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!