Tuff 31 Cleared Hot!

This week, our crew got to drop three BDU-50s (500 pound inert bombs)! The jet had some nice nose art, so I put that picture up here too (it even had three bombs on it just like our loadout that day). We were also supposed to work with a JTAC (army-type person on the ground calling in coordinates) to practice CAS (close air support) but it got cancelled because it was bad weather in that area. Being that we're training to be a bomber crew, getting to do an actual drop is pretty much as good as it gets here. We didn't get any air refueling or pattern work (which has been a crappy trend in our schedule) but it was a fun flight. I got to fly two of the releases and my AC got to fly the other one. I actually botched one of them so we had to go around again so that was pretty embarrassing. But oh well, the target still got destroyed every time (if it had been a live bomb that is). The flight was formation too, with a guy from my class at Sheppard in the other jet. We were in the weather for part of the flight and started to get some icing, so that was unique for me. I think it's the first time I've flown into known icing conditions and not seriously cancelled everything (because the smaller planes I've flown before aren't equipped for it). It was nice to have a flight that focused on "the real mission" of what we do, since we're getting close to the checkride and need a little reminder about what the big picture is all about. I've got two more flights and then the checkride, so the goal is to get it done before leave for winter break (we let Santa have the airspace to himself- too many reindeer pooping on the windshield).


I'm pretty nervous about the checkride (not that I've ever not been nervous about a checkride). But I've only gotten behind a tanker 5 times so far, only made contact on 2 of those times, and only stayed in contact long enough for the standards on 1 of those times. So I know I can do it, but it's difficult to predict whether I'll have a good day or a bad day. Unfortunately, it's a pretty hard thing to get good practice on in a simulator. Patternwork (touch and go's) are a similar story; it's been canceled on a lot of our flights due to weather, maintenance problems, other emergency jets coming in, etc. Luckily, I feel confident about actually landing the jet. But there's a lot of procedures and different checklist steps on the practice emergency landings that can make for an easy bust item on a checkride. So I'll have to do a lot of mental practice to make up for the lack of practice in the jet. And then of course, there's the actual bombing stuff for the checkride, but that workload falls more on the nav team. Enough complaining about getting to fly airplanes though...

(That's our wingman a mile or two off the wing. Sorry, no more fingertip formation)

Life outside the cockpit has been great. Some really nice friends who live here in Shreveport invited us over to their house for Thanksgiving. It ended up being a hodge-podge mix of their family, military friends, non military friends, and a lot of kids around the 2-3 age. It was really nice to be in a big group for dinner, especially with people who weren't all in the military, since those conversations can get old.

And, for all of those reading who know how cheap I am, a Mason tightwad wallet news flash-
We have stepped into the world of big flat screen hdtv! We've been really grateful for the big hand-me-down TV that we've had since we got married. It served our couch potato needs without any complaints. But I've been eying big flat screens on the market for at least a year now. I was originally looking at Sharp and following the prices on amazon.com but they never got low enough where I really felt comfortable taking the dive. And then came Black Friday 2009... "HDTVs HDTVs HDTVs" I know you all heard the commercials too. I narrowed it down to a Samsung model that was selling for way cheaper than Sharp models (of smaller size) had ever hit. I made my battle plan to storm Walmart at whenever AM. But then, when doing a routine check on the internet on the weekend prior, they all of a sudden had started selling it for the black friday price online. So after checking in with the financial officer (Ellen), I made the purchase (free shipping too). Alas, we find ourselves each night now sitting in front of our new glowing glory. We haven't switched to HD cable (yet), but the TV is so big now, we can see the salt granules on the food on Top Chef before the judges even complain about it.