Date: 2010-04-26 02:23:20
It has been a long week! The whole first week is comprised of academic courses on the fundamentals of flight, weather, radio communications, aviation ethics, airport operations, airspace, navigation, departures/arrivals, Maneuvers, landings, etc… It's a lot to take in! Every day starts at 0600, but that's the time you have to be in your chair ready to take notes (I got up around 0500 to eat breakfast and shower). Then you have full day of class until ~1600, then diner, then you study until you go to sleep at 2100. It's a demanding program.
On the first day you take the Air Force PT test. That's a blast because of the altitude (and yes, that is sarcasm). They say you can expect to add about a minute onto your run time. What they don't tell you is how bad your lungs will burn afterwords!
You also have to take a boldface/ops limits quiz at the end of the first day. You're not allowed to wear flight suits until your entire class makes a %100. My flight, Echo, was the first to pass after day 3.
I spent every possible moment this weekend studying. There's a test tomorrow that covers everything we learned last week. If you fail that, you have 24 hours to retake the test (with different questions). A failure on that kicks you out of the program. I feel like I've studied enough to do well, though. We also have a Formal Brief in the morning. That consists of important upcoming flight information, stand up emergency procedures, and shotgun.
The stand up EPs are a pain. I haven't done a real one yet, but even practicing them is tough. They make you stand up in front of the class and they give you a scenario. You're allowed to ask some set up questions. Then you have to describe, in painstaking detail, how you will resolve the situation up until you land and exit the plane. This includes things like “I will place my left hand on the flap selector and raise flaps to cruise” or “I will apply right rudder to keep the aircraft on centerline”. On top of that, there are specific things that you have to say verbatim (like “I will maintain aircraft control, analyze the situation, take proper action, and land as soon as conditions permit”). It's pretty stressful.
Tomorrow starts the flying portion of IFS. I'm not on the flight schedule unfortunately, along with half of my flight, due to the bad weather and delays they've had the past few weeks. The first flight is called the Dollar Ride. It's the only flight that you're not required to do everything. After the Dollar Ride, the “kid gloves come off”.
I'll update again next weekend!