Katana on a stick! What up!?
Well IFS is over and I’m finally home. It’s funny, IFS gets such a bad rap about being so horrible and that people hate it there and all you hear about is that it has no windows in the rooms, which is true. However, I LOVED that place. And secretly, I was really really sad to leave. Now some of you out there are shaking your head at me and asking why. Well, let me tell you. It’s like any place the Air Force sends you; it’s not where you’re at, but who you’re with. The people ALWAYS make the place! I was with probably some of the most top notch people out there, being taught by some of the most top notch instructors, and surrounded by even more top notch people. You get that many awesome people in one place and add in the coolest thing in the world (flying), there is NO WAY you can have a bad time.
Overall IFS turned out really well for me. I soloed last Tuesday the 11th at Fort Carson Army Airfield aka Butts. It was awesome and for all those c/o 2011 nerds out there my call sign was Tiger 11 Solo! It took everything inside me not to say Olds! after every radio call I made! (For all of you out there that don’t get the joke, Gen Robin Olds was the exemplar for the Academy class of 2011, so if ever we heard the number 11 we would immediately respond to it by saying Olds! In memory of Gen Olds). Here’s some pictures of that awesome day.
Solo in the Mighty Katana!
My awesome IP Mr. Coburn and I after my solo
The next day was my pre-check where I flew with an awesome man named Col (ret) Lee Hall whom was a viper pilot around the same time my dad was and though Col Hall and my dad never crossed paths, they do have a good amount of mutual friends from the Viper community. Thursday was my check ride. It went really well and was a great way to start out the first of many active duty check rides.
Another cool occurrence that happened while at Doss was the fantastic four was once again reunited! For all of you not familiar with the fantastic four, Kyle, John Travis and I all started high school together, split up and then reunited at USAFA and then now were all in pilot training (Kyle, John and I are at Vance, while Travis is at Sheppard). So we once again are reunited at the beginning of our flying careers, so here’s the documented proof of it!
I spent Friday out processing from Doss and down in my old stomping grounds at USAFA doing what I do best… meetings! I met with my old boss, the Permanent Professor of the Center for Character and Leadership Development, Col Sanders (yes go ahead and laugh if you haven’t already at the name) and we talked about what the CCLD was up to and also about a fellows program that I’m helping develop for the Center. We also discussed the possibility of me doing some research about the realm of transformational leadership in the active duty flying world since it’s one more initially based on personal leadership than that of leading others. (If you have thoughts on this I would love to hear them).
Saturday was the day of driving back to good ol’ Oklahoma, it was three girls in two cars and if I were you I would’ve pulled off the road if I saw us coming bc we weren’t driving fast, we were flying low! It was a sure a sight to see. I promise mom we were safe though… most of the time ;) It’s really nice to be home with the boys. Tazer has grown a bunch and I’m probably going to be posting a blog really soon about him and probably another about our house since I haven’t actually posted pictures yet and my Mom keeps bugging me about that. J Until then, here are some awesome end of IFS shots for you with me and my brother-equivalent Sky! Seeya!
From Gliders to Katanas! 
Ya we’re nerds J
No comments:
Post a Comment