It turns out to be surprisingly difficult to properly fly in formation. The big challenge is altitude control: you need to stay within about +- 10 feet of the altitude of the person ahead of you. If you go too low, you run into their downwash and get to deal with problems ranging from turbulence [...]
I keep putting off going to sleep. I think the idea is that this is the last hour of the last day of my vacation, and tomorrow I have to get up to an alarm and go to work and resume the daily grind. As it happens, I like my job; the daily grind really [...]
A sufficiently small bird will be invisible until it has disintegrated into a smear on your windshield.
Enjoy your holidays!
Portions of the Patriot Act found unconstitutional. In particular, investigatory agencies will no longer be allowed to simultaneously issue a subpoena and simultaneously a gag order preventing anyone from talking about the subpoena without judicial oversight, in the name of national security.
I woke up this morning slapping my alarm clock into snooze mode. In that moment, snapping from zero to consciousness, my first thought was that that wasn’t the first alarm that was supposed to go off. Upon investigation, I had apparantly already snoozed my cell phone without recording a memory of the event.
It is for [...]
Our lieutenants were promoted last week. They all graduated from the class of 2007 at around the same time, and this marked their 18-month promotion cycle updating. They were joking around with each other about just coloring in their rank insignia with Sharpies, instead of buying new ones.
“It’s kind of bittersweet,” one mentioned. “I kept [...]
Contact phase of 60 training started two weeks ago. Classes began before that, but we only got as close as cockpit training devices and disassembled models and pieces. Two weeks ago, we began flying the real thing. Each of us has something over 10 hours of stick time now. The check ride is Monday.
In that [...]
My hands smell like jet fuel.
This may or may not turn out to be a permanent state of affairs. Every liquid and certain solid components in this helicopter are known to be carcinogenic. The IPs strongly recommend that we bring a pair of work gloves, distinct from our flight gloves, for use in pre- and [...]
I kept refreshing the news sites last night, certain that there would be some irregularity in the voting process that would install McCain as president in defiance of the national will. After I finally went to sleep, I actually had a nightmare about it.
So far, though, things are going pretty well.
I can’t help but be [...]