In my last post I said that Justin and I were back at Laughlin AFB "for good," but I was wrong. Justin's grandmother passed away on Monday January 12 so we headed back to Enterprise sooner than we thought we would. Her passing wasn't unexpected, hospice had given her 48-72 hours, but of course it was still sad to know that she was gone. Justin kept saying there is never a good time for something like that to happen, but this was the best time for us. Since he hadn't started pilot training yet we were able to go home for both the viewing and the funeral, which is more than we could say if he had been in training already. We were also able to catch some Southwest flights with Dad's buddy passes so we got to fly instead of drive this time. We were in Enterprise from Wednesday to Sunday and we are so thankful that we were able to spend time with his family and say good-bye to Mamaw one last time. It was a beautiful service; one that she would be very proud of.
Justin was pallbearer along with Brandon and their four cousins.
The guys watching a YouTube video about how to tie a tie.
On our way back home on Sunday we went from Panama City Beach to Houston to San Antonio. We were trying to coordinate with Dad because we knew he was going to be working in Houston that day, but we ended up being in Houston at different times, so we missed him. However, we landed in San Antonio about 20 minutes before he was taking off so he was able to run to our gate really quickly and pretty much say "hi" and "bye." Thankfully I was sitting at the front of the plane so I was able to get off pretty quickly and I got to chat with him for 5-10 minutes while we were waiting on Justin to get off the plane. We hadn't seen Dad since we went out to Vegas in June so we were really glad that we were able to run into him, even if it was for just a few minutes.
**************************************************
On a different note, this was the month that our neighbor-friends were moving. They moved on Friday January 9 about 3 1/2 hours down the road where he will be doing training for his new AF job. We will definitely miss them since they were our closest friends here, but now that Justin is starting training we should be able to find some new friends to spend time with quickly.
Archer, their dog, and me the night before they left. He was the sweetest thing! I always loved looking across the street and seeing him in their front window watching us. Julia said that he eventually recognized our car and would know when we'd leave or come home.
We gave them a going-away basket before they left. We just gave them some practical stuff they may have forgotten to pack for their first few nights in a new home.
Body towels, kitchen hand-towel (can't see), candle and matches, toothbrushes and toothpaste, disposable razors, baby wipes, cleaning gloves, bandaids, body wash, shampoo, loofahs, duster, and of course I had to include a dog toy and treats for Archer.
**************************************************
In the few days we've been home between all of our travels Justin was able to make a table for Grandma and Papa. We were supposed to take it to them this weekend, but it was going to be an even shorter trip than last time due to "scheduling conflicts" so Grandma and Papa said we should just come back a different weekend when we have more time. We're hoping that we can take them the table sometime soon and then go back at the end of February when Uncle Scott, Aunt Shawn, and Uncle Dennis are all out visiting them. I would include pictures of the table, but since Grandma and Papa haven't seen it yet, we don't want to ruin the "surprise" (even though it's a replica of the table they already have!). I'll have to post pictures and comparisons once we've given them the table so be on the look-out in my future posts.
**************************************************
Something really cool that just happened was that I went to a "Red Carpet Event" here on base yesterday. It's an event where they invite student spouses to take a "behind the scenes" tour of pilot training. I almost missed out, but thank goodness I didn't! I had gotten an invite to go to one back in September/October that included Justin's original class of 16-02 (they get spouses from about 3-4 classes together at a time), but since I knew at that point that he wasn't going to be in that class anymore I went ahead and skipped it. I'm guessing the people that are in charge of the event didn't know that Justin (and I) were moved to the 16-05 class because I didn't get an invite to the event for his new class; the only reason I found out about it was because during one of Justin's briefings on Thursday (the day before the event!) they mentioned it and said that if the spouses hadn't gotten an invite it was probably because they were new here (obviously not the case for me). The event started at 7:45am on Friday and I was seriously considering not even going; I had been awake since 4am after a horrible night's sleep because Sophie was barking ALL NIGHT LONG, she is sick from staying at the boarder while we were in Enterprise (that's 2 for 2 at that boarder so we will not be taking them there anymore) so I didn't want to leave her, and also since I hadn't RSVPed I was wary about just showing up. However, I got some coffee in me and talked myself into going. It was a really great experience and I'm definitely happy that I went. I got to meet 2 other spouses from Justin's class and it was very informative about what all he's going to be doing during pilot training. It took up most of the day, I didn't even leave for home until 2:15pm, but they provided breakfast and lunch in addition to all the info so it was definitely worth it. They started off the morning with "briefings" where the men-in-charge told us about the process of pilot training (the different phases, how they'll be evaluated, etc.), how we can support our husbands, to expect bipolar-esque episodes from them due to the stress, and basically who we can get in contact with if we have any problems or questions, among other things. After we were talked to we went on a tour of where the guys (and girls) will be essentially living for the next few months. We started off in the flight room where they will spend their time studying when they aren't flying. It was smaller than I expected, but it had a few "cubicles" that seemed to serve as a pow-wow station for students and their instructors. Then it had a long oval table in the middle of the room where the students are supposed to sit when they are studying. The table was also sitting on a diagram of the flight pattern that was burned/cut/I don't know what to call it into the carpet. I wish I would have taken a picture because it was pretty cool to see the pattern laid out instead of just watching the planes flying it in the sky and not really knowing what they're doing. From the flight room we went on to the locker room. As you can imagine it was just a room filled with lockers when the students keep their equipment. Our tour guide talked about the equipment and had a volunteer try on a G-Suit and talked a bit about that. From the locker room we went through what I'm going to call the "command room" because I didn't ever hear what she called it. It was where the students determine how risky their flight will be based on weather (given to them by an airman) and how they're feeling. She said an example would be if it's really windy, you add a point, if it's really cloudy, you add a point, if you just feel really uneasy, you add a point, etc. and the more points you have the riskier the flight will be. I think she said that once the risk factor reaches a certain point then they won't be able to do the flight. On the other side of the "command room" was a guy that told them which airplane they'd be flying for the day and where it was parked. She said that they have 140 T-6's (I think) so it'd be hard to find their plane if they weren't given what row, spot, and tail number they had. From the "command room" we went out to the flight line to look at a T-6. Our tour guide talked about the T-6, which is what the students start out in, and we got to take a picture as a group with it (I'll have to get those later once they're posted on Facebook).
T-6
After the T-6 we went back into the building and toured the control tower. We first went up on the "catwalk" which is just a balcony going all the way around the tower.
As you can see, you're pretty high up. Our tour guide talked to the group, but I was so far away I couldn't hear a thing he said so I can't share that part.
Panoramic view of the flight line from the catwalk.
*CLICK PICTURE TO ZOOM*
They had the T-1, T-6, and T-38 (L-R) out on the flight line because yesterday was graduation and students are allowed to go out there and take pictures with their plane.
From the catwalk we went inside to where the air traffic controllers work.
Again, I couldn't really hear what our tour guide was saying, but these guys were helping the pilots in the air take-off, fly, and land safely.
After the tower, we went down a few floors and saw where they train the ATCs and where more ATCs work. It was a dark room with the walls covered with "computers"... It looked like something out of a movie.
This isn't my picture, but the room looked like this all the way around:
When we were done with the ATCs we got on a bus and were taken to a different building where they do a type of "conditioning" training. First, there was the altitude chamber.
Outside of the chamber.
Again, this isn't my picture, but this is what the inside looked like. They had a row of seats on each side and then those boxes were control panels, but don't ask me what they were for. The guide said that this is basically where they get acclimated to the altitude from flying and they can see how it affects them. They had clip boards for the students with little elementary tests (a maze, easy math questions, etc.) and then a type of "poll" so they can gauge how they're feeling (nauseas, dizzy, blurred vision, itchy, etc.). He said that this helps them recognize the signs of hypoxia so that if they get hypoxic in the air, they'll recognize it, hopefully before it causes them to blackout. After the chamber we went into another room where they had cockpits set up so that the students could practice getting hooked-up to the aircraft. Since there are so many students that go through in a day, they're all on a tight schedule so they always try to get students launched ASAP (they even have to have their G-Suit put on in 3 minutes, which, if you've seen a G-Suit, will take some practice).
Honestly can't remember what those are for ^ I want to say for ejection "practice", but don't quote me on that.
From there we went into a tiny room inside this big room where they had the Barany chair. This chair is what they use to cure students of airsickness. It seems like a form of torture, but basically if you're getting airsick they put you in this chair and spin you around until it doesn't make you sick anymore. Now, they do give you a break. He said you spin for 10 minutes, get a 10 minute break, and do that three times and then you're done for the day, BUT you have to keep coming back until you don't get sick anymore. They said that 99.6% of people are "cured' by this process and only a handful of students just can't get over the sickness at all and have to drop-out of training. The guide let a volunteer demonstrate the chair. They have 3 different "spins" they do and she chose the one where she laid on the bar, one ear to the ground, and after a certain number of revolutions she was supposed to sit all the way back with her arms in the air, like signaling a touchdown. She actually did a really good job, but he also didn't spin her as long as he does actual students.
After the chair we got on the bus again and headed back to the STUS where we were provided a Subway-catered lunch. We ate and visited with one another and then we split up into 2 groups and went to our final stop on the tour: the simulator. There were two instructor pilots helping us spouses with the sim and they were very helpful, plus the IP that was helping the least answered any and all questions we had. Both guys were super helpful and extremely nice, considering it took us over an hour for us to finish up the sim before the next group went in. I didn't get a video of my sim, but I actually did really good. It was harder than I thought it'd be, especially landing, and I didn't crash... Until the very end. When I landed I "bounced" on the runway and on the second bounce I didn't pull the nose up enough so the propeller "hit" the runway and it made me crash. Boo! I could have had another try, but I opted to go ahead and let the last girl go since we had already been there for so long. The simulators are rather new and the IPs kept bragging on how much they've improved because they actually look real instead of just seeing "green blobs" on the screen.
The screen wrapped 180* around. The first thing I thought when I saw it was "This looks like Disney!"
This was an actual T-6 cockpit that they had pulled from a plane so it's exactly like the one Justin will be flying, minus an ejection seat. We steered on the ground with the pedals, in the air with the stick, and we even had to mess with other levers, like the throttle.
Panoramic view of the room (excuse the scrunched up IP, he had moved when I was taking the picture).
Here is a video of the sim that one of the girls did:
Once the sim portion was done I headed home. It had been a long day, but it was well worth it. Not only did I learn more about Justin's training and get to see things before he even has, I got to meet some of the other 16-05 wives as well as spouses from different classes.
****************************************
We are going tonight to a class BBQ out by the lake so I'll finally get to meet the students in Justin's class and will hopefully meet the other wives that didn't make it to the event.
****************************************
Justin is outside right now taking advantage of the nicer weather (we've had rain the last few days) by trying to improve our nightstands with drawer pulls. Fingers-crossed that he's successful!
I'll try to post pictures from the event once I can get my hands on them. I hope this post has helped y'all get a better idea of what Justin will be doing, at least during the first half of his training.
No comments:
Post a Comment