Week 2 of Pilot Training

Week 2 is already pretty much done! "yaaaay"

We finished with Aerospace Physiology today and I guess the systems staff isn't ready yet for us so tomorrow is pretty much a day off. The only exception is that our class (the current "baby class") has to serve as designated drivers for tomorrow night's assignment night (baby class working for the senior class). There's also a dinner beforehand for us to get to meet our IPs and other staff.

So this week was pretty frickin great week all in all. Monday I passed the Aerospace Physiology exam with 100%. On Tuesday, we did parasailing, which was fun as hell. Last week and this Monday, we did a lot of training with how the parachute works and how to land properly after ejecting. So as the final training evolution, we went out to one of the big fields on base and they strapped us into a parachute, tied a rope from us to a pickup truck, and off we went! We were all pretty amazed at how quickly we went from standing still to a couple hundred feet in the air. You would see the rope coil start to get drawn out, then you knew it was about to lose all of the slack, you started to run, and by the 5th step you were already airborne. And I don't know exactly how high it was, but I'm thinking somewhere between 100 and 200 ft up there. Each person go to go twice. The first time, they would take you up and then slow down the truck so you had a somewhat-controlled descent. And the second time, they let you get to your max height, and then disconnected the rope. Being the large fellow that I am, I came down pretty fast. And on my second go, the wind wasn't working with me so I hit the ground with some extra 'umph'. But I did my fall that they taught us and it worked pretty well. I had a lot of dirt on my back, but all my bones were in tact and I wasn't even sore the next morning. Someone was shooting a video, so I'll try to get that later and post it.

On Wednesday, we moved on to the survival portion of class (still taught by the aero phys people). Although the staff seemed like they were trying hard (a lot of A1Cs and Senior Airmen that I think were teaching for their first time), they didn't really teach anything useful. I think because everyone knows that we have to go to Combat Survival School after pilot training, they don't bother getting too deep into anything. So the survival stuff pretty much came down to identifying the stuff that's included in our survival kit (which for the T-37, is pretty unhelpful). On the plus side though, they took us outside and let us practice using the different types of flares. It's too bad they don't sell these things in stores, because they were cool. One was an orange smoke flare (met for daytime out in the open), one was a BRIGHT burning red flare (meant for night), and the third was a little handheld device that shot off flare capsules about 1,000' in the air (meant to penetrate thick tree canopies).

Also yesterday, we did some training with the ejection seat itself. We practiced going through the ground and air egress procedures in these chairs that were identical to the seats in the plane. For the air egress, once you pulled the ejection handles, the seat actually sprang up a couple feet and the chair cushion snapped up so you were forced out of it. I give them an A for realism.

This morning, we took our exam on survival and I got one question wrong (96%). The whole class except 2 people got it wrong because we never went over it in class and it was about an acronym that was extremely unintuitive. But then a few students were talking to one of the instructors and it sounded like since we all go over the answers people got wrong in class, the aero phys staff marks down everyone as 100%. Which is nice because that means I got two 100%'s on my first two tests. But it's also bad because that means that I don't get any credit (moreso than my classmates) for studying hard. There was a score that you failed if you got below, but no one came close to that. This is one of the first of many many examples in pilot training to come where we have to face the challenge of getting "ahead of the power curve" vs. helping each other out and succeeding as a class. That can be taking the wrong way a lot, since we all want to help each other to do well at pilot training. But the unfortunate truth is that our assignments at the end of UPT will be based on how well we do compared to our classmates. Of course, everyone's biggest competitor is him or herself. But enough of that-

After the survival exam, we had to take our FACT (Fighter Aircrew Conditioning Test). I've been worrying about this one for a long time since I knew what it entailed and I've never been good with upper-body strength. So I've been training for this test for a long time. And ironically, as I've trained for the FACT, I've been doing less running, which has caused me to gain weight, which in turn means that I had to lift more for the FACT. Each exercise is based on a percentage of your body weight. I had been chugging water for the last few days trying to get my body ready for this morning. And when we started, I just wanted to get up and do it since I had all the adrenaline in me. So of course, I ended up being the LAST person called up to go. By then, they had all these other sweaty people so the doors were open to outside and it was freezing for me. But anyways, I went through it, and I passed! A lot of students say it's a really easy test and no big deal. But for me, it was hard. I knew it would be, and I trained a lot for it. Here's how it breaks down. There's 5 strength exercises and then 3 timed exercises. All 8 go in order with exactly one minute rest time in between. For the 5 strength exercises, you have to do at least 10 repetitions and 15 is the maximum. Each repetition has to be to a 6 count pace (they had a really annoying pace counter going the whole time). So to lift the weight takes two counts, then putting it down takes four more. This slow count is what really makes the test more difficult. So for my body weight, this is what I did -
15 Arm Curls - 75 pounds (35%)
14 Sitting bench press - 168.75 pounds (80%)
13 Lat pull - 150 pounds (70%)
15 Leg press - 340 pounds (160%)
15 Leg curl - 106.25 pounds (50%)

So I was only three repetitions from the maximum on all that. Then I had to do as many pushups as I could in a minute (20 minimum, 50 maximum). I pumped out 50. Then I had to do as many situps as I could in a minute (30 minimum, 50 maximum). I pumped out 50. Then I had to do as many leg press repetitions at my body weight (210 lbs) in a minute (20 min, 50 max). I pumped out 50.

So overall, I got 222 out of a maximum 225. "Kick - ASS". Obviously, I was pretty proud of that. I don't think I'll have to take test again until Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals (IFF - a course that comes after graduation from UPT). But now I can at least go back to balancing running and weights in my exercise routine. A lot of guys in our class maxed the test. We had one guy, who was the only guy who weighed more than me, not pass by 3 reps on the bench press. He was pretty bummed out and I felt for him, since I know how hard it was when you have more weight to push out. He'll get a chance to retake it in between T-37s and T-38s (Phase II and III). There was also an Italian in our class who did really well on the FACT, but then when he went to the bathroom, he passed out. So the flight doc and everyone rushed over and freaked out about it, but I think he's all good now. Usually the key with getting out of the flight doc's office is having a concrete okay reason WHY you passed out or spewed in the plane or whatever. When they can't figure out why your body did the funky chicken at 1 G, then you're in big trouble.

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For ROTC and inbound students out there, here's some things you should know. The situps are with your hands crossed over your chest, and your feet are propped up over a bench. So practice your situps with your legs up at a 90* angle over something. It actually turned out to be easier than a normal situp I think, especially if you keep your butt in as close as possible. For the weights, the 6 count deal sucks, but it can be made easier for yourself if you make sure not to go past 90* with your arms/legs. For example, on the bench press, don't bring the handles back in line with your chest every time, just get it to the point where your elbow makes a 90* angle. It's difficult to hold in that position, but not as difficult as it is to go all the way back and do that big pump every time. A lot of people in my class seemed to be thrown off by the leg press at your body weight. It's very unusual to do leg presses that fast on a machine, so even though you may be strong enough, make sure you practice the fast rhythm. For the weigh-in before the test, we did it in flight suits with our boots off. They subtracted 3 pounds for clothes and then rounded to the nearest 5 pound mark (whether that be up or down). Then they used a chart to figure out how much weight you would be doing on the machine (since the machine can't do 1 pound increments, sometimes you would have to go a little higher or a little lower than what your percentage would normally be). I haven't found this same chart anywhere else, so if you're really concerned about it, contact the aerospace physiology people at your training base. Note that I did find other charts that did the percentage math for you, but this was different since it grouped different body weights together so people from 200 - 210 lbs were lifting the same amount of weight, for example.
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This week, our class did a lot of brain crunching to come up with a good class patch. The process of getting them approved and created is a long one so we had to start right away. A few ideas were thrown out, mine got some "hey cool"s but no votes. Unfortunately, we ended up going with a Chuck Norris theme. Stupid Texas strikes again... So even though I didn't really like that theme, I still volunteered to design the patch and it came out looking pretty good. We're going to work with the patch company to finalize it, but here's what it's looking like so far. (The color scheme needs some work I think).
We also have a class website now, but it's not very amazing. Hopefully we'll "purdy it up" as we go. There's a link to some pictures on there but not very many yet.
http://enjjpt0901.weebly.com

Monday we'll start off with the systems instructors so we'll be back in our blues ("boooo"). It's pretty much our last week or two of Phase I and then we'll be going to our flight rooms and starting to master the screaming T-37 Tweet ("yaaaay").

Goodnight!