The road to my wings
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| Date | 09-06-2006 |
| Location |  |
| Message | (Friday 1550) What a day! Job training is great and I'm having a great time. I really feel at home on a fighter squadron and can hardly get any sleep at night due to the high excitement... Today was probably the best day so far. JØR and myself started the day by doing some training in the F16 simulators. The base have 2 sims which can be connected so we enjoyed doing formation flying and a few touch and gos together. Afterwards we went to the static display area, as today is the arrivals day for the airshow. We had a look at the JSF and Eurofighter stands which were open for crews today. We even got a ride in the Eurofighter simultaor which is really amazing. The thrust to weight ratio is incredible. It's funny how things link up in life. As soon as I got to the Eurofighter stand, a guy came up to me and asked: "Aren't you the chap from Malta who came to Denmark because you want to be fighter pilot?" I was surprised that a guy from the Eurofighter development team knew much more about me than I could ever imagine! Anyways, afterwards we went to the end of the runway to take a picture or two of the landing aircraft. It was good fun. Now I'm off to pick Sara up from the station as she arrives soon. Stay tuned! /GEA |
| Date | 04-06-2006 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Sunday 1840) Just got back from the military museum in Copenhagen. This weekend they have a special display with a mock-up model of the F35 JSF, which will probably be the replacement for the F16 here in Denmark. The mock-up is of full scale, in Danish markings and includes a Martin Baker ejection seat and simple cockpit. Also in the museum is a cockpit simulator. The cockpit is fully functional, however the flight dynamics aren't realistic and they're just to give you an idea of how the cockpit works and not to show you how the aircraft flies. There was a pilot from Lockheed Martin present who was very friendly and explained the cockpit and systems and the advantages of the aircraft over current generation aircraft. He has over 2000 hours of background on US NAVY F/A18's so he knew what he was talking about. He says that the JSF will be as manoverable as something between an F16 and an F18. It is as stealthy as the F117 and B2 and can carry almost as many weapons as the F16, however they are carried in a bay inside the fuselage so you have a clean configuration at all times...with regards drag anyway, not weight of course. I'm still not completely convinced, but there's about 10 years time to go before the F16 gets replaced, so there's plenty of time I guess. /GEA |
| Date | 03-06-2006 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Saturday 1530) The website was once again hacked last night so I am updating some scripts, changing passwords etc. to avoid it happening again in the future. So if the picture-gallery is down, it's because it's due to maintanance. Best regards Stephen |
| Date | 01-06-2006 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Thursday 1125) We have a long weekend, which will serve as a little break between Group-leader training and job-training. It's great that we're done in Karup. Now we move south on Tuesday and get our flying-suits back and start learning stuff which is more relevant to what we'll be doing at the end of the course. I'm all excited about it, and so are the other guys for that matter. Finally we get a taste of what our life is going to be like the next 17 years or more. Can't wait! /GEA |
| Date | 30-05-2006 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Tuesday 1745) Almost there! Yesterday evening the recruits had their final farewell party, and we were invited of course. We had a great time and enjoyed a beer or two in eachother's company. Today we spent most of the day delivering back equipment and military clothing, so now they're all back to their civilian clothes...except from the ones who have decided to stay in the military. For the ones who stayed, they can look froward to 6 weeks of soldier training and then they'll start specializing in whatever they've chosen, some will go to sergeant school, other will be starting a course as Fighter controller. Tomorrow we'll take care of the last practical things and then we send the recruits home. It's going to be an emotional day I think. One cannot help getting attached to them and at the end of the day, they're just the same as all the rest of us when we were recruits. Anyway, this is probably the last time that I'll write in the diary from Karup AB for quite a while. Next time will hopefully be when I go back to flying school for about 6 weeks just before we head off to Canada...that's in about 2-3 years time! So stay tuned and updated with the next 4 months of job training at 730 Squadron (F16) at Skrydstrup AB. Best regards Stephen |
| Date | 27-05-2006 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Saturday 2355) Weekends are great, but I look forward to start at Skrydstrup AB. All I have left at Karup is 3 days, and then it's basically Hasta La Vista. On Wednesday we send the recruits home. I think that most of them really look forward to get it overwith. Some of them have however decided to continue in the military which is good. From my platoon, there are a couple of guys who applied as Fighter-Controller, an aircraft mechanic and another guy who applied as a Sergeant. As soon as we move to Skrydstrup, the yearly RDAF airshow will take place, and fortunately this year it's going to be held at Skrydstrup. So we're going to have an action filled intro to the base. The weekend after the airshow I'll be going to Leeuwarden in the Netherlands with some friends for another airshow. The Blue Angels will be performing their only European airshow in years there, so I simply cannot miss it. It's going to be great to see them fly, among alot of other interesting aircraft and display teams. That's it for now...bed time soon. Best regards GEA |
| Date | 25-05-2006 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Thursday morning, very early /about 1115) Just got up and I had needed a good sleep after 10 straight days of work, including 4 days on an exercise with very little sleep. The first day of the exercise went with marching out to our operation area with all the equipment. The march was only about 4km long, but it's hard with the heavy equipment and the weather wasn't exactly on our side. We got 15mm of rain that day so you can only imagine how soaked we were by the time we got there! Then most of the rest of the day was used to prepare our location in the forest in case of enemy attack. Then at night we had to patrol the area around it, where we were sent out on routes which took about 2 hours to patrol. In the morning we headed off on a task-march, where we had to walk all the way round the base (about 12km) and solve tasks on the way. There were 12 tasks in all, some were easier than others and I could clearly feel as the day progressed and my group started getting tired. I had to continuously try to motivate them and brief them thoroughly before every task in order not to miss any details. At one of the stations we were attacked by CS gas (a mild form of tear-gas) and I was taken completely by surprise and got a big mouthful of it. Damn it tasted bad! /GEA |
| Date | 24-05-2006 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Wednesday 2025) Back home from the base for a long weekend, as last weekend we were on the 4-day exercise. The exercise went very well, better than I had expected. I was group leader for a group of 10 men and we were all pushed to our physical limits, including myself. The exercise ended with having to cross a stream (about 5m wide) with all the equipment on while under enemy fire. When I got back to the base I was full of mud, so I headed straight for the shower and took a shower with the uniform on and I even took the gun with me! The morning after I got a call from PLA who wanted to inform me that my website had been hacked during the weekend. It was a bad piece of news to come home to, and the worst part of it was that I didn't know how much damage had been done, but it seems as if I've fixed it. Apparently it was only the front page of the site that had been hacked, so it only took 2 minutes to replace it. Tonight I'll take a good look at the rest of the site to see if there's anything suspicious... That's it for now. Best regards GEA |
| Date | 16-05-2006 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Tuesday 2050) We're almost ready for the big exercise which starts on Thursday morning. It's going to be physically demanding but on the other hand it's only 4 days and it seems like it's going to be alot of fun at the same time. As to the airshow at Skrydstrup, there have come some new updates. Included in the flying display, are now a Spitfire and a Polish MiG29 and in the static display we'll be getting F4's from Greece, Turkey and Germany among other aircraft. It looks like it's going to be a great airshow once again by the RDAF, so that's great! If you want to take a look, try: www.danishairshow.dk That's it for now. /Stephen |
| Date | 10-05-2006 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Wednesday 1735) We spent the day protecting a bunker today, where I was in charge of planning the whole event. It went well and the enemy didn't get into the bunker, which was simulating a weapon/ammo storage. During the day I was platoon leader, so I was rather busy keeping my head cool and having a good idea of what was going on all around my responsibility area. But anyway, the day is over now. After work we had a meeting about the end-exercise which is due in 1 week, where we'll be out from Thursday morning to Sunday evening. It looks exciting and it also seems as if we're going to be rather stressed with regards food and rest. I'll be functioning as a group leader during the whole event, so I won't have it much easier than the recruits... This Friday is a public holiday, so tomorrow we get off for the weekend. That's it for now. /Stephen |
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