Well I've been busy flying since my last post. Right now I'm on pace to finish this phase of the training ahead of schedule and get in the waiting line for API (the navy groundschool portion of training). I talked to the people in the office and it looks like I won't start that until late January/early February, which is actually a great schedule since it'll allow me to enjoy Christmas/New Year's back in VA and MD! On Sunday night I had my first night flight, and unfortunately I don't have any pictures since they just won't turn out at night and using a flash to take a picture in the cockpit is out of the question since we'd lose our night vision. I took the plane out on my own and flew around for a bit to kill some time before picking up my instructor at the terminal for the night portion of the flight. Before the sunset we flew to a grass airfield and landed there a few times. It was a little unnerving to be landing in a grass airfield...the field was much shorter and there was a picket fence around it to keep cows or other animals off the field; however, it was a great experience to have since it's unlikely that I'll get to land in a grass field with a Navy or Coast Guard aircraft (at least not on purpose!). We took off as the sun was setting and flew around as it got dark and the lights came on around the city of Pensacola. During flights like that I can't believe I get paid to do this! We did some touch-and-goes at Pensacola regional airport inbetween the jets flying out of there and then flew back to Milton to land for the night. Milton airport is actually unlit at night, and you turn on the runway lights by clicking the microphone 7 times on the airport frequency, and then adjust the brightness by clicking a certain number of times for different brightness.
Today I did my first "Cross-country" flight, which was actually just to Mobile airport, about a hundred miles away. Since my instructor is out of town I flew with Steve instead. After landing in Mobile we took a little break and sampled the cookies they had in the reception area there...I felt like a glass of milk and a nap, but instead we hopped back into the plane and flew back to Milton. Along the way we basically just talked about how awesome flying is (just kidding, he was mainly teaching me things). We also flew over the Coast Guard base in Mobile and checked it out while we were there.

On Monday I went and took advantage of early voting in Florida. I think it's a little bit ironic that Florida has early voting since it's the land of the infamous butterfly ballots and hanging chads. You would think that they would ensure that their elections were running smoothly and were constitutional, but anyone who has read the constitution knows that early voting shouldn't even be allowed: "The Congress may determine the Time of choosing the Electors, and the Day on which they shall give their Votes; which Day shall be the same throughout the United States."
Of course, it doesn't seem like the Constitution means that much anymore...apparently it's just an inconvenient document that prevents government from "doing more for" the people (or more to the people). Anyway, the line for early voting was wrapped around the building and it took about an hour or so to vote. There were people holding signs for various local candidates and asking me if I'd heard of their candidate. I told a few of them that I'd researched their candidate and there was no way I would ever vote for them. Before voting I dropped by the local Escambia County Republican Party office to get some information on local elections since I didn't have much background knowledge to base my vote on. I also volunteered to drive people to the polls on Election day if they needed it. They didn't have anyone at the time that needed a ride but I'm on call. So, with that in mind I went to the Escambia County Democratic Party HQ and signed up to drive their people to the polls. I figure I can drop them off in the woods somewhere and disenfranchise their vote (maybe it'll cancel out a few dead people or Acorn Mickey Mouses who will be voting democrat this year). Just kidding of course, but I was seriously tempted.




I've been reading through Isaiah lately and was encouraged about the elections through my reading. There are so many occasions listed, both in that book and many others, where God used rulers, both good and bad, to bring the people's hearts back to Him. Not only that, but it's good to be reminded that He is in control, that He is worthy of our trust, and that when our trust is in our God then we're placing our faith on a rock and not the shifting sand that is so evident in our culture. "You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock (Isaiah 26:3-4)." If our only source of strength and shelter was in our government than we would have good reason to worry, and it's still important to pray for our nation and its leaders; however, it's good that this election campaign has reminded many of us that our sense of security has been misplaced. I'm hopeful that even if this election turns out poorly for our country that God will use it to bring us back to Him.