very very VERY crazy day
Well this past weekend has been very interesting. When the word was given on friday afternoon to evacuate, I headed over to the financing building and was given 300 bucks cash for the weekend. The only catch is you can only use it on gas/transportation or food (you have to pay it all back if you dont have the receipts to prove it). But heck...dinning out at fancy restaurants for lunch and dinner? Nice sport convertable car rental for the weekend? I think I'll live :). Sooo yeah, we drove up to Moody Air Force base in Valdosta, Georgia with our military training leader, checked into our very nice dorms and were pretty much let loose from there. I dont really feel like typing out the whole weekend because there was nothing to particularly important worth mentioning. But all in all it was a very nice break from all the training. Thennnn monday afternoon we were given the all clear by our base commander so I took back the rental car, took a taxi back to the dorms at moody to meet up with everyone, and drove back down to tyndall afb with our MTL. Today I finally had my frickin BPO inspection certification. I passed that 2-hr hands on, stressful as hell test without a singal wrong question. So pretty much now all I have left is aircraft Launching and recovery. Heres the notes we took today on launching the jet...Gotta memorize it all by thursday. I'm kinda nervous for it but at the same time I cant wait! :)
1) Pilot Arrival (Salute/handshake) "Hello sir, can I have your Mode 2 setting?"
2) Set Mode 2/Put bags in cockpit
3) Walk arround with pilot
4) Verify tailhook, 3R, gun doors and launcher fairing are closed
5) Strap Pilot in (ask pilot for approx. flight time)
6) Remove canopy strut and ladder
7) Remove ground wire
8) JFS start
9) Establish communication (How do you hear chief) "loud and clear"
10) Clear #2 engine for start "#2 engine clear for start"
11) Check:
a)#1 engine airflow
b)secondary airflow
c)reset ASP (avionics status panel) panel
d)pull nose pin
e)show pilot nose pin "I have your nose pin sir"
12) Clear #1 engine start "#1 engine clear to start"
13) Hyrdraulic drop check
14) Verify ECS airflow/JFS shutdown "ECS airflow is good and JFS is shutdown
15) Clear and verify speedbrake/flaps "Speedbrake and flaps are clear"
16) Flight control checks:
a)verify takeoff trim (stabs/rudders/ailerons) "takeoff trim is good"
b)up/down and driving(PTC check) "Tips up/down and driving"
c)operational check w/ and w/out CAS Clear movement and watch flight controls
d)tips up (stick force sensor ok) "Two tips up"
e)verify takeoff trim again "takeoff trim is good"
17)Nozzles (open and close)/LVS light check "nozzles closed/open"
18)Brakes (pumping) pilot: "I'm on the rt brk, rt brk pumping"
19)Bleed air Check
a)Lt/Rt engine lights "lt eng light" (pilot says "lt light") same for rt
b)Loops A/B no lights "loop A no light"(pilot ditto) same for loop B
20) Check landing /taxi lights "Can I see your landing and taxi lights"
21) Verify JFS low light is out/install panel "Sir is your JFS low light out?"
22) Check Hydraulic servicing and instal panels
23) Wingtip to Wingtip check
a)lights working/pull Main landing gear pins/Panels secured/fluid leakage
24) Stow gear pins/missile cover in VTR door and verify door is latched
25) Check Tool Box
26) Verify "BIG 5" complied with (to self) (pins,pannels,lights,toolbox,missile cover)
27) Inform pilot: "sir..."
a)"my servicing is good"
b)"all panels are installed"
c)"all tools are accounted for"
d)"am I clear to disconnect?"
28) Post visual observer
29) Disconnect Communications cord
30) verify communications door is latched
31) position self for marshaling
32) wait for chocks otu signal from pilot and relat to DLA (B-man)
33) Wait for run-up signal from pilot, check behind you and then return run-up signal to pilot
34) Marshal jet from spot (turn if needed)
35) Send-off and Salute
lj cut- 8:30pm
Whollllllllley crap...hmmm so my adrenaline is still flowing very steadily. My friend and I decided to rig my pole and grab my net and head down to the ocean to do a little fishing and see what kind of shells the hurricane brought up on shore. We walked down a road for about half a mile toward the beach until we got to the swampy marsh area (theres a swamp-like marsh that is about 400 yards wide before you hit the beach and extends about 3 miles in both directions). Well, there is also a raised dock that extends over it so you are able to cross it to get to the beach without having to battle the cotton mouths and alligators along the way. But to our luck the hurricane totally ripped apart this dock and there was almost nothing left of it. But us being us, wanting to see all the treasures washed up ashore, decided to press forward through the marsh. (I'd also just like to mention we were both wearing sandals). There was this muddy road that went through part of the marsh that had about half a foot of black mucky water sitting in it (thick grassy marsh were on both sides of the mud path and we didnt dare venture through there haha. So yeah...we got about half-way through it and all of a sudden we heard this rippling noise right behind us, thinking it was just a crab i looked back and to my eye-opening suprise, it was a VERY large black snake slithering through the water toward us. Sooooo I decided to turn arround toward the beach and haul ass as fast as i could through that marsh until i was completely out of it. What i didnt realize though was that in the process of running very very fast and the adrenaline kicking in, the mud seemed to suck my sandals right off and I continued to run on without them. I pretty much forgot about that though when I reached the beach because I was so intreaged (sp?) by all the sea creatures and shells that i've never seen before washed up on the beach. But yeah...as it came nearer time to the time to leave, I realized that we had to go back through that damn marsh and this time we would have to wade through it barefoot. So we started to make our way back through it...VERYYYYYY slowly wading through the black muddy water, poking the water in front of us every step with our fishing pole and net. We got about halfway back through the marsh and we heard some rustling in the grass next to us and saw another freakin black snake slither off away from us. Hmmm so now i REALLY started to get nervous. We kept going, picking up our speed a little bit because the water started to get a little shallower and we could start to see through the muddy water we were stepping in. We got about 3/4s of the way back, and all of a fucking sudden as I set my foot in the mud I felt somthing really really big start to slither squirm under my feet. Almost instantly I knew what it was and was like FUUUUUUUUUUCK!!! and jumped wayyy back just in time to see this very large black, diamond shapped head water moccasin slither partway into the grass and just sit there. At this point adrenaline was pumping through my boddy like the hydraulic fluid going through a fully pressurized F-15. I carefully reached out with my fishing pole and attempted to flip him off the trail, but he was so heavy he barely budged and just squirmed a little bit but stayed right there. I tried this a couple times and to no luck at all it just stayed right there. So my friend and I decided to creep very verry slowly arround him into the grassy part of the marsh and then the instant we got past it we sprinted off the rest of the way. So yeah...that was one of the most eery/scary experiences i've ever had...just the feeling of being surrounded by poisonous snakes, not knowing if your next barefoot step is going to sink through the mud onto a slithering snake....which did freakin happen. Soooo I'm pretty much not going to be going back down to the beach while i'm here unless they fix that damn dock.
Oh yeah.....9 more days till i'm come'n home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!