Archive for the ‘Flying’ Category

On Sunday, Berck took Nathan and me flying. We did stalls and negative G’s and all sorts of manner of stuff that made me throw up.

Nathan enjoyed flying so much that he wanted to go again today. I wasn’t sure I should tag along again in the back seat. But Max’s advice is to eat a box of gingersnaps while you’re flying, and never try to conquer air sickness with an empty stomach. He should know; he flies KC-135’s.

So this morning I ate a full breakfast (pumpkin pie and eggnog–hey, it goes down smooth … shouldn’t it come back up the same way?), and we stopped by the store to buy a box of gingersnaps and a bottle of gingerale.

Nathan and Berck had decided to get their first “hundred-dollar hamburger” by heading down to Pueblo. This was Berck’s first cross-country flight for fun. We stuck with straight and level flight the whole time down. I munched on gingersnaps the whole time.

Berck demonstrated a beautiful short approach landing in front of another plane that was coming in (apparently, I was the only person who could spot the traffic from way far out … thanks to my laser vision). Cessnas fall out of the sky amazingly well. We parked where we were told to and headed into the terminal.

Three tasty burgers (and some onion rings) later, we climbed back into the plane flew back home. I munched on more gingersnaps and continued to feel just fine. Berck asked Nathan if it were time to make me sick and pitched the nose high up into the sky. Soon we were free falling, and everything in the back seat pockets (window cleaner bottle, check list, fuel testers) flew up onto the ceiling and then into the front seat. Berck’s pen came out of his pocket and hovered in front of him; he used it as a plumb to see how much to push to keep us at 0 G’s.

But that was enough excitement, and Berck let Nathan fly most of the rest of the way home. He even made the approach, all the way up to actually landing.

And I was just fine. I still have half a box of gingersnaps left.

Now Nathan wants to go flying again on Sunday.

There are pictures up in the gallery.

Airman Flight School, where Berck attended in Norman, Oklahoma, is closed. Students who’ve paid and employees who haven’t been are suing the owner and two principals of a management company.

According to the Norman paper, the leasing company obtained an order of possession Aug. 3 and gave the school until Aug. 15 to move out. The date of the article is Sept. 9, by which time the doors had been chained shut.

You’ll remember Berck finished his last check ride on Aug. 10.

Aren’t we glad he didn’t get a job at Airman teaching! Aren’t we even gladder that he finished his training!

As Berck says, “Sometimes I guess you just get lucky.”

I’ll say.

Berck got his flight suit today!

Now he looks like a very cute janitor.

I gave my first lesson today. My student was a glider instructor for the academy, so as my flight commander poitned out, “He has more dual given than you do.”

He’s almost done with the program, and flies well which is why they gave him to me. A hundred hours or so instructing in a glider helps.

It’s weird being called sir. Incessantly. The word “sir” showed up at least twice in every sentence. At one point I point I pointed an RJ that was crossing above us because it was a pretty cool view. “Very cool sir,” he said.

I took the controls only once while I had him put foggles on, otherwise he flew quite well. His landings weren’t perfect, but perfectly acceptable.

I was pretty nervous before the flight, and tried hard not to show it. After the flight, the other instructors congratulated me. And then picked me up and me off to the water tank to toss me in. The tank sits out there so that they can throw the cadets in after their first solo. I asked if they’d thrown any other instructors in after their first flight with a student. “No, but you’re the first instructor we’ve ever had with zero hours dual given!” After chucking me in the tank they complained that I didn’t put up much of a fight. I thought about it, but I was worried that I would end up with my head smacked into the pavement considering they had a heck of a time carrying me.

So now I’m an instructor. While I don’t have my flight suit yet, I’ve got my name badge now. It’s got wings, my name and, “INSTRUCTOR PILOT” printed on it. Woohoo.

Last week I did a very silly thing. I was preflighting my plane and had to walk two planes away to dump the fuel sample I got out of the tanks into a safety can on the ramp. When I resumed my preflight activities, the flight commander giving me the flight asked, “What are you doing?” “Uhm. The preflight checklist?” I responded. Then I realized that there was a cadet standing at the other end of the plane staring at me, and that it wasn’t my plane at all. I felt stupid, returned to my plane and didn’t think much about it.

Until yesterday when I passed my acceptance flight. White flight instructors all welcomed me aboard, and then proceeded to make fun of me about preflighting someone else’s plane. The guy whose plane I was preflighting said, “Hey, any time you want to preflight my plane for me…” My flight commander mentioned that he would considering concluding standup briefings with the words, “Berck, go preflight our planes!” And then they established a verb. “Bercking around” which apparently means doing some pointless activity. In any case, it all makes me feel rather welcome– it’s a all done in good fun, and I feel like I belong now.

My flight commander printed my name up on a bunch of magnets for the big magnet scheduling board in white flight’s ops. After flying with me today, he’s optimistic that I’ll pass my acceptance ride on Monday and start working for him quickly. He’s in pretty desperate need of instructors, and plans to give me some lieutenants who are nearly complete because they’ll be easier. I can’t decide whether I’m more worried about the acceptance flight or my first ride with students.

One of the guys I’m working with quit today. He doesn’t like Embry-Riddle, and doesn’t like the Air Force. He really doesn’t like the reports of how poorly the instructors are treated, and like all of us, can’t stand the guy in charge of standards and new hire training. This is good for me, I think, because I’m quite willing to work, and they really need instructors.

I’ve got my profile for the flight Monday. I have to fly to an east area, flying either an East or Woodmen Departure depending on which runway is in use, and fly to an east practice area. Once there, I have to demonstrate power off stalls and a simulated forced landing. Then Jason will take the controls and pretend to be a student, and I have to explain what he’s doing wrong and teach him. After that, I have to fly the east arrival and perform a no flap landing.

The downside of the someone else quitting is that I’ll probably have to work 6 hour dispatch shifts most mornings. Which means waking up at 0430 to get there by 0530, in the dark, to open the place. Yay.

I got my first paycheck today. It looks like my minimum guaranteed salary will be more than Joanna was making, so that’s good at least. So now if she can just get a job, maybe we can work our way out of debt sometime before we die. We’re hoping she finds something she actually likes this time around.