96 hour liberty

So we got back friday afternoon, i got in my jeep and was just a very happy person. So happy. still remembered how to drive! had cell phone service, etc. I went back took a shower and unpacked my backpack. I decided to treat myself to some chinese food, but my debit card got declined. I guess my new debit card came in the mail while i was gone which shut down my temp card. A lil frustrating, but i would go to the bank the next day and fix it. Went to sleep that night in my own bed, very comfortable. Next morning i wake up, go to fix my card, get some chow at the galley. Get a hair cut, i was beignning to feel like my normal self again, it was nice. Clay and Jackson wanted to go to the casino that night, so i said why not. Had a little extra money, and wanted to get out and have a good time. We got a hotel room, and drank a little bit, then went downstairs and gambled. Did pretty well on roulette, then i wanted to play some poker, and ended up losing 100 bucks there, then called it quits. I had a fun night. Relaxed the rest of the next day. And here it is monday, going back to work on tuesday. Woke up sick this morning, so i went out and bought some nyquil/day quil, and humidifier, i love those things for some reason. And lemoore air is very dry, so i thought why not. So i got that thing going, i took a bath, read my book, and have been working on this blog for quite a while. Ima text Matt (flight instructor) sometime this week, when i feel better to see if i can start flying next weekend again. Everyone who took the 3rd class exam should find out by thanksgiving whhether they made it or not, and i will get promoted with them. But im still going to ask my chief how its looking for my promotion everyday until it happens, the 6th month mark was yesterday, so i should be 3rd class by now. Hopefully my next paycheck BETTER reflect my payraise, and I will be getting an extra 100 dollars a month cuz i wont be paying my MGI bill anymore. WOW already a year in the navy, that was quick. SO things to look forward to- hope there is a PC board in the next week or two. C school starts December 2nd. E-4 promotion should be within the next two weeks. Thanksgiving is next week, unless ticket prices go down, i will be staying in cali for that. And Christmas leave will be taken December 24th-January 2nd. So nowwww, hopefully my next blog ill be a PC and third class. We shall see.

Underway

I sleep in until the next day, awaken by a man overboard procedure, in which everyone has to muster with their division. I followed all of my night check crew up the stairs, through hallways, still had no idea where i was going and to our compoartment, where we sat and waited for the test to be over. It took like 40 minutes for everyone to muster up. Terrible, terrible time. Oh well, back to bed it was for me. I slept till i had to go to work. But i was awoken by what i thought was a huge pipe burst, and leaking water everywhere. No, it was just a jet landing on the ship 2 floors above. Scared the living daylight out of me. Anyway, got ready for work, and followed some guys up again. We immediatly got ready, float coats on, cranials on, to relieve daycheck. It was nice to see all my buds, and i already missed my day check crew. In order to be up on the flight deck alone, you needed a qualification, i didnt have one yet, so i had to be up there with a person who was qualified. My buddy got assigned to a jet, and i got assigned to him. During this time our pilots needed Carrier Qualifications, which was just landing, catching the wire, and then taking off again. They would do this like 10 times for each jet. THey would come back in between times, and refuel, which is were we came in to play. The jet needed 6 chains in order to be secured when fueling. So we each just stood around with 3 chains on our shoulders just waiting for these jets to come back, and since they were taking off and landing all the time, we had to be ready at a moments notice to go chain the jet down, but most of the time we would just stand around aimlessly with chains on our shoulders waiting for our jet. By this time it was very dark out. The jets would fly from like 11am-11pm. So we were up on the flight deck from 530pm until like midnight holding chains. BUT since the flightdeck is such a small space, we had to stand in a cluster, and there were so many jets everywhere taxiing around, and where we were standing, one of the only safe places, was the hottest place to stand. Constantly getting blasted by jet exhaust. I saw people get blown like 20 feet at the worst, but on some cold nights, boy was it nice to get a wave of jet exhaust your way. So we are just hanging out on the flight deck looking like a chicken with its heads cut off. There are all the colors of the rainbow up there, to designate what peoples jobs are. Plane Captains are brown jerseys, and we have a 1P on our cranial, which now i know signifies that we have all the 100's jets, people with 2P on their cranial have all the 200's jets, and so on. So the first time i had to put chains on, i couldnt see a dang thing, barely even my hand in front of me. I was freaking out, and you had to do it at a fast pace. I was trying my hardest but just couldnt find a padeye to hook the chain into. I was hardcore stressing out. After i finally found one for which seemed like hours, i took a step back, and took a couple deep breathes. It seemed like everything i had ever learned had just flown out the window. I felt useless. It was dark out, we were totally surrounded by water. Once again stranger in a strange place. I need to stop doing this to myself. It took a couple days to get used to this kind of stuff. But after about 5 days of doing that straight, the Carrier quals were over, and they went back to just regular flying. I found out the worst part was over, even though i never new we were in the worst part, boy did it feel good to know it was going to get easier. During those beginning days, i was still having trouble finding my way around the ship. I hit my head multiple times, i fell down stairs twice, and i tripped over a tow bar up on deck, cut my leg pretty bad. I also tripped over a couple chains too. Its so much tougher when it is really dark out. Once the flight schedule was done for the day though, it was a pretty easy rest of the night. We usually went to eat around midnight or 1am. The only things that needed to be done was a washjob if we needed it (every 7 days on the ship), fuel samples, 14 chains put on each jet, and daily inspections. So time went by pretty fast during the flight schedule, and then slowed down a little towards the later part of the night. Let me remind you that when we are out at sea it is 12 hours on, 12 hours off, no weekends. This stuff is hard work, especially night check, def. harder than day check, im guessing thats why i was the chosen one to go to nights, cuz i could handle it? i dno. Anyway, after stressing hard those first couple of days, we had a no fly day, and just a wash job. These washjobs never made me more angry than anything. We had to ask permission, and use fresh water to wash the jet with, and it was extremely dark out, so it was hard to see. Then, after the washjob was complete, we had to vaccuum all the water out of the padeyes, which took honestly like 3-4 hours just to suck all the water out. Had to keep the flight deck clean, i dno why the sun couldnt have just evaporated the water, but we had to make it so it was like spotless and no more water. Washjobs on the boat were absolutely terrible. And we had to tape down the jet, but the tape wouldnt even stick because it was too cold out. Some of the positive things about the washjob was just looking up at the stars, you were sure to catch like 5 shooting stars on a good night. But they were just so frequent, and you could see so many stars, it was nice. Other jobs we would have to do at night were brake ride- for when they moved a jet, someone had to be up in the cockpit to release/put the brakes on if need be. This evolution could take anywhere from 5 minutes to 4 hours. Depending on where they needed to move the jet, and what priority the jet was, which was annoying as well. Same with fueling. But what was really sweet was most of the lower jobs that we would do on land were done by people on the boat, whose specific job was their rate. Blue shirts- chocked and chained the jet down. Yellow shirts- move director (directed where the jet would be moved to). Purple shirts- Fuelies (we only had to supervise them fueling the jet, we really didnt have to do anything. These people were "ships company" meaning wherever the ship went, they went. AKA they were most always out at sea, which i thought really stunk. Granted i signed up with my recruiter to be a ABH, or aircraft handler (Yellow shirt-move director.) Boy am i glad i got switched out of that rate. There sole purpose is to move jets around on a ship. They sure make it sound different at the recruiter station. Their main weapon of choice is a whistle. I am so glad i got rolled in with my rate of working on engines. They look at Plane Captains like we are amazing, and they are always helping us out, its nice. So anyway, once the no fly day was over, we had a regular schedule planned out, and things starting repeating over and over again, same thing different day, but i was feeling a lot more comfortable and started doing stuff on my own. We would get off work at 530am, go get some breakfast, and then i would shower and pass out until i would have to go to work again. Pretty Monotonous routine, but it worked. Met some new friends on night check too which was nice. The food was not as bad as people were saying it would be, i mean yeah we had a lot of pasta every now and then, but it still was pretty good. Had some meatloaf some nights, chicken parm, and they even had cranberry sauce some nights, i was very excited. They also had chocolate milk. The rack i was sleeping in was just my height, i could barely striaghten out, but i made it work. The bathrooms/showers were not bad at all, cept they had one temperature- scorching hot. So i had to wash my body in waves in order to not get burnt. But the routine continued on. Then with about one week left, i get the confidence to do my final qual for my Plane Captain. I had to do a daily inspection with a Quality Assurance Representative, on a jet. I was very nervous, and it was hanging over me for like 2 weeks now, i just wanted to get it done. So one night, after everything was done, we had like 3 hours left, I called up QA just to see if anyone was there that could watch me. Just so happen that there was, and he would be on his way to the shop in 10 minutes. I felt sick to my stomach, cuz i didnt think it would actually happen. So started asking everyone questions, got my tool belt on, tirepressure gauge, and fuel sample kit. He came to our shop, and i brought everything up, including the daily booklet you are suppose to go by step by step. I ended up tossing the book to the side after the first 5 minutes, and just went with it. I named off the nomenclature, and new literally everything there was to know about the daily. I dont know how i remembered all of it, but i passed with flying colors. Except the fact that i brought the wash kit up, instead of the fuel sample kit, which got a good laugh. But i am still amazed on how much i really did know. I was ready for my PC board. Now Clay, a buddy of mine that checked in a couple days before me, had already done all of this and was just waiting on his PC board, but he was waiting for like a month and a half by now. I think they were waiting for me cuz they like to have multiple people go to board at a time. But whenever someone says something about a board, its usually just a rumor, or crying wolf. There were 2 potential boards on the ship, but those just got washed away. Hopefully something comes soon, before i go to C school. Overall, the boat went by pretty fast, i started to get used to the monotnous routine, and days were starting to fly by. I cant believe its already mid november. They had internet and email, on the boat, so it wasnt that bad with missing friends and family. But there were many things that i take for granted everyday that i am so thankful for now. Just being on dry land and in lemoore makes me extremely happy. The ship rocked a ton, and you could feel it. Food always ready, and at your fingertips, my jeep, my phone to talk to people, internet, sleep, clean laundry. It makes me appreciate this place a lot more, and i look forward to going back to 10 hour work days, and being on land.

San Diego, CA

Well well well. It's Monday November 18th,2013. boy has the time flown. Got back from the boat det on friday, so so happy to be back on land. I now understand why so many people do not like going to the boat. So let's get down to it. Packed my seabag pretty full. I also had a backpack as a carryon. That was stuffed pretty thick too. So i get on the plane, middle seat, of course, and I pass out for the whole plane ride, like a total of an hour. Wake up in San diego. Get off the plane, and shuttled on to a bus. 10 minute bus ride right up to where the USS Ronald Reagan was ported. I am getting very excited. Since i already had my bag on me i was able to go right to the ship. I climbed up some stairs, requested permission to board the ship, and i was on. Hangar Bay level, 3 hangar bays, with 4 sliding doors that you could see out of, it was just a huge open space to walk around, and store jets in. The jets were not here yet though. So i was looking around, lost as could be, looking for anyone to help me out. Luckily i find Pierce walking around, and he escorts me into our berthing two floors up. I get there, where clay already reserved my rack with a lock. It was a berthing of like 200 people. 3 bunk beds, and 6 to a cube. I got top rack cuz i was the tallest. I didnt have my sea bag yet, so i just unpacked what i had in my backpack. I was very excited for this new adventure. I unpacked, and then headed topside to help out. There i saw all of my buddies from VFA-2. We were on the flight deck at this point. Cranes hoisting in huge boxes of stuff we packed. We had to unload it alls and get it set up. That lasted for like 3-4 hours. One of the boxes had all of our seabags in them, so i grabbed that and went downstairs to unpack. Mind you, these stairs were very steep, easy to slip on, and every hatch you went through you head to duck your head and lift your feet. It wasnt tall people friendly. Once on the flight deck though, the ship seemed smaller than i expected. Everything seemed a lot better than i originally expected anyway, because all these other people talked down how bad their other experience with another ship was, so i literally expected the worst, and this didnt seem half as bad. So our shop was one deck below the flight deck, so it was very easy to get to. Once we had that set up, our LPO (leading petty officer) called our cheif to tell him, and he said we were good to go for liberty, just had to check back in by midnight at our maintainance office. I ran out of there, changed into civilian clothes, and ran off the ship. It was like 6pm by this time, and I talked to my buddy bresnahan from bootcamp about meeting up. He picked me up in like ten minutes, and we were off to get drinks. It was so good to see him!! We caught up, and ended up going to a bar called Mcfaddens. I guess i was there before when i went down to san diego to visit dave briski. It was a lot less crowded than before, since it was a tuesday night, and it was early in the day. $2 Dos equis, and we were having a great time. The bartender started making conversation with us, and we were talking to her as well. she even bought us like two shots each, it was pretty sweet. Anyway so we stayed there the whole night, and ended with a nice burger to sober up, and get back on the ship. Bresnahan had to call his roommate to come pick us up and drop me off lol. We had a great time. I stumbled back to the ship, and somehow, i have no idea how, checked in at our office. I honestly dont remember how i remembered how to get there, the ship was a huge maze, and there were doors everywhere. I checked in, then went and curled up in my rack. Didnt have to work till night check the next day, which was at 530pm. It was going to be a nice hibernation.

Upcoming Boat Det!!

So here it is, Saturday Oct. 26th. 3 days before we are going to the USS Ronald Reagan in San Diego, CA. I'll start a little earlier from the previous weeks. We had a PRT last week i think it was? had to do like 27 push ups, 37 sit-ups and run a mile and a half in 1330. Needless to say i absolutely knocked it outta the park. Ended up getting 1059 on my outdoor track run, which i thought was pretty good. Tied with Mitch. But after finishing strong on the last 100meters or so i felt like absolute crap. wanted to throw up, and my head was pounding. Should probably run more, but I was still at the front of the pack. My stage flight ended up getting cancelled like 2 weeks in a row cuz the flight instructor was sick. This kind of stunk because i was constantly studying for a long time, and it just kept getting cancelled. I was nervous during the week for the events of the weekend, and they just were getting post-poned. I knew this was a big deal and wanted to just get it over and done with. I finally was able to do it last saturday. I went in the morning to meet Matt and do a practice flight of what we were going to go over in our Stage check. Stage check is done with a different flight instructor so it is not biased. So we went up, did some stalls, slow flight, turns around a road/point, and i wasnt feeling very confident at all the whole time. Maybe it was because i hadnt flown in like two weeks? I had a pit in my stomach and felt like evrything was going wrong. We landed, and i expressed my feelings on how nervous i was for this stage check. Matt said not to worry and that ill be fine. I met the other flight instructor and we basically just made small talk about our lives, and flying, the navy, etc. I was trying to get comfortable and (hopefully) take his mind off the fact that he was judging me in all aspects of flying the aircraft. If i could distract him with questions, maybe he wouldnt be paying attention to my airspeed lol. So we got in the airplane, and i did all the steps needed to get us started. My taxiing down the taxiway was on point, my confidence was soaring, and i was planning towards what i was going to do next in my head. Radio calls- perfect, fluent and read back everything, the stars were seeming to align. We took off and climbed at a great rate, and it ended up being a busy day, so we had to maneuver our way into the practice area. Once we got there we headed up to 4000 ft, where i maintained and held that altitude with skill and precision. We did some turns, and stalls, everything was slow and steady, but perfect in everyway, After every event that took place, i was so proud of myself, and it actually felt like i was controlling the aircraft, and making it do what i wanted to do. It cracked the biggest smile on my face, and reminded me how much i really do love flying. Everything was going right. Then we took the plane down to like 1100 feet, and did some S turns along a road, which my bank and altitude were perfect once again. With everything going right, i was just waiting for something to go wrong. Luckily he said we were done, and to head back to the airport. So i headed that way, and he took the flight controls. Best feeling in the world. I knew i nailed it. So since all the traffic cleared later that afternoon, we were the only ones on radar. He decided to take us in for a short approach, which we basically nose dived into the runway, leveled out and did a wheelie for like 10 seconds, it was very very cool. Once we landed i parked the craft and went up stairs with a huge smile on my face. I passed my test, and made my flight instructor happy as well. We can move on meow. Next up (tomorrow) we will be practicing flying in the traffic pattern, and doing take-offs and landings. Should be a fun time, and my solo should be coming up sooner rather than later. Plane Captain- So these passed two weeks ive been working extremely hard to get the plane captain qual. I passed all the tests, i did a QA launch, which is just showing a supervisor that i know how to launch a jet, and then i went over some emergency procedures as well. Nailed all of that, and now i just have to go over nomenclature of the aircraft with a supervisor, and go to a review board with like chiefs and officers to see if they think im ready to become a PC. I tried to review the nomenclature all this week, but we didnt have anytime. THe supervisor just told me that we will definatly just do it on the boat. So im excited, and maybe they will have a PC board soon, so ill be able to get that qual. Boat det.- heading to San diego on tuesday, got an 11am flight to the boat. guess were going to be unpacking alls day and setting up shop and our racks/bunks. I'm actually really excited for this. Since last time they cried wolf and we never ended up going. But i mean the same hting can still happen. THey cancelled last boat det when the truck with alls the sea bags left the hangar bay. So anything is possible, but im really pulling for this one. Just tryna get my sea legs! lol its only like 17 days. So if we get done ealry on tuesday, they are giving us until midnight tuesday night to go play in san diego. My best friend from bootcamp just so happened to be stationed there, so ima go visit him, maybe get a couple of beers and just have a good time. Im very excited. After that we pull out on wednesday and set sail. I have no idea were we are going but I'm excited to see how life on the boat is. Suppose to be 12 hours of work on, then 12 off. which is roughly like 13 on, 11 off. Ima try to get some sleep. But i do hear you lose weight too cuz no one has time to really eat all 3 meals a day, and the food isnt the greatest. Gonna be a real experience builder. A lot of people in a small confined space. Im super tall too so ill probs hit my head a lot. which hurts so much when i do. i have in the passed before, and it hurts real bad for a lil bit. But im excited. My supervisor told me i'll probably be going to nights on the boat cuz they need more help, and they trust me with the responsibility more than other people, cuz nights is a lot harder (cuz there is no sun lol) So not only is the flight deck dangerous, but you cant see much, so goodluck. These days are going to go by extremely fast and they said we wont be able to keep track of time. Im all for that. I’ll be getting 2 paychecks while im gone too, and have most of it saved up cuz I wont be spending anything on the boat. So ill probs use that money for Christmas shopping  But right when we get back, they should ( ihope) give us a 96 hour liberty call, and then the weekend after that is thanksgiving, hopefully another 96 hour liberty call, and by then it will be December. Upcoming events- So everyone who took the advancement exam will be getting their results back before thanksgiving. These are the people I am waiting for in order to get my promotion. Once they find out who is getting a promotion, they will hold a ceremony and frock those individuals. That’s were I fall into play. Cept ill start getting paid extra immediately. I also did some research and I guess I wont be eligible for the E5 exam, until after I have been and E4 for a year. Yeah, im already looking ahead to bigger and better things, but time restrictions, it makes sense though. Something to study for, but ill enjoy the time as an E4 while it lasts. December- the 2nd of December I will be going to C school. Transferring commands to a local one right next to the barracks to learn more about jet engines/etc. I will be in this class for about a month and a half. Only because they are giving us a palm period of dec. 20th- jan 6th. Which is a wicked long time off. But ill take 10 of those days and go home to my humble abode, and enjoy some time with family and friends. Im very excited. So I better be an E4 by the time I get to this new command- cuz I worked for it, did alls the right paperwork, etc. I have no doubts that I wont get it. I did everything right. The only down part of going to C school, which may or may not be a down part, but Jan 10th VFA-2 is suppose to go to Florida for a little bit, and when they go there they got a lotttttt of money per day. My C school would be ending later than the day they would leave, so I would transfer back over to that command and everyone would be gone. Then it would be like another vacation of doing nothing for like 3 weeks. Cuz C school is soooo easy, every says enjoy it cuz you don’t have to do any work. I plan on it. I’ll be going flying every weekend, and doing a lot of fun stuff I hope. So yeah, kinda getting a little glimpse into the future here. It looks promising, fun, and exciting. I cant wait to go to the boat- itll be like 3 weeks. But Im def. going to blog after that to tell yall what it was like. Hopefully I survive lol. No but I will. Keep this head on a swivel and just keep doing what im doing. Things to look forward to next blog (I hope)- That I will be plane captain, had a fun time on cruise, having a nice 96 hour liberty, a good thanksgiving, and looking forward to my c school in hopes that I already bought my plane ticket home for Christmas. But other than that everything is going well. Still meeting lots of new people, starting to actually hang out with people. Been doing a lot of reading, and just enjoying life. Got a lot of good things going for me here. Lets see where it takes me eh?

Going through the motions

Well then, almost another month gone by and not another post. hmmm. Happy October I guess? I thought i had a bunch of stuff to write about, but i dont really think i do. Started back on days- which is nice. I enjoy coming home while the sun is still out, and heck im even starting to go to the gym meow. I wake up and get breakfast made to order in the morning. Its so nice waking up and knowing ill be having an omlet before work. Ive really been enjoying my breakfast lately. Ive been flying at least once a weekend, sometimes twice, doing multiple ground lessons, etc. Stuff is so much fun. Love learning all that stuff and flying is so much fun. So far we've done some basic manuevers like turning and we even did some stalls in the airplane, which is when the pitch is so high up, and there is not enough forward motion that the plane cant go forward any longer, so it dips down. Its kinda like your own personal rollercoaster, pretty cool. And im feeling a lot more comfortable in the airplane too. I got my first "stage check" this coming saturday, which is kinda like my first test to see where im at in flying. It should go rather smoothly since im getting more and more comfortable in the airplane. Im doing really well at correcting my mistakes right away and maintaining the right altitude or pitch when needed. I even get to take off, and i landed for the first time last weekend. Its fairly easier than i remember, its like the plane does everything itself. Speaking of which- last saturday i woke up early to go get some breakfast before flying. Well i thought i would explore the dunkin donuts that was in my phone about a half hour away from fresno (where i fly). So i follow my GPS, and im thinking to myself that this cant be true, theres no way there is a dunkin donuts here and no one talks about it. So im following, following and i take a right, then another right, and meow im in the middle of a neighborhood with 500 ft to go. Just as i expected, no dunks. I was so mad, but i didnt give up hope yet, i thought i would call them up to see if they moved. I called them up, told them i was near a jack in the box and hopef they would give me directions from there. They said i was about a half hour away, and gave me their address. I hang up the phone and the caller ID says Texas. I enter the address, it brings me to texas. So i guess i was a couple states off from my dunkin donuts. I then proceeded to get a breakfast sandwich and a coffee from starbucks, my #2. Not really anything else going on though. this life is beginning to stablize a little bit, and i know what to expect meow. Ive been launching jets quite a lot cuz- practice makes perfect. In order to make PC, you have to get a bunch of signatures, take 3 tests, do a walkaround of the jet with a Quality Assurance Representative, and go to a board and tell them what you know. A lot of people have become PC in the past 2 weeks, and the all said it was a very easy process. But were running out of trainees meow, so i finished off my signatures, and i took 1 out of the 3 tests already, got a 96. Wasnt really that hard at alls. My 3rd class promotion will be coming up in a month. Cant wait for that. I may be a trainee now, but most of the PCs are the same rank as everyone else, they just have that qual, and it makes them seem like they are better than 95% of the navy. But 3rd class petty officer, thats a different story. The tides will soon change, and favor me. I'll be in charge then. They gon' learn today. But yeah ima try to get PC by Christmas, that would be nice to go home to. There are two 12 days of leave "palm periods" were people can take leave. Mine will be for like the 18th to the 25th of december. Fly home to l town, spend the weekend there, then drive down to South Carolina for Christmas with the full family. It should be nice, since i missed out on last christmas LOL bootcamp probs. Upcoming detachments- we got a det to the boat for like a month at the end of october, but with the government shutting down and alls, i dno where in the heck we would get money from, but id like to see if we actually go on the det. A month on the boat, 12 hour days, 7 days a week. Sounds like fun right? probably not, but i do want the experience. Then, they are already talking about another detatchment to Key west at the end of january for a couple weeks. I would love to go to that. 85% of the command is going, and the per diem is like 75 bucks a day. Save all that money, maybe party a night or two, but its still a lot of money. So thats where my future outlook is to right meow. Det, promotion, christmas, det. I figure it would take me another 4 months to get my private pilots license, if everything goes smoothly (straight). thats not counting in for detachments or leave or anything. Its exciting though, and i dont mind that it might take a while, cuz im only doing it on weekends, whats the rush? im having fun right? Miss home every meow and then, but ill see them every couple of months. I also have C school, and TAD (temporary assigned duty) to look forward to. C school is just 2 months of learning more about engines, and is a skate in the park from what i hear. and TAD is a month of coming in late- getting off early- mopping a floor every now and then. And on days all we do is flight schedule. We dont really have time to do washjobs, which is nice. But its gives us time to work on quals and everything. Also saving a lot of money too because I now eat breakfast lunch and dinner at the galley. But yeah, i think thats about it. Still thinking about a def. job in aviation, but who knows, i got another 4 years to go. and anything can change. But other than that we're good here over on the west coast. Got monday off. I know this was an unorganized mess, but i just felt i needed to check in. Heck this might be the last blog until after i go to the boat for a month. IF we go to the boat. Still wanna get my sea legs.

Upcoming events lol- Mid Sept.

Ok, so half the command is in Fallon, Nevada. I am going to days this week, and rumor has it will be staying on days, cuz we are getting a new LPO, bascially a boss, so i can maybe live a somewhat regular sleep schedule?! I dno. But its funny cuz Mich really wanted to go to days, and i heard he was, and got a little upset that i wasnt going too cuz i work really well with him, but then he took me aside and told me that i was also coming to days as well. I was really excited to hear that. So Mon-Fri 630am-330pm. I got 2 doctor appointments this week, so it should make the days go by faster lol. I get to put my paperwork in for my accelerated advancement this week, so i can get that started and hoipefully have no hiccups getting that promotion- which will tremendously help with my private pilots license. We have Physical Fitness test coming up in a month, and theyre doing weigh ins this week i think? If you are over your BMI, you have to go to early morning FEP- which is just working out in the morning before work to get back in shape. Im about 10 pounds over my limit, but i think it will be good, get me outta bed, back in shape, and i HAVE to go to this, so its nto like i can hit snooze, like i usually do. Get me in shape for our test in a month. We have a boat det schedule for the end of October- i heard it could be anywhere from 10 days to 4 weeks. But we all remember what happened to the last boat det right?!?! lol. But i think it would be so cool to go to the boat for a month, i at least want a taste of this hell i hear. bring it on, ya know? downside is that i would have to suspened some of my lessons of my flying lessons, but he understands since its the government, and theres nothing they can do about it, and he used to be navy- so he knows. But im going to try and do like 2 ground lessons and 1 flight lesson every saturday and sunday if i can. that will work out nicely since i cant really do it during the week. But i would love to spend my time flying on the weekends. why not right?! proactive. I would love to get my private pilots license by the end of the year at least. Then i could visit jared, and it would be a whole lot easier, take him for a spin. Visit Dave in LA, take him for a spin, have a fun time. These are all future goals though, they seem realistic in my mind at least. I dno about colorado flying though, cuz it is the mile high state. and flying in mountains is a whole new animal. But yeah, i wouldnt mind using the MGI bill towards my instrument rating, and commercial rating eventually, maybe get outta the navy and start a career as a pilot? i dno, that would be pretty cool. Way in the future though. WAYYYY in the future. step by step, lets get the privot pilots license first lol. But yeah really just focusing on me lately, and learning new stuff for the navy, and extra cirricular activities, kinda faded out with Alyson, and its kinda of long distance. So i guess i just work on whats in front of me, and better myself, and everything else will fall into place? Sounds good to me. Im happy, i got stuff to look forward to every weekend, got my jeep out here, racking up the bills in gas money lol. Buddy of mine was talking about bungee jumping within the next month, wouldnt mind getting on board that train, ive always wanted to do that, scary though. But yeah, one foot in front of the other. Ill try not to wait another month and a half to update this. lol

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.