Remember waaayyy back in November when I told you about the 15-day program? (If not, refresh your memory here) It’s back! I’m not sure if I was just deluding myself, but I somehow had it in my mind that Phase 3 might be a little easier on the family life. I thought that maybe a big-boy aircraft meant big-boy treatment. I was mistaken.
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| C in the T-1 sim - Part of a very full schedule |
Don’t get me wrong, hitting the flightline is exciting! C is back in the cockpit where he belongs and flying an aircraft that he really enjoys. But learning a new aircraft, no matter how many you’ve flown, is never an easy task. The T-1 is bigger, has more systems to learn, new checklists, new procedures – it’s basically starting from square one again. Plus, the T-1 is a crew aircraft, meaning a pilot and co-pilot are required for flight, adding an additional teamwork component that they didn’t experience in T-6s. With all of the “newness” comes the need for hours upon hours of studying, which means we are back to that familiar schedule of seeing C only for dinner and the much-cherished Friday nights and Saturdays.
Rumor has it that the schedule starts to even out once the students are more comfortable with the plane and the proper amount of “hazing” has been accomplished. Only time will tell…
