Weapon System Qualified

I am now a qualified B-52 (co)pilot. I'll be joining the 20th Bomb Squadron now, moving out of the student world (although the training never really ends). The next big landmark in terms of qualifications would be to upgrade to Aircraft Commander (move from the right seat to the left seat). I've heard that usually takes about a year but we'll see. Graduation from the 11th was pretty low key. They had a nice static display of a buff with some weapons and an A-10 as well. The ceremony basically consisted of a quick slideshow, shake-take-salute, put on the leather jacket, and we're done. The leather jacket is a tradition in the Air Force since it marks the achievement that you have become qualified in a weapon system, as oppose to just graduating pilot training and being an unassigned Air Force pilot.

Things got pretty exciting towards the last bit of the FTU. We got to do a live drop of 9 bombs in a test range out to the West. It was nice it was a pretty straight-forward mission (no AR or patternwork). The scenery along the way was a refreshing change from the flat brown (or white this time of year) midwest too. It was a formation flight so in total, we dropped about 7 tons of explosive goodness. The range officer wasn't able to spot all 9 of our bombs when they hit, so per the rules, we had to descend down and send a crewmember back to visually check the bomb bay. Since we weren't technically qualified yet, one of the instructors went back there while we set up an orbit. We had to descend low enough for the cabin to depressurize but flying in an area where the elevation is around 4,000' (not including any mountains) made the orbit pretty intriguing. We had the ground about 4,000' below us, a pretty solid cloud layer about 1,000' above us, and we were in a valley where some of the mountain tops were through the clouds. With all the reflection of the snow on the mountains and the grey of the clouds, it was easy to see how guys going supersonic, pulling Gs, and rolling upside down could lose bearing of which way is up.

Our last flight of the program turned out to be a humbling one. The original plan was to fly a 2-ship at night to train in low-level operations. The day of the flight, we had thunderstorms all over the midwest and clouds everywhere else. So with a lot of replanning at the last minute, we stepped out the door with a new route, a new tanker location, and the idea to work out a bomb run plan once we got airborne. On takeoff, we were #2 and we lost lead visually in the clouds pretty quickly. Soon thereafter, the nav lost sight of him on the radar. On top of that, the radios started all going to static because of the weather we were flying around. So here we are chasing after lead with little clue as to exactly where he is and we could barely talk to them on the radios. As this is happening, we start seeing quick flashes on either side of the plane. Then, lightning (or "St Elmo's fire") starts crawling up the windows in the cockpit. It only lasted a few minutes, but it was pretty amazing. I had always heard of it with airlines but this was my first time ever seeing it with my own eyes. We managed to rejoin with lead eventually but the rest of the flight pretty much remained at the same tempo. Our autopilot failed so one pilot was always devoting their attention to just keeping the jet on parameters, we were in and out of the clouds all night so one pilot usually had eyes locked on the barely visible lights of the other jet, and we were doing most of the flight from the opposite seat in order to get gradebook items signed off. The flight ended with me in the left seat doing circling approach in the rain. There were a lot things we could have done better and a lot of struggling to get the whole mission done, but I probably took away more from that flight than any other flight in the program.

I'm excited to get going with my active squadron but the tempo is a little slow right now since most of the squadron is deployed. Until they get back, it will be hard to get a sense of what the "normal" ops are like. So for now, I'll keep investigating and planning for our big trip that we're hoping to take in the summer. Right now, Japan is the primary destination. It wasn't exactly Ellen's first choice of getaway spots, but I think I'm starting to convince her. She's been busy herself busting butt at the gym. She read in a magazine about how it takes 21 times to make something into a habit. So with being fit on the mind, she set out to go the gym 21 days in a row. And she did it! She's not sure what she's going to challenge herself to next in order to keep the ball rolling but we're proud of her pushing herself to workout so much. Maybe next she'll climb a mountain or run a marathon or swim across the English channel. After all, if we can't afford to fly to Japan, we'll have to get there somehow.

Last for this post, Ellen gave me the idea to make a video with all the different planes I've flown since I've reached somewhat of an "end" to all the transitioning from each platform. Almost all of the pictures/videos were either taken by Ellen and I or have me in it. It's 10 minutes long and includes tear-jerking music of course, so enjoy...