Posts by Berck

I’m going to try to remember to post a little notice that there’s a new hidden post so that those of you who use RSS don’t have to check the site for new posts.

As I’ve mentioned a bit before, there’s been big changes at work. All the high-ups are now brand new to their positions now, having been promoted from within the ranks. I’m happy with some of the promotions, not so happy with others. As I think I’ve mentioned before, we’re divided into three “flights”: White, Blue and Silver. I was in White flight, but with so many people leaving for the jobs down in Pueblo, there was a massive personnel shift. I’m now in Blue flight, which I actually requested. I figured that some of the three white flight guys left would be there with me, but as it turns out two of them went to silver, and the other stayed in white. Strangely enough, white and blue flight switched offices, so I get to keep my desk. But whereas before white flight was comprised of loud, funny guys– the mood in blue flight is much more quiet and boring. The guy who sits right across from me now is a very strange instructor– one of two who was hired after me. He looks to be in his late 50s, wears way too much cologne, and almost always has a buttload of tobacco tucked in his lower lip. In fact, sometimes he’s got so much in there, it stars leaking out.

One of the good things about the changes is that the dispatch position is being eliminated so I’ll get to fly quite a bit more than I have been. I’m very happy about this, and should be able to make a little bit more money too.

We met our students for the first half of the summer semester yesterday. We got to spend an hour and half preparing them a bit for their first day on Monday. This has never really happened before– usually the first time the students meet their IP it’s to go flying. My three students seem promising, but that’s probably because I haven’t flown with them yet. One is a Glider IP– since he can teach other cadets to fly the gliders, he’ll be a much easier student than the others who have never flown before. Still, he’ll have a lot to learn, but it’s nice to have a foundation from which to work.

He’s not the first glider IP I’ve taught– they’re good students but have strange tendencies. The biggest problem comes with landing. You don’t really flare a glider for landing so much as just fly it into the ground. There’s only one wheel on a glider, and it’s hard to screw up a landing. An airplane is a bit different– you want to land in a full stall in a nose-high attitude. It’s tricky, and as you guys might remember, I spent a long time learning how to do it. The glider IP’s tend to have good aircraft control control, but they fly the plane right into the ground. I’ve found that if you can be patient, and simply tell them to pick the nose up at the last minute, they make fast but acceptable landings. Some more refining, and they make good landings.

The other common issue is the way they do stalls. I’ve never flown a glider, so I’m not sure of its stall characteristics, but I do know that glider IP’s tend to do stalls the same way. They start by pitching up far more than is necessary, which results in a harder break. As soon as the plane stalls, though, they recover by shoving the stick almost as far forward as they can. This results in a couple negative G’s which is totally unnecessary, and can be a bit alarming for an instructor who isn’t ready for it.

My second student was a pretty quiet guy. His bio sheet indicated that he’s an “SE Human Factors” major, whatever that means, and has a whopping 2.4 GPA or so. I wouldn’t be surprised if he turns into a project, but I won’t know until I fly with him.

And my third student is a chick! I’ve never had a female student before, but I figure she’s got to smell worlds better than most of my students. She’s an engineering major with a 3.0 GPA, and very enthusiastic about flying. She asked a lot of very good questions the first day. So even though I can tell that she doesn’t really know anything about flying I think she’ll be a quick study. Still, you have no idea how someone’s going to fly until they actually do it.

It’s exciting to have three fresh faces, three bodies for me to turn into pilots. I’m sure I’ll grow annoyed with them in short order, but right now my job seems so cool. Three eager cadets, and if I’m any good at my job, I’ll turn them into pilots for the Air Force.

The summer is more conducive to teaching than the fall/spring semesters because of the scheduling. While these cadets are here for the summer, they’re not doing anything else. During the school year they’ve got a full load of classes, and we only get them for flying every other day. This summer they’ll be available to fly every day, and that should make thing easier.

The schedule for us instructors is pretty brutal. There’s basically three different shifts. They start at 5am, 6am, and 7am. Each flight will spend a week in each shift and rotate. If the weather’s good, we’ll be done at 3pm, 4pm or 5pm. If the weather’s bad, we could hang around as late as 7pm, but fortunately we can’t have a duty day longer than 12 hours. We’re also going to be working most Saturdays.

The pictures are up on the gallery. Captions may be more forthcoming as time passes…

Warning: There’s at least one “bad” word in this post. I make no apologies for it. Sarah, if you’re going to be bothered by bad words, don’t read this post.

Work has been boring lately. There was a huge push to get the students done, but there hasn’t been much going in the past couple of weeks. There’s been a constant string of people leaving for Pueblo where there’s the same job for more money. My application is certainly in.

I went to Florida for Sydney’s graduation. Overall, not as bad as I thought it might be. Sydney neglected to wear a funny hat, but at least she didn’t walk naked. I discovered that I’m squishycore. You heard that right: I’m squishycore. I’d still like to know just who drinks a dozen cans of New Castle (did ya catch that? Cans of New Castle), dances on the platform, sings along with skater boy and stays out on Palm Court until the sun comes up, yet is *still* squishycore? By the time the sun came up, the hundreds of New College freaks had mostly evaporated, leaving some sludge on the bottom who insisted that we couldn’t get breakfast until the sun comes up. And I stuck with it. Passed out on the wall, I might have been, but squishycore I was not.

If anyone wants to tell me the name of the band with the chick who rocked as lead singer, I’d be glad of it. Not for any good reason, but I’d like to know. I listened to them for quite some time, but if they ever pronounced their band name, I never heard it. I did managed to hear the name of the chick who rocked: Katherine Kelly. Whose girlfirend (wearing a Gutentag Berlin shirt and fuck-me boots) once dated a girl I know. She definitely rocked. I decided to find her and tell her so at some point, but by then there was no sign of a band ever having been in the building with the bathroom when I looked. At the time, in a bit of a drunken haze, I figured I could Google them. At the time, it didn’t occur to me that there are a zillion appellatory permutations for the chick who rocked.

The band with the chick who rocked was worlds better than the band out in Palm Court. Whose name I did know, but don’t remember now. It was a weird name with fusion. Synergy, even. (In a non-corportate sense.) I think it started with a J and involved primates. In any case, they were only mediocre until the lead started singing. Then they sucked. It took me a long time to realize that the reason the vocals sounded so bad was not some sound guy mixup, but because he was singing into a telephone. Yes, a telephone. Which had been hard-wired into an amp. This was an interesting schtick, but produced less than interesting music.

All of the girls of New College are shaped the same. Or at least they appeared that way. My cousin Kyra and I were discussing this phenomomen, and were unable to decide whether it was a matter of shape, clothing, or far-left liberalism, but decided that these were at least the factors which should be investigated. Girl’s jeans have become so low, that they no longer really have wasits. They consist of two legs held together with a belt. As a result most girls are sporting a plumber’s crack while seated or bending over, which while not as bad on a girl in her early twenties as an actual plumber, still isn’t attractive. The girl with the lowest jeans of all was wearing a “bomb the blogosphere” t-shirt, which I loved. Until I found out that it’s a Questionable Content reference, which made me realize that I’m just not in touch with the ‘net these days.

In other news, the K girls have all turned out to be rather amazing people. I detect within them some hint of a promise for the future which I think that I too once possessed but have since squandered.

In even other news, my father is sporting a beard. Which means he is no longer allowed to complain about *my* beard should I choose to grow one. And I choose. His actually makes him look a bit relaxed, and (despite it being mostly gray) younger. (I, on the other hand, look much better without a beard, but I really detest shaving.)

With so little going on at work, now is a good time to take time off. If I take time off while we’re flying, I’m losing money. If I take off when we’re not flying, I’m not. Joanna couldn’t take off until Friday, which compressed things a little bit. So we’re going to drive somewhere Friday morning and return Wednesday evening. I’m not entirely sure where yet, but we’ll be departing on a northwesterly heading.

Most of that isn’t true. She seems to have some issue with Clapton and Hendrix and can’t tell the difference between the two. I certainly know the difference between Bob Marley and Hendrix. I never said Hendrix sang I Shot the Sheriff. Good grief. This from the woman who thinks that “alternative” music was actually. And I didn’t claim that Clapton wrote I Shot the Sheriff either– I just mentioned that both Bob Marley and Clapton sang it and I didn’t know who wrote it.