This week is a big week. Academics for my course will continue for another few weeks, but this week is when we get to start our sim flights. We've gone through 4 of the 7 tests (I got a 98% on the last test, which covered weather), so we're over the hump on that front, but we have about 37 or so sorties to fly in the simulators, starting with sim #1 tomorrow. Each sim is supposed to last just over an hour. This week will most likely be focused on the basics of flying, so that we can get used to being in the sim and how everything works. It's going to take some getting used to, since you don't necessarily "feel" what the plane is doing. As in, you make a left turn and your brain is expecting to feel some sort of force moving you to the right, but nothing happens. You'd be surprised at how much being able to feel motion factors in to the whole process of flying. That's the one thing I really like about this course, though. At IFS, you were pretty much thrown in the proverbial deep end of the pool at the beginning and then you were screened based on whether you sink or swim (hence why there's such a high wash-out rate there), whereas here, it feels like we start off on the pool deck, then try the kiddie pool, then the shallow end of the big pool, and finally we get into the deepend. Crawl, walk, run is what they say. Should be fun.
Along with the sims, though, we're still going to have some academics to do for the next few weeks. We haven't even started the navigation or instruments portion of the course, and those are basically what the course is all about. So the newest information is yet to come, which probably means long days trying to get it all done. Lots of reading involved with each, as well.
Also, we finally passed our boldface/ops limits test Friday morning, so we can wear our flight suits instead of blues. Honestly, I don't even care that it's flight suits (it still feels weird wearing them since I was previously in maintenance). I would take ABUs (our camo uniforms) if I had to. Just anything other than blues.
But, 3 weeks down...7 to go
