Fallon det/ First flight

So the next week was going by, and half the command was getting ready to go to Nevada to do some practice exercises, i wasnt invited cuz i was a 21+ trainee, and they didnt want people getting hammered every night there, so they chose the under 21 trainees. Worked 6 days that week. Had to go in on friday (this past friday) for like 3 hours, then i went to fresno to do paper work and meet my flight instructor. Two days before this, i decided to do my 2nd launch with Mich. I was a little nervous still, but it was a lot easier than the first one already. I missed like 2 hand signals, so im slowely improving. I'm also getting a little irritable, cuz im going through the phases of a trainee, they call it, When you get frustrated at the other trainees cuz they hang around and dont do crap, when everyone knows what we have to do, and when to get it done. Kinda gotta like hold their hand. and theyve been here longer than me!!! ahhh, ill get promoted soon enough. So after we launch a jet, the next day we get a review paper from the pilots, on how well they think we did, contstructive criticism, etc. So i was washing a jet and i heard they came in. I was pumped to see how i did. I read the review and got a little down. At the end of the review, it said " will evolve into a mediocre Plane Captain." I felt like it was a slap in the face, and everyone seemed stunned when they read it. Mich even seemed baffled as to what it said cuz he thought i did great. Half hour later, everyone tells me Mich wrote the whole thing, and they had a good laugh about it. I totally believed the whole thing. I never got a review though, they dont write them all the time i guess. So where was i? Friday i go in and meet my flight instructor Matt. PRetty easy going laid back guy. Was in the navy for 4 years, and got pretty high up, but wanted to get out. So we have that in common, and talk a lot about that, and how everything relates to the jets we work on. It worked out great, and im already getting back into the swing of things. I bought two books earlier (the first time i went) so i could start studying and reading the texts books again. very exciting. We scheduled 2 ground lessons and 1 flight lesson for this morning. So i guess were up to speed meow? ACtually no, we're not. Friday when i came in for the 3 hours- only half of our command is here meow, so i will be on days for the next week. there will only be one shift. but my buddy pierce who was in the line shack with me before, who taught me a great deal of stuff as well, had to come launch a jet for us cuz we didnt have enough PC's (one PC for every jet, and we had 5 jets flying to Nevada that day) So he got transferred to the shop, and i havent seen him in a hot minute, so i was excited to see him, and he asked if i wanted to launch for him, i said heck yes. Best launch yet, only missed one thing, and it was a pretty awesome launch. Everything went smooth, i felt more confident, it was great. He invited me to his place with a bunch of other guys for some beer drinking escapades, so i went there friday night, and had a good time with everyone. Great people. So then i got back on saturday and hung out and did nothing all day, then studied for my flight today. Got to fresno round 9am. Ready to go. We Went in and i got a bunch of books, etc. we went over 2 lessons, took two hours, but i knew basically everything he was teaching me, which was nice. Then it was time to fly. I was used to flying the Cessna 172's. Which have 4 seats. Meow im doing the Piper- which is 2 seats. Even smaller. Its a tin can that floats in the air, but it gave me the chills getting back at it again. We walked around the aircraft, did some checklists and were taxiing down the runway. he let me do some stuff, but this was just an intro flight- he let me do some turns and flying. but he did most of it. took off, landed, such a great feeling going up that high, and being able to land in that tin can. Makes me so excited. A little overwhelming with everything that was going on in the cockpit, but im SO ready to learn how to do everything. Im excited. But the awesome thing was that when we took off, we went up to 3500 FT, and had to stay there for a little bit cuz an F18 was flying past as at 4000 feet. So im sitting there in a little Piper, and i see a jet, the type that i work on everyday, go speeding past us. It was amaizng to be up in the air with them. So cool, soo soo cool. Other than that im ready to learn some more, and have a lesson next weekend. next post will be about up coming events.