Impossible? Nothing's Impossible!

So it's been a couple days since I last made a post, due to both internet issues and being incredibly busy, but let me catch everyone up to speed:

In-processing day was simple. I showed up (in blues uniform), checked into lodging to get my room, checked in with security to get my facility badge, checked into IT to get my issued laptop, and checked into medical. Whole process took maybe an hour, after which, the rest of the day was mine to unpack.

Day-One was a lot of your usual introductory info for the first half, like who everyone was that worked here, what the expectations are, where everything was at, etc...followed by a Fitness Test (minus the run due to ice on the track...why they didn't think to put in an indoor track, I don't know), lunch, then academics started with Flight Physiology. Last item of the day was our Bold Face and Ops Limits test, which is basically regurgitating on paper a handful of memorized emergency procedures and operating limits of the airplane...stuff you need to know at a moments notice when flying. The motivation to memorize and complete this test with 100% accuracy is that if everyone in the flight can do it, we can wear our flight suits instead of blues. Out of our eight folks in my RPA flight, we had one guy get one (out of 31) of the operating limits wrong. He put down 108 instead of 106, which killed the chance to get our flight suits...or so we thought. Our flight commander said that was the closest he's ever seen a flight get on the first try, so today he talked the squadron commander into letting us wear our flight suits...booyah!

Day-Two (today) was nothing but academics. 9 hours of sitting at a desk looking at powerpoints, with info that we'll have to know for a test on Tuesday morning. Lot's of info to process through the brain, and I'm extremely glad that I already have prior flying experience and at least have seen all of this stuff before. I feel bad for those that don't have any flying experience and this is the first time they're seeing this. Even my head hurt by the end of the day. There's a couple of them in my flight, so those of us who do have prior experience are helping them out.

Tomorrow is scheduled to be more of the same. Nothing but academics covering weather, airspace, navigation, and basics of flying. BUT, we at least get to be comfortable in our flight suits. I'm pretty sure none of the other 3 flights (30 people each, 90 total for you math experts) passed their test, so they'll all be in blues. I only say this, and revel in it, because all the other flights here are made up of traditional pilot and navigator students, who all turn their noses up at the mention of flying an RPA. So, the fact that we passed our test before all of them is kind of personal win for us in the RPA flight. Granted, we technically missed one AND we only have 8 people vs 30 AND we already knew each other and pushed each other to know this stuff before we got here...but it's still a win in my book.

Personal thoughts:
I'm having a good time, so far. It helps that I'm only in a flight of 8 instead of 30, and that we're all coming from the same squadron at Randolph and will be going through a couple other classes together after this. It's challenging, but I enjoy a challenge. It's also busy, and very regimented with the schedule. I didn't realize until late this afternoon that I haven't been outside of this building for over 48 hours. This one building housing everything. Your room, the gym, the auditorium and classrooms, the dining hall, the clinic...even a barbershop and a mini-mart. Theoretically, you could spend your entire time here without having to leave this building (with the exception of actually going out to fly).

Anyways, I still don't have my personal computer hooked up to the internet yet, so I'll have to wait to add any pictures. This weekend looks like a good opportunity to do that. Until then, I'm off to study/eat/sleep/repeat.

Quick Post

Tomorrow morning at 5am I head off to IFS in Colorado. Nothing like a 15 hour drive to get you ready for military training! However, I AM applying the lesson I learned before from driving down here to San Antonio from Omaha and not driving through the night. Still got a little packing to do.

On a side note, I was strolling through the local Border's bookstore the other day and came across the following book:

Of course I had to buy it, even if it was from the experiences of one guy from a couple years ago when the UAV program was first getting it's start. I could maybe learn something from it, or at least appreciate where the program has come from and what I was getting myself in to.
Turns out, me and the author have quite a lot in common:
1. We both went to Purdue University, and got our commission's from the AFROTC program there
2. We were both stationed at Offutt AFB for our first assignments, and had most of our experiences on the RC-135 RIVET JOINT aircraft
3. We both saw an opportunity to contribute more to our country/service by volunteering for the RPA career field
Needless to say, I'm a fan of the book already...and I'm only on chapter 2.

Other than that, I was lucky enough to have the girlfriend come down to visit and stay for the holidays. We were able to find a hotel for a decent price in downtown San Antonio, near the River Walk, for New Years. Here's some pics of that:

Hope everyone had a safe and happy New Years of their own. Next stop, freezing Pueblo, Colorado for the next seven weeks (hopefully shorter)!

Holidays!

Still just sitting around with nothing much to do. I'll be heading off to Colorado for IFS in a week, so I'll just be doing some last minute studying and packing. Right now, the squadron has let us take this week off since we don't really have much to do at work anyways, so I have plenty of free time to get some stuff done...like convert my old college mini-fridge into a mini-kegerator!

There's only so much to do during a holiday when everything is closed and you don't have cable (yes, I decided to forgo getting cable for the time being, because I can't justify paying $60 a month for something that I won't really be using once my classes start) I do have internet, so I can still get Netflix and shows from Hulu and stuff.

I'm actually looking forward to starting IFS soon, just to have something to do and focus on. The free time is great, but I'm running out of things to keep me busy and I hate just sitting around with nothing to do.

On a closing note, here's a picture of the Riverwalk downtown all lit up for Christmas:

More of the Same

The assignment night was pretty anti-climatic. For those who don't know, there's not a whole lot of options out there as far as assignments go. This class received only two, either middle-of-nowhere New Mexico or Las Vegas. Hmmm...wonder where everyone wanted to go? (<----sarcasm) Word is that more options are supposed to become available as time goes on, but it's pretty much a combination of good luck and fortunate timing right now to get anything worth getting excited about. Hopefully mid-May is that kind of combination!
Still nothing different, as far as daily life goes. Go to "work" and sit at a computer, study for IFS as much as I can sit still, try to come up with some excuse to get out of the room. But it's a short week this week and next, the girlfriend is in town to visit for that time, and I should be heading off to Pueblo in exactly two weeks. Might as well enjoy this time as much as I can, since it's going to get pretty busy here soon.

Groundhog Day...

Nothing to really update on, just sitting around waiting for my IFS class to start. It's boring, but it's a nice break in between my old maintenance job and transitioning into the ops world. Working on memorizing my bold face and ops limits for the DA-20 that I'll be flying at IFS. Speaking of which, one of the guys in my class found a local airport that does flight training on the DA-20, so we all took a field trip there today to see it in person before we're put in the cockpit.

It's a lot smaller than I thought it was, now that I've seen it first-hand. But it fairly comfy once you get inside. At least, more comfortable than the old Cessna's that I got my Private Pilot's License in.

Anyways, the class that's two classes ahead of mine is having their assignment night tomorrow night. That should be interesting to witness, since I'll be doing the same thing in mid-May.