do the wrong thing at anytime. This afternoon we're having our final AOI review and then it'll be a long evening of studying before the final AOI exam tomorrow. Then on Friday I think we have the hawk water egress training and dinghy drill at the base swimming pool. /GEA |
| Date | 07-03-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Sunday 1245) This morning I did the CBT's about the aircraft's HOTAS (Hands on throttle and stick) system among other things. It's pertty interesting and it really gives you a feeling of getting into the fighter pilot business. I also went through the Navigation and attack system and the HUD (Head up display) with its modes. It's all very interesting stuff, and so far it's been easier than I had expected. I guess having spent all those thousands of hours playing flight simulations on my computer during my pre-teen, teen years and early twenties haven't been a waste of time afterall. This afternoon I plan on reading through the rest of the Red page emegencies as we'll be going through them in class tomorrow. I don't plan on having memorised all of them today but I'll try to learn a couple more as part of the test on Thursday will be to write all the Red page emergencies from memory. There are alot of them and they're not as straight foward as one would expect a red page to be. The red page part of the test has a pass mark of 100%, so there's literally no room for error whatsoever. Have a good Sunday! /GEA |
| Date | 06-03-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Saturday 1835) The "Tour de chambre" last night was a blast - however, most of us are still suffering the consequences. This morning when I got up it looked rather foggy so I decided to postpone the model test flight. Then after a few minutes I realized that it was just in front of my eyes that it was foggy. So I decided to go for it anway and finally got the bird in the air. It wasn't all uneventful but it's still in one piece and flew for five minutes or so. Yes, it was video-taped so I'll post a video link as soon as I've done the editing etc. (probably not this weekend though). I found a disused asphalt road. It's rather rough asphalt but it worked ok none the less. So I did all the ground checks that one would normally do on a test flight and all looked the way it should - so I said my prayers (Oh Lord, please don’t let me fuck up) and there were no more excuses. The weather was clear blue skies, about -10C and there was a nice breeze a bit from the right. I powered her up and she got airborne in about 15m I would say. It was very apparent that she was on the "tail heavy" side of things as the plane almost "lofted off" the runway and I had a bit of a left wing drop and had to keep forward pressure on the stick to keep her climbing in a shallow manner. Those first few seconds were pretty intense. Is she gonna fly? Did I remember a plastic bag to collect all the pieces afterwards. Anyway I got her under control and after a few clicks of right aileron trim and quite alot of down elevator trim she looked steady - but still twitchy on pitch. So I retracted the gear and trimmed further. I did a slow fly by, approached stall, a couple of basic aerobatics, high speed low pass and a low approach and then it was time to land. My considerations were the “crowd,” the narrow runway, the CG and the slight crosswind component. The biggest consideration, however, was the rough asphalt so I wanted to bring her down as slow as possible so that she stops as soon as she touches down in order to spare the retracts from the bumps etc. And she did stop very abruptly, but not the way I had intended… I should have paid more attention to that CG. As I came down to about 1m I started the round out but as soon as I touched the elevator stick it just ballooned and dropped the left wing right away and there was no time for recovery. So it tip stalled and fell from about half a meter I would say. I scraped the left wingtip and I think the servo for the nose wheel steering is toast too. The prop got a bit scratched on the tips too but the biggest scratch was on my pride. I hate screwing up! Anyway, I’ll repair the stuff eventually and get her back in the air but it definitely won’t be before next weekend as I have a busy week ahead with the final Hawk AOI (Aircraft Operation Instructions) exam on Thursday so there’s a lot of studying to be done. I’ll post a link to the video once it’s done. Now it's time for Laura's birthday party. /GEA |
| Date | 05-03-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Friday 1335) First Hawk test is done. All Danes got 100% correct answers and the Italian guy had a few errors but we all passed. So now it's time for the weekend...or so I thought. We have ALOT of home work for Monday so I'll be using a few hours on that. Other than that, we (Danes only) have the "Tour de chambre" tonight where we go from house to house to see eachothers home, get a drink and some snacks at each place and it won't surprise me too much if we do the last stop at the Dane bar... Tomorrow we have a meeting about the upcoming yearly "Viking night" at the mess, which is due in April or so. The meeting will take place at one of the instructors at lunch where we'll have his famous Chili con carne. Then tomorrow evening we're invited to a birthday party (Hamster's wife). And I still plan on test flying the T6 model this weekend and then of course, I have all the studying to do, so it's going to be a packed weekend. That's it for now. /GEA |
Page 16 of 98 << First < 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 > Last >>