California Here We Come!

Tomorrow I'll be flying an E-2C across the country to Naval Air Station Point Mugu, California. It's the Hawkeye's West Coast base and one of three places I could be permanently stationed after I complete the RAG syllabus and qualify to land on the aircraft carrier again in December.

We're taking a plane out there and on the way I'll be attempting to complete up to three events in my syallabus. I think it'll end up being a 10+ hour day with re-fueling stops outside Memphis, TN and Albuquerque, NM and practice approaches shot and who-knows-what airports on the way. Once out there I'm hoping to have enough time to take a look at the pacific, maybe take a picture or two and pass out in my BOQ room before getting up the next day in time to find transportation to LAX and fly commercially back to Norfolk.

With the way things are going, I'll probably be back on the flight schedule in Norfolk and up in the air on Thursday in an attempt to get myself instrument and "STAN" checked before going to Jacksonville on November 10. There I'll be practicing my carrier landing technique in order to get ready to qual once again, on my favorite aircraft carrier, the USS George H.W. Bush.

Well, it has been a while since my last update and to further fill you in on what I've been up to, things have been busy. My classmates and I have been in the "push" to get us ready for "the Boat." I've been scheduled every weekday for the past several weeks. I've canceled the past three fun weekend trips I'd been planning and most likely will have to cancel Halloween as well. I'm planning to go trick or treating as a stressed out Replacement Pilot... har har.

Typically, I've had a simulator event in the morning and then I'll rush over to the hangar where I'll get the information for my flight, check the weather, read the plane's maintenance book, get my flight gear ready and prepare for my brief. Sometimes I'll start out in the back of the plane and then switch seats mid-way or vice versa. The flights last anywhere from 2 to 4 hours and the debrief will take about a half hour after everything is finished.

It's been busy and it hasn't been easy. I would say that I'm finally working as hard as I worked in Meridian again. It's nice to have a challenge, but I would be happier if I was getting the hang of things more quickly. I'm finding that the E-2C Hawkeye (which just celebrated the 50th anniversary of its' first flight) is, in fact, a very difficult plane to fly. It took me my first 7 familiarization flights just to get the hang of flying the beast around the landing pattern.

Honestly, I'm still getting used to it, the rudder set-up is extremely sensitive and I find it fairly challenging to master. Add any number of simulated emergencies to the mix and I'm working as hard as I can to stay with the plane and get all the necessary checks completed prior to getting my landing clearance. I can feel myself get better with every flight, but I'm at the point where, not counting FCLPs, I only have 9 flights left in the syllabus. Not only that, but by that point we need to have more or less committed to memory a 3.5" thick textbook. I have a lot of work to do.

I mention this not because I'm worried about my ability to accomplish these tasks, but because of the huge sense of accomplishment I know I will feel when I finally get my qual and my STAN check complete. I can't wait.