The road to my wings
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| Date | 03-08-2010 |
| Location |  |
| Message | (Tuesday 1435) We had a great weekend at the mountains. Did a bunch of hiking and sightseeing and took around a gazillion pictures. We even saw a bit of wildlife but unfortunately no bears. One evening I went out for a walk in a well known bear area hoping to see one. At the same time I was hoping not to see it too close. Perhaps it wasn't such a bright idea to go out on my own but everyone else was too tired to go with me after a long hike uphill on a mountain. The house is almost packed and ready for the big move and I'm using the time here at work to do all the clearing out and doing the last (stressful) preparations for the graduation and the time at home to fill in the last boxes. That's it for now. /GEA |
| Date | 30-07-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Friday 2200) I did the low level double attack missions and the last composite flights and had the last one yesterday, so now I'm completely done with the course. And of course I used my last two composite missions for low level navigation. They were both awesome fun. I'll probably do a flight next Friday as part of the graduation ceremony where we'll do a 4 ship formation fly-by for the families. But by the looks of it I'll get a back seat for that flight. I had my last flight with mixed feelings yesterday. It was nice to finish the course but obviously sad to have flown the last flight in the front seat of a fast jet. Today I took my parents and brother to Canmore, Alberta, which is in the Canadian Rockies. The drive here took just under eight hours and tomorrow we plan on proceeding Northbound towards Banff and Lake Louise and then further up to Jasper on Sunday. Monday is a public holiday but we'llprobably head home Sunday night in order to get some more work done with the house before the big move to the States. That's it for now. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow so I better head off to bed. /GEA |
| Date | 26-07-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Monday 1835) I did my extra low level nav mission today and I must admit that it was the most fun mission that I've ever flown. The German IP was as wild as I was and we did all kinds of crazy stuff at low level. He let me buzz all the boats in the lake at 250 feet and I did some really fun flying through a narrow valley. As you know, Saksatchewan is pretty flat but if you look hard,you will find a few good valleys and today I found the best one. So I went to the bottom of it at the lowest permitted height of 250 feet and the ridges were just beside us and above us. It was cool to look up at the cows on top of the valley and just zoom by them. I even made my own passage for that sweet valley and it goes like this: "As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for I am doing 420 knots and nothing out here can catch me." Tomorrow I'm scheduled for the low level double attack which should be fun too. I've been paired up with a Hungarian for the mission, so we spent a couple of hours preparing the map today and tomorrow we'll try and not get killed while trying to stay in double attack formation down at low level. In a few hours I'll drive to Regina airport to pick up my parents and brother. It's going to be exciting having them over and I hope that the weather turns out good next weekend as I've planned a mountain climb at the Rockies. That's it for now. /GEA |
| Date | 24-07-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Saturday 2135) I've decided to use my composite flights on a couple of low level navigation missions. After all, that's what I enjoy doing mostly. On Monday my parents and brother arrive here so I won't be interested in going away to Calgary or so and stay overnight. So tomorrow I'll probably go to the map room at work and prepare a couple of maps. Perhaps I'll even re-use one of my maps as some of them were pretty good and I wouldn't mind flying them again. You've probably heard about the Canadian F18 that went down yesterday at Lethbridge Alberta. I was planning on going to that airshow with a Hawk instead of the Calgary trip but we ended up cancelling because some of the paperwork didn't go through. It was the same jet that had flown the demo here exactly a week earlier and I was standing by the runway taking pictures. Fortunately the pilot ejected safely and only suffered minor injuries, but the jet is a write-off. Tomorrow I'll do some more cleaning and last preparations of the house before the afmily arrives. It's going to be nice! I haven't seen them for just over two years now. /GEA |
| Date | 23-07-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Friday 1645) The trip to Calgary got cancelled due to weather. Today I had my last sim which was the low level double-attack in preparation for the two flights. So all that I have left now are four missions. The two double attack and two composites. I'll probably end up using the composites on a couple of local flights just to get them done. That would mean that I won't be going to Calgary or some other "exotic" place but just out to the area to do a bunch of aerobatics and have some fun, maybe I'll even use one on a low level navigation mission as they're by far the most fun to fly. In exactly two weeks we have our graduation. I can't believe that I'll be leaving Moose Jaw after almost two years over here. My parents arrive on Monday and I've planned an extra long weekend for next week, where I have both Friday and Monday off. The plan is to go to the mountains and have a nice long weekend. So this is actually my last full weekend in Moose Jaw! So I suppose I better enjoy it. At around 1730 I'll head towards the shacks as there's a welcome party for new students and then off to the mess for some food and beer and then over to COM who's hosting a kind of farewell party for himself. Should be a fun night. If I survive all that I'll probably head downtown afterwards. Have a great weekend. /GEA |
| Date | 20-07-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Tuesday 1930) Well, this is it I guess. I have completed "the road to my wings." I had my final formation test today and all went well, which means that I am now unofficialy a winged fighter pilot. With "unofficially" I mean that I won't actually receive my wings until the graduation ceremony on August 6th. It was nice to finish off with a "snake" on the last test. Looking back at the Hawk course, it actually went really well. I only had two bad grades (Low standards) throughout the course. Unfortunately they were both on test rides, which means that they bring my average grade drastically down, but not too much, as all the daily flights were either High Standards or Standard exceeded. All I have left now are a couple of sims, a couple of composite flights and a couple of low level double attack missions. As far as I know, none of those flights are graded. Tomorrow I have the first sim, which I'll use to go to Calgary, and then Thursday I'll actually go to Calgary, stay overnight and fly back Friday morning. I must admit that it's taken a big pressure off my chest to know that I will leave Moose Jaw with two stripes on my shoulder and a pair of wings on my chest...and a sweet pay-raise. I might have reached the end of the road to my wings, but I think I'll continue writing. I'm sure that some will find it interesting to read about helicopter pilot training. /GEA |
| Date | 19-07-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Monday 2130) The end is near. I had my formation pre-test today and it went well even though I had to make a consious effort to try to relax. In formation flying it's very important to relax or else you'll find yourself being "twitchy." So at times I tried to wiggle my toes and release that death-grip on the stick. Maybe it was just a bit of nerves but it went well none the less. So tomorrow I have the last test on the Hawk and then I just have a few flights left which aren't required to get the wings. It's going to be nice after the test tomorrow, knowing that I'll leave Moose Jaw with wings on my chest for sure. We were a bit anxious about not getting finished in time as we were under alot of time pressure but we've really flown our asses off lately so we've done alot of catching up. My parents arrive here in one week so the countdown has begun. I just wish my wife and my little boy could be here too. It's one of the sacrifices you do when you join the military. Sometimes I just wish that the military shows some loyalty towards us and not just treat us as numbers in an Excel sheet, which you get the impression that you are at times. /GEA |
| Date | 18-07-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Sunday 2025) I did my form solo Friday and it was lots of fun. I got a guy to take the back seat on the lead jet so he took some video footage which I'm making a video from. I also got my first solo "emergency" yesterday. I was doing a turning rejoin on lead when I got the Warning/Caution tone so I quickly called out "terminate" on the radio and rolled out in fighting wing position to find out what was wrong. The Hawk's navigation system is comprised of a blended INS (Inertial Navigation System) and a GPS (Global Positioning System) and it's extremely accurate. So I got an INS/GPS failure and before I even got my check list out to solve the issue, lead had already asked his back-seater to do it and he also gave me TAC lead. So he read me the checklist items and the problem was quickly resolved. That's when you realize how great it is with mutual support in formation flying. I gave him the lead back and we continued the sortie. Normally, if one aircraft has an issue, he leads the formation in order to just concentrate on flying the jet while the other guy shadows him and assists him with anything that he can. One more experience in my back-pack. Yesterday was a busy day doing all kind of practical stuff here at home and then attending two birthday parties in the afternoon. Today, on the other hand was a relaxed day. Tomorrow morning I have the formation pre-test and then if the weather holds out and all goes well, I'll have the test on Tuesday. It will be my last test on the Hawk and the last test here in Canada and when I pass I will unofficialy have my wings. But of course I'd have to wait for the graduation to actually get winged. I look forward to it. All those years of hard work for those pair of wings on my chest. It's going to be neat! That's it for now. The weather's been really nice and hot for quite a while now so it really feels like summer. |
| Date | 15-07-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Thursday 2025) Another productive day with two formation flights. On the first one I was the wingman and then I was formation leader on the second one. All my form skills are coming along nicely and I feel pretty confident about the whole thing. And that's good, because tomorrow I have my very last solo flight in the Hawk, which is the formation solo. I've only done one formation landing so far and tomorrow I'm doing my second one - solo! It should be fun. It's going to be strange after the flight to know that this was probably my last solo flight in a fast jet - ever! Anyway, I'll do my best to enjoy it and I'll try to get someone to sit in lead's back seat to take some pictures and do some filming. We had a bit of a hairy moment on my second flight today during the takeoff. Normally when you have to do a formation take off in the Hawk, you both run up the engine to full power on the brakes and then both pilots set the power setting to 2% less of the maximum. Like that, on brake release the wingman can adjust the power during the take off run to stay in position. Unfortunately, sometimes when you run up your engine, you get very different values. For instance, today I got 101.5% at the run up and the wingman only got about 99.5%, so when we both reduced 2% he didn't have any margin to catch up. So sure enough, he started falling behind during the take off run even though he had full throttle. Just before rotation he called "power" on the radio which means that I have to reduce power slightly in order for him to catch up. I reduced carefully but he kept coming at full power which resulted in him overtaking me shortly after we got airborne. I cleaned up (retracted gear and flaps) and he rejoined when he got everything under control. Phew! It could have gotten nasty for him if he had fallen far enough back to get into my slip-stream from the wing tip vortices. It can actually result in the wingman flipping over if you're really unlucky...which reminds me of an incident that I read about once. It was a couple of Luftwaffe F104 Starfighters that were doing a formation take off with afterburner. Lead got a quick light but the wingman didn't, which resultet in the separation and considering the small wings on the 104 and their very low aspect ratio, they have huge wingtip vortices. And surely enough the wingman ended up flipping over. Fortunately he managed to eject before it was too late. Anyway, that's it for tonight. Tomorrow I only have the form solo flight. Then at around 1800, the Canadian solo F18 will do a demo practise so I'll have my camera ready... Then it's on to the mess and weekend! /GEA |
| Date | 14-07-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Wednesday 1640) I've been pretty bad at updating my blog lately due to different reasons. One of them is that I've been busy like crazy and the other being that I haven't felt like it. I must admit that it's really hard being away from my little boy, harder than I had expected, and it fills out a big portion of my brain - constantly. Flying is progressing nicely. I had two flights Monday and two yesterday but none today. Monday I did the low level nav test and all went really well up to the point where my bombs didn't come off the rails over the target. I did a small procedural error and unfortunately it was a costly one. The whole point with a low level nav mission is to get to the target and bomb it precisely and on time, so if you fail in doing so, you fail from reaching the mission objective. Anyway, the snapper let me redo the bombing run and all went well the second time but by then it was too late. I passed the test but only thanks to how well I had flown before the target and how well I got myself together and quickly got back on track when my whole mission started falling apart as soon as I realized that my bombs hadn't come off. Anyway, one less test to worry about and now I only have the remainder of the formation phase and a few composite rides left. I'm not even enjoying the course anymore. I'm way too stressed with the family situation, the race against time with finishing all the flights and getting the wings before we have to move on and also the graduation, which I have the lead on and the whole moving to Alabama in such an unrealistic time frame. Unfotunately this isn't how I had hoped things would be, but now I suppose I just have to make the best out of it. That's it for now. /GEA |
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