First Week of Pilot Training

1 down, 54 to go!

The first week of pilot training was pretty awesome. I've spent a lot of years thinking about what pilot training would be like and getting hyped up about what it would take to get there and survive through it all. And really, the first few days weren't what I was expecting. We were in service dress blues for Day 1 and it was pretty much all briefings from different people in the chain of command and services on base. We also had our picture taken for our files. We have 25 people in our class (16 US, 9 Italians). Most of the Americans are from ROTC and there are a few from the AF Academy (but no OTS and no Guard, which is unique).

We were in short sleeve blues for Day 2 and it was pretty much just more briefings. We also got fitted for our helmets. The rest of the week we were in flight suits because we were with the Aerospace Physiology people. The instructor staff is really good (knowledgeable and also laid back). We learned about the limits of the human body, the eye, all about the parachute, the atmosphere, etc. They taught us the proper way to fall down ("parachute landing falls"). They had a large gravel area with some platforms at different heights so we would all jump off them and fall down properly over and over. It was all with deactivated parachute packs on so it was sort of fun. Then they took us up on a higher platform (about 7 or 8 feet I think) and they hooked us up to this tall harness to simulate hanging from the parachute canopy. We would swing back and forth and then without a whole lot of notice, they would release the ropes and we would hit the ground. We did it over and over so that we could land on different sides / forward and backward. The whole day we did that was fun but the next morning nobody could move their neck because we were so sore.

On Friday, we got to go into the altitude chamber which is a little steel room in the Aero Phys building. They seal it off and pressurize it to simulate being at different altitudes. We got to wear our own helmets so that was cool getting used to breathing with them on. They took us up to 35,000 feet so we could get used to pressure breathing (instead of inhaling with your muscles and then relaxing to exhale, you have to use your muscles to exhale and then the air rushes in when you relax your lungs). Then we went to 25,000 and took our masks off. We did it one side at a time so we could watch each other feel the effects of hypoxia (lack of oxygen). They had a worksheet for us to do while off the mask so as we went, we could see how hard it was to focus. My symptoms weren't too extreme. I got light-headed and a little dizzy right off the bat. But then it was about 5 or 6 minutes before I started to feel really anxious / jittery. At that point, I put my mask back on. The guy across from me said that I was moving really slow going through the worksheet and taking huge breaths to try to gulp air. But when I was going through it, it felt like I was blazing through the worksheet and I didn't realize I was breathing so deep.

All day Friday, they (the 80th Flying Training Wing) was having Combat Air Force Day. I guess they try to have it periodically to give students insight into the planes they'll be flying after UPT. But since they only have the airshow here every other year, CAF Day is rarely this good. Since we were doing the chamber in the morning, we missed all the briefings. But in the afternoon, we got to walk around the flight line and talk with the pilots while we checked out the jets. Sitting in the F-16 felt unreal but it fit like a glove. It's hard to imagine flying something that hardcore in a year or two from now. They had the two F-22s out so we could get a lot of cool photos but we couldn't get close enough to touch it.

This whole first week of pilot training was pretty laid back. From what I gather, the intensity picks up a lot more when we go to our flight rooms (after Phase 1 / Academics is over, around week 4). The whole first phase (academics) is spent with the Aero Phys people and then the academic instructors who are mostly retired pilots. After we get done with Aerospace Physiology this week, we'll be back into blues for the rest of Phase 1. Phase 2 is when we fly the T-37 Tweet. We'll start out Phase 2 in blues until we "earn" our flight suits (by passing three boldface/ops limits quizzes in a row as an entire class). The intensity picks up at the start of phase 2 because that's when we'll be in our flight rooms and be introduced to our Instructor Pilots (IPs) and Flight Commander (Flt/CC). We'll have to do very formal briefings every morning and get quizzed on all sorts of emergency procedures. With all that ahead of us, it's easy to forget that Phase 1 is still just as important to our success at ENJJPT as a whole. So I have to keep up with all the reading, which I'm notoriously bad with.

This week will also be the FACT (Fighter Aircrew Conditioning Test) which is a series of weights we have to lift/push based on percentages of our body weight. I've been training for it since the last semester at Urbana, but I'm still not completely ready. I have very poor upper body strength so I've had the hardest time doing the sitting bench press (I have to push about 165 pounds 10-15 times at a very slow count). So FACT on Thursday, keep your fingers crossed. Oh yeah- the whole point of the FACT is because flying fighters involves pulling a lot of Gs. Your ability to withstand such high Gs (up to 9 times the force of gravity) is mostly based on being able to strain the muscles in your body to keep the blood forced into your head. If you relax, breathe wrong, or aren't strong enough, you'll black out. So although I don't like this test, it's not one of those tests you take and then forget all about.

I'll try to post again next weekend since my weeknights are full of naps, working out, and reading. If anybody from ROTC or wherever is reading this and has specific questions about UPT, feel free to email me or post a comment.