After 13 months of Air Force pilot training, over 200 hours of flight time in the T-6 and T-1, countless 12-hour days, check rides and hundreds of thousands of dollars of jet fuel, I finally found out tonight, at our class' Assignment Night, the plane I will fly for the Air Force: C-17's at McChord AFB in Tacoma, WA. I am incredibly excited and grateful as this was one of my top picks on my dream sheet. Overall our class got great drop with nearly everyone getting their top choice of plane.
The C-17 is an awesome plane, the newest of the Air Force's airlift fleet. It has the most advanced avionics, electronics, capabilities of any of the heavy aircraft. The main feature of the C-17 is its ability to land on small, dirt strips in remote operating areas while carrying up to 170,000 lbs of cargo...oh yeah, and it can stop in approximately 3,000 ft. For more stats and info on the plane check out this page on Wikipedia.
Definitely more to come on my new plane, but just enjoying the moment for now. Thank you to all the taxpayers of America that let me fly around everyday as my job!
Saturday, December 1, 2007
My Assignment: C-17 McChord AFB
Monday, July 16, 2007
T-1 Daze
Today I completed my third flight in the T-1 Jayhawk. The T-1 is the Air Force's primary heavy aircraft trainer. It is a modified Beechcraft 400A, basically what most people know as a Lear jet.
It has been quite a transition from the T-6 Texan, my last plane that I trained in, somewhat like going from a Porsche to an Escalade...both sweet rides, but different styles of driving. One of the major adjustments has been getting used to flying a much longer mission. The average time of a local T-6 mission was around 1.3 (approx 1hr and 20min)....length of the typical T-1 mission around 3.2 (3hr and 15min). But, it seems to go fast because we get to go a lot further from home base so things stay new and interesting.
A few of the things that make flying the T-1 awesome: autopilot, much more advanced avionics...during flight the plane can tell you exactly how far you from anywhere, how long to get there, what route you need to take, what the weather will be like, airports, runways, approaches...its amazing once you get used to using all of the features. Other things I like: much more comfortable seating (a recliner instead of an ejection seat) and finally a toilet in the back.
