These last few weeks have been very exciting, and very stressful all at the same time. First, as my headline says, I passed my first checkride in T-1's! But I'll get to that in a min...
My fathers wedding was over Memorial Day weekend. I was excited to come home for the wedding, as well as see other family and friends. After all, it had been nearly 9 weeks since I was last home back in March. This stretch of time was particularly difficult on Stephanie and I. We are not the type that handles being apart from each-other very well. Even when I am home and she has to go to work, I would plan my meals so that I could eat at Fitzpatricks...just so I could see her. Anyway, I was nice to be home to see Steph, her family, as well as CJ and Miller.
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| Best Man Speech |
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My Dad's wedding was very nice. The ceremony was very beautiful. They had such a perfect day for such an occasion. It was nice to see two people happily in love commit to each-other. The ceremony was followed by a very nice reception at Cousin Mario's out in Mays Landing, NJ. It was an intimate gathering of friends and family...which turned out to be a lot of fun. I was honored to give the toast, and I know it was well received. CJ and Miller came out to crash the after party which was awesome. I had not seen them since March. It's always nice catching up with them.
As always, the weekend was not long enough. Monday came too quickly and I had to return back to Laughlin to face my dreaded check ride which was looming over my head.
Check rides are always stressful, especially in Pilot Training. This is nothing new...I just could do without the stress and anxiety that comes with it. The week following Memorial Day Weekend I spent studying very hard. The Transition Check ride was to evaluate me on my basic ability to plan a mission and fly, to include take off and landing as well as other basic maneuvers. There is a big emphasis on my 'general knowledge' as well which includes nearly everything that is in the books. I flew well until my "2-Check", which is a dress rehearsal to the check ride. I felt as if I flew a strong ride, however, my IP caught me on some 'showstopper' items. He decided to hook me as well as my flying partner. My flying partner has similar difficulties as well. Needless to say, we were not all that upset. We were given another free flight to which we can iron out these things that would have certainly led us to hooking our check ride. Our 2-Check (Take 2) went off without a hitch. In-fact, it was probably one of my strongest rides in T-1's to date.
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| T-1A on Final Approach |
The check ride was on Tuesday, June 7th. It was a very long and stressful day. The checkride started out with our normal brief which includes what the weather is like and if there might be anything that would keep us from flying. That was followed by about 20min of General Knowledge questions. That went well...good thing I studied like I did. Our check-IP was very relaxed and made us feel more comfortable in the plane. After a long flight to Dyess, AFB to shoot patterns and to perform basic maneuvers, we returned to Laughlin. We were debriefed on a few small things that we could improve on, but overall he was very happy with our performance and passed both me and my flying partner with an "Excellent" overall. We were pumped...and exhausted. It was such a relief to be done with the Transition Phase.
Now we are preparing for the Navigation Phase. This includes planning flights to places that are about an hour away and shooting approaches. Stopping at that airport, fueling up, getting dinner, and returning back to Laughlin. There is a lot of planning involved with theses flights. Much more than any of my Transition flights. But I am excited to be moving right along in T-1's! It feels like UPT will be over before I know it!
NEXT: Navigation Flying, Home for the 4th of July!
