Got Planes?

Today Liz and I celebrate our one month anniversary. Hopefully we'll celebrate by not doing any decorating today. Two weeks ago Liz came back down from VA with her parents and all of her household goods. I didn't know that she had that much stuff but then again I've been learning a lot about life since we got married. One important lesson is about pillows. There are two types of pillows in this world, decorative pillows (which look comfortable and actually do feel comfortable as well) and pillows that you can use. On our bed I counted 10 pillows of which 4 are open for sleeping. The rest are only for looks. I don't entirely understand the necessity of putting on so many extra pillows when making the bed but it's very important.

I had a few friends from OCF help us move all of Liz's furniture into the house. They enjoyed watching my reaction to all of the boxes labeled "teaching materials" and "decorative flowers/wreaths/PILLOWS." All of them had been through a similar experience when the house where they lived was fairly empty and bland until they were married, but it was a new thing for me.

Liz's parents spent the week down in Pensacola with Liz and I, visiting some of their friends, the beach, and of course the Naval Aviation Museum.

Liz found the guy out front to be fairly good looking. Of course, who doesn't love a pilot?

We saw an IMAX movie called "Straight Up" about helicopters and by the end of it Liz wanted me to fly helicopters. We all enjoyed looking at the extensive collection of aircraft and especially the Coast Guard Aviation section, which was by far the coolest section of the museum.

We went out to dinner a few times with her parents and enjoyed their company. I told one of my instructors that I had in-laws in town and he said he could get me duty if I wanted to escape but luckily Liz's parents are great and that wasn't necessary.

The next week was uneventful except that the house was a little more decorated and organized each time I came home. I'm sure Liz will be doing a before-and-after post soon so I won't post any pictures of the apartment.

This past Saturday we went to the Blue Angels air show down at Pensacola Beach. It was, by far, the best show that either of us had been to. Last November I went to the homecoming air show, which is held on NAS Pensacola at the airfield. That show had more performances and was very good, but for this show we were on a Coast Guard buoy-tender right off the shoreline at the beach.

We boarded the tender down at NAS Pensacola and had about an hour ride out to the beach. They had breakfast for everyone on board (pastries, donuts, fresh fruit and yogurt) during the ride out to the airshow, and had ice chests full of water and gatorade placed throughout the boat. It was a perfect day for a boat ride, sunny, a slight breeze, and calm seas.

We arrived at our destination and we were about 500 yards from the beach. The show started with a Coast Guard demonstration of a helicopter deploying a rescue swimmer and then retrieving him. As you can see, the beach was a madhouse. Some of my friends were on the beach and they left at 7 am for the air show, which didn't start until 12:30! Not only that, but it took about 4 hours to get home because of all the traffic. Needless to say we were glad to be on the ship and not have to deal with all of the chaos!

They served us lunch and we awaited the start of the show. We thought the planes would be flying between us and the beach, but we were wrong. They were doing many of their tricks right over our ship! I don't think I'll ever be at another show where we have F-18's flying less than a 100 feet over us, flying upside down, crossing, etc. It was awesome. Liz commented that she'd never forget that air show and I don't think I will either. The only thing that would be more fun is to ride along with them as they perform....maybe someday!

Missing Lizzy!

So Liz is up in VA with her (our?) family for a wedding and to move her belongings down to our FL home. We've only been married two weeks tomorrow and already I don't know what to do when she's not around! How did I survive without her for these past few years?

Show and Tell

So I promised that I'd post some videos from API, so here they are. This first video is from the mile swim we had to do during the first few weeks of API. It wasn't that bad except that the flight suit was mildly uncomfortable to swim in during the first few laps and went downhill from there. Other than that, it was just a matter of avoiding the person in front of you (we had about 8 people per lane so that led to a lot of kicking and waiting to pass anyone who might be holding you up).

The survival classes were a combination of powerpoint lecture and some videos produced in the 1950's. The videos were actually highly entertaining and there was a lot of laughing in the background as the videos were played. This portion of a video isn't very funny, but it provides the ambiance of 1950's Navy survival videos.

One of the survival instructors was this prior Navy Seal. I think he lives somewhere in the forests surrounding Pensacola in a thatch hut that he made after watching old Navy survival videos. I didn't get a clip of him teaching us how to capture squirrels but he was very enthusiastic about it....I think he probably dines on squirrels fairly often. Here's a clip of him teaching us about dandelions or something...I guess the point was that you can eat dandelions but that was lost on me amid his hilarious commentary.

Here's a clip of him teaching us how to make a fire with a stick, some parachute cord, and a few ounces of awesomeness.

The much talked about pressure chamber. You'll see in this first clip that everything is going fairly well at this point. Patty-cake isn't too hard to do (although we still had a harder time than most 1st graders), and the children's toy isn't too complicated for a 24 year old military aviator.

Things are starting to get more difficult, but you might be able to see more smiles on the faces of some happy, hypoxic aviators.

It seemed like every group had one person who went a little crazy, this guy was our group's. He was the same one playing with the stick/weight in the earlier clips, except now his hands are trembling, he's completely confused, and is trying to do the stick/weight task with his oxygen mask assembly; however, he's quite the happy camper.

Also of note, today is the one week anniversary of my marriage to the best wife in the world! I already have a hard time remembering what it was like to live down here without her, except to remember that it wasn't even comparable to how great it is to share life with Lisette.

Well, normally I'd feel bad about not writing anything on here for such a long time, but I've been so busy planning the wedding that I just haven't had a spare moment to write!



Just kidding, we all know that's not true. Lizzy's been on top of all of the wedding planning, which is good because I actually started flight training shortly before my last post. Aviation Preflight Indoctrination was the first step of the program. It's about 6 weeks long, which doesn't sound too bad but it felt like much longer than that. The first four weeks were half academics and half swimming lessons. The swimming classes were actually a welcome break from sitting in a class and watching death-by-powerpoint lectures. Even though I was interested in the subjects (aerodynamics, airplane systems, meteorology, FAA rules and regulations, etc) it was hard to pay attention to day long lectures that were all based on powerpoint; however, all went well during academics and during the 4th week I was finally able to wear a flightsuit! Since being a pilot is basically 95% just looking cool, it was good to be able to look like a pilot for a change...I thought it was funny that they actually issued us sunglasses along with our flightsuit...I guess it would reflect poorly on military aviation if we don't look too cool for school.


The final two weeks of API were actually a lot of fun. The first few days were spent learning how to survive if we bailout of the plane. The guy teaching the class was all about surviving in the elements...we learned how to trap squirrels, eat plants, and make fire with a piece of parachute cord, a stick, and a piece of wood. I felt like quite the hunter-gatherer by the time were were finished in survival school.
Next up was the hypoxia and vertigo training, which was hands-down the most entertaining portion of API. After a day of classes on vertigo and hypoxia (oxygen deprivation), they put us in a pressure chamber and pumped out the air to give us the feeling of breathing at 25,000 feet. They gave each of us very simple tasks, like putting different shapes of wood in the right shape (triangles, squares, etc), or playing patty-cake with each other. After a few minutes my fingertips were tingling and I was starting to white out and lose coordination (patty-cake was very hard at that point). I went ahead and put on my oxygen mask and started breathing 100% O2 and enjoyed watching everyone get stupid. Some guys just kept going, which was highly entertaining. They started to turn bluish and started to become extremely challenged with simple tasks. Triangle blocks do not go into square holes. Not only that, but they started to smile and really were enjoying themselves immensely (euphoria is one of the symptoms of hypoxia). Eventually they were ordered to go on oxygen but they couldn't figure out how to turn it on...the instructors had to put it on for them. The point of the training is to give us the opportunity to experience the symptoms of hypoxia so we can diagnose ourselves in the air and get on oxygen as needed. When I get a chance I'll post the videos of the pressure chamber.
Next we headed next door for the vertigo training, which was actually a ride designed by Disney engineers in conjunction with the Navy. The voice of the narrator reminded me of the rides at Disney and I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same person doing the narration. The ride spun around at high speeds and we were assigned various tasks that made us move our heads around, which caused various canals in the head to be affected, which changes the motions that your body senses. Going through the classes it was amazing to contemplate how complicated our bodies are. We need a certain percentage of oxygen in the air we breathe to survive, which the earth just happens to have. We need a certain amount of carbon dioxide in our systems. Our ears have different canals that give our brain the information to keep us balanced and stable. Our eyes have rods and cones that allow us to see during the day and at night. At night our eyes have a pigment called Rhodopsin that allows us to see in low light (it takes about 30 minutes to take effect fully), but it photobleaches in high light and doesn't affect how we see during the day. I don't know how people could come to the conclusion that this is the result of chance and changes over time, except that "claiming to be wise, they became fools" (Romans 1:22).
After hypoxia and vertigo training we spent a few days learning about parachutes and how to fix various problems that we could encounter if we eject. We spent the majority of one day jumping off a platform and falling down. Only in the military would you spend a day learning the right way to fall down and not hurt yourself.

The final few days of API were spent "drown-proofing." Of course, that meant ingesting large amounts of water. We were dropped into the water with a parachute over us, dragged through the water in a parachute harness (to learn how to get out of it if we land in the water), and dragged through a field. Getting dragged through a field involved getting into a parachute harness which was attached to two lines. The lines were manned by 6 of your classmates who ran as fast as possible and dragged you around while you got out of the "parachute." It was actually fun to do, but very tiring when you had to drag everyone else around the field. The last part of "drownproofing" involved learning how to get out of a plane or helicopter if it lands in the water. First we were placed in chairs and blindfolded, then the chairs were flipped upside down in the water and we had to find the "window," open it and get to the surface. It would've been fun except for all of the water going up my nose. Finally we faced the helicopter dunker. The helicopter dunker is basically laid out like the skin of a helo. 6 of us at a time would sit in the dunker and get into the harnesses. The dunker would lift into the air and then be lowered into the water and flip upside down. After it stopped moving we were allowed to get out of the harness and feel our way to the "windows" or doors and make our exit. Of course they blindfolded us to make it a little harder, which meant you had to keep a handhold on the dunker while you were making your way to the exits, otherwise you'd get disoriented and wouldn't be able to get out (don't worry mom, they had divers there to give us oxygen so it was very safe :) ). I have some good videos of this that I'll post at a later date.



After API I reported to Whiting Field to actually start flying. The first few weeks were more groundschool where we learned the airplane's systems and the emergency procedures. After that we started flying the T-34, which is a completely different experience from any other flying that I've done. Before we didn't have instructors sitting behind us who constantly asked us questions...my knees were shaking so badly while we were taxiing that I had a hard time holding the breaks while doing the checklists; however, I've since grown accustomed to the whole process and might even begin to enjoy it eventually!


As much as I enjoy flight school, I've missed Lizzy! The time seems like it's gone by slowly as I've counted down the days until our wedding, but now it's only 5 days away! We've been keeping up with letters, phonecalls and texts but it's been a poor substitute for being with her. My roommate has been moving out this weekend and his dad came down to help him move. He saw a picture of Liz and I and said "she's a pretty girl, but must have bad eyesight if she's getting married to you." I agree. Don't go to the eye doc before Saturday Lisette!

Long time no write...

It's about time that I posted something, even though I don't have time for much. I finally started API this week! It's nice to be doing something again and to be working towards the goal of getting winged (i.e. graduation from flight school and getting the golden wings on the uniform), and I'll finally get a flight suit and be able to wear pajamas to work in 3 short weeks. Right now it's mostly classroom work and some swimming/water survival classes, but I'll post some pics and videos when we get to some of the more interesting portions of the training.

That's all for now, time to get back to studying.

What a great vacation!

I spent the last few weeks in MD and VA, visiting family and my soon-to-be family. I had a great time throughout my vacation and was reminded again that I'm incredibly blessed with a great family and now with a new family. One of the highlights of my Christmas vacation was going up to my parents' with Lizzy. It was a good time of relaxing with my family, visiting with grandparents, and doing some shopping and wedding planning. I think my mom was happier to have Liz around than me :) After all, she had two other sons around but no daughter in the house. We went out for dessert with my brother Andrew one of the nights and the first two pictures are from around Naptown.
We spent one of the nights in town having dinner with my friends who have two daughters who will be in our wedding as junior bridesmaids. When I went away to the academy they had a picture of me in my uniform and would pray for me everyday! It was great to see their faces light up when we asked them to be in our wedding...it's their first wedding and they were extremely excited, as I guess all girls are to be in a wedding.

After spending Christmas morning with my family we drove down to VA to spend the rest of the Christmas day with her family. After Christmas Liz and I did some registering for our wedding, which took a little longer than I was anticipating...for the most part we were in agreement on what to register for, but I drew the line at a deviled-egg platter. Now that I've put that in the blog I can see us getting a lot of deviled-egg platters from people helping out Lizzy. For some reason I just object to having a platter around for deviled-eggs when you're probably only going to use it once a year at most. It was funny because every girl that we related that to agreed that a deviled-egg platter is a must, "well, what are you going to bring deviled-eggs to parties on? They'll slide all over the place on a normal plate" was the normal response. I guess it's a major faux pas to not bring eggs to a party. I grew up in a house with two brothers so I have a lot to learn about these things.


Liz bought some shirts and sweaters for me for Christmas, one of which looked somewhat similar to one owned by Clay. Luckily, we're guys and it's not a big deal to show up somewhere dressed like another guy. Jordan will have to get one too to fit in.

This past weekend I drove down to Augusta, Georgia, and spent the night with my cousin and her family. I had a great time playing with my second cousins Maddie (a two year old girl) and Ethan, who's 5 months old and mostly good at eating and sleeping. Sunday I spent most of the day driving to Pensacola. When I arrived it was 75 degrees and sunny and it felt good to be back in my own place despite having to leave my family and friends behind. The past few days have just been spent doing some organizing and cleaning around the apartment and doing some studying on the side. I'm looking forward to starting the next phase of my training in February, which is probably the most difficult part (mostly groundschool and the part of the training where they try to weed people out, so I'd appreciate your prayers!).


Well I was going to write something deep and profound about New Year's resolutions and accomplishing goals, but it's my birthday so I'm giving myself a hall-pass until later in the week when I'll (hopefully, not promising anything) get around to doing another blog post. Happy New Year!

It's about time that I got around to posting, but as I'm sure you already know, I've been busy getting engaged! It was extremely hard to keep the secret for the past few months with Liz asking about what I planned on doing during Thanksgiving with my parents, when I was leaving, etc etc...
Finally, after handling her questions for a month Thanksgiving week arrived and I flew out to Mansfield on Wednesday to meet Lizzygirl - We now interrupt the story to bring up this side note: I'm sometimes corrected on the pronunciation of her last name, which sounds French instead of Slavic and was made up by her grandfather, so I don't know why she's so particular about it :). Yet another reason to marry her, my name is pretty hard to mess up! Now that I think of it, her grandfather actually changed his last name because he didn't like the way people were pronouncing it...I guess it runs in the family - We now return you to your show -

Despite traveling on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving my flights were uneventful and I arrived in Mansfield right on time. That night Liz and her family were at her grandmother's house and gathered around the living room. I was hiding behind a curtain that led out to the porch and was listening to their conversation. Her uncle was supposed to say something about the Pittsburgh Steelers, and I was going to pop out and say something about how I can't stand the Steelers (Her dad and uncle insisted on having a codeword...I think we all secretly wish we could be spies). They started saying "Pittsburgh Steelers" and I decided to wait and see how many times they would say it before giving up. At one point her uncle just said "Pittsburgh Steelers Pittsburgh Steelers Pittsburgh Steelers." After that I decided it was probably time to make my entrance...I knew that the surprise had worked when Liz glanced up, did a double take, and asked me what I was doing there! I don't think she said anything after that for a good minute.
I won't go through all of the particulars of the proposal since Liz wrote a great narration already. I guess I can avoid THIS on Christmas!  I hope you enjoy that clip...it's the funniest commercial I've seen in years, possibly ever. Just click on "Who's in the doghouse" to watch the video.


This week I had Christmas caroling with OCF. Now, where I come from, we dress up in Christmasy clothes for caroling (I've never actually been caroling before, but dressing up in red/green seems appropriate and should be a rule, shouldn't it? At the very least a corny sweater with reindeer on it is appropriate!). In Florida, they haven't gotten the memo yet. As you can see in the picture on the right, everyone in the group is wearing "normal," bah humbug clothes.









In the Coast Guard, we do things differently, so I made a trip to the Goodwill and found some great clothes....very dapper if I do say so myself!

Here's the video of Lizzy being surprised.  I don't think it really sank in that I was there for a few minutes and you can hear her gasp when I pull the curtain aside.