Why Corpus Christi?

The question that is going through most of our heads at this point is, "why did the Navy decide that Corpus Christi was the best place to build a Naval Air Station." Sure it's warm here and the beach is close, but I, for one, have been cancelled so often due to weather that I'm averaging one flight a week. That is significantly down from the last week and a half in Las Cruces when I was flying 1-2 times... a day. It is so humid here so often that there is usually a very low cloud layer ("ceiling"). Formation flying depends on being able to both see the other plane and use ground landmarks to get from point A to point B. Low cloud layers make that pretty hard. The worst thing is that half the time the clouds blow away in the afternoon but the wind that blows them away picks up to about 30 knots or greater and we can't fly due to the high winds.

It's something of a Catch-22 that although kind of funny if you think about it, has also added about a month and a half to my time in Primary. In fact friends of mine who started on the same day as I did back in November who due to scheduling vagaries got through "Forms" in Las Cruces are now about 2 weeks from selecting their next platform (i.e. they're done here). I like it here, it's really relaxing and I'm getting better at playing the guitar, but even still I'd like to move on to the next step. I really want that pot-o-Jets at the end of the rainbow.

I finally completed my check-ride at the end of the first Formation flying unit. It felt so rough because I'd been out of the cockpit for 8 days, I felt like I'd lost much of the feel I had for the airplane. Even still I scored solid marks on the flight and was pronoucned "safe for solo" by the Marine Corps Major I flew with. Hopefully I'll get the Formation Solo flight knocked out in the next couple days.

Everyone always talks about how big Pilot's egos are. I always thought that made sense because of all the great things they do. Tom Wolfe in "The Right Stuff" really gets into it and describes it pretty heavily. However, now I think I'm starting to really feel it. If you think it about it, it definitly makes sense, who wouldn't be pretty self satisfied after being told that not only are they good at flying a plane, can do it safely by themselves but they're also qualified to fly their buddy (also alone in his own plane) around the sky for a while and then lead him back for a safe landing? I know I am.