Well, it's been an interesting few weeks for me since finishing IFS. I had talked to my bosses and heard that my starting date for API would be in late January, so I hurried through my final IFS flights to get in line for API as soon as possible; however, that plan has backfired a little bit. During our weekly meeting on Monday I was told that my start date for API would be delayed until late February!
Two weeks ago I took advantage of all of the time off and made a trip to Tallahassee to see a Florida State Seminoles game. I'd never actually been to a big-time football game before so it was pretty fun, although the incessant "ooooohhhh-ooooh-OHHoohhhhh" tomahawk chant gets a little annoying (for those unfamiliar, it's the same as the Atlanta Braves chant that was so annoying in the World Series of the early 90's). I went with one of my friends from the academy who drove up from Miami and we were able to stay with his brother, who also got us tickets.
The game started with Clemson jumping out to a 10-0 advantage before the Seminoles started playing some great defense and began their comeback with a defensive touchdown. This sparked yet another "ooooohhhh-ooooh-OHHoohhhhh" chant.
We happened to have seats right near the away-team seating area, which became interesting when Clemson started losing and our fans started heckling, which the Clemson fans didn't take very well. This went on for about a half hour, while all of the Seminoles fans in the area started booing the Clemson fans and heckling even more. This culminated at the end of the game with the Seminoles fans bringing out their car keys and shaking them while yelling "warm up the bus, warm up the bus." The one of the guys sitting in front of me and Bryan started talking to us in the first quarter and didn't let up the whole game. He knew everything about the Seminoles for the past 20 years. I didn't have the heart to tell the guy that I had to borrow the shirt I was wearing and that I didn't even know the name of our starting QB, much less famous plays from 15 years ago. I mostly nodded and agreed with him that the Seminoles had a magnificent history. They take football seriously down here!




Kevin (Bryan's brother who goes to Florida State) said that their band had 500 people in it, but they were "only dressing 300 for the game today." We had 850 students total at the academy...








Today I woke up to find it was a clear, sunny day (despite predictions of showers and thunderstorms), so I decided on the spur of the moment to go to the Blue Angels homecoming airshow over at NAS Pensacola.
They had numerous acts throughout the day, all of which were amazing to watch...as a pilot myself (haha) I know how difficult those maneuvers are (you can start laughing now). Above are a P-51 Mustang (WWII era plane and probably my favorite plane ever), F-16 Falcon, and an F-15 Eagle. The announcer mentioned that the F-15 has 100,000 horsepower, which is slightly more than the 150 I had in the Piper Warrior.One of the earlier acts in the day. During this show I was hanging out in the shade of a KC-10 refueling plane with an older couple. A guy drove up in a golf cart and asked us if we'd like to see the show from one of the corporate chalets, we of course accepted and he gave us passes to the Home Depot tent, which was right next to the field. It was great to be able to hang out in the shade and enjoy the free food and drinks they provided. It was a huge blessing for me especially since my skin isn't made for the Florida sun.
One of the guys was nice enough to take this picture, but he must've been standing a little crooked...I guess I should be happy that he didn't cut off my head in the picture!
The Opposing Solos are pretty amazing. Here are some of the pics I was able to get....unfortunately I don't have a professional camera so it's hard to take pictures of planes that have 1000 mph of closure. Still, I was pleasantly surprised at how well some of them came out!I had to include the clip of the C-130 "Fat Albert" taking off. After all, it's the plane that I want to fly! I don't know if you'll be able to see it in the small video window, but look at how early his gear is up...he's flying a C-130 a few feet off the runway with his gear up!