Congrats Sim, that's great news! Keep up the good work

WTG Sim!

Great Job Sim!!!

We knew you could do it Sim. Congrats. Now just nail everything else.

Great job! Glad to hear you're back in the saddle!

Great!

Today I had two rides. First advanced acro. Second ride was a night sortie. Tomorrow, area solo!

No time to properly write about experience gained... I'll talk about it over the weekend.

Thats quite understandable, achieve your dream, so I can live vicarously through you!

Night Flying

It's amazing! Air was so smooth. Visibility superb of lights and night sky. I could easily spot lights of other aircraft at 50 miles plus. Landing though is a bit challenging when runway is lit only though landing / taxi lights of my AC. Using VASI is very helpful. Also, using max oxygen to increase night vision is neat


Area Solo

I made T-6 cry! At least that's what I think it sounds like when I max-performed aircraft thought out aerobatics. Airframe and engine while under stress make unique sound...
Personal achievement so far - 6Gs and speed of ~280 knots.

I did all of maneuvers many times over.. but Cuban-8 and Immelman are most challenging right now. When rolling out from Immelman stick and rudder go opposite of each other. It's a bit unnatural.

Anyhow, area solo increased my confidence many times over. Feels good to fly without yapping IP.

Guess what airplane this is?


Right now I'm two rides away from Final Contact stage of training. At the same time, we are finishing last academics (navigation) and starting formation and instruments. Plus I have 9 more instrument sims to go. Basically it means my plate is full.

Last week I finished second area solo. I took it easy and wasn't so rough with an airplane. Unless G-meter lied, I pulled only 5.5Gs. I tried to reach 300 knots in a light dive but that wasn't to be. If I did a stuka dive, I would have made it. But with such excessive speed and attitude, remaining within MOA would be hard. I reached 270-80 (mach ~.47) and had to pull out around a bit less than 9K. Also weather started to get into MOA. I was working in low MOA (8-14K) and light layer started to cover under my MOA at 7K. As a solo, we can't fly though weather so my solo ride had to be cut short as I got recalled. I only logged .9 hours. That adds up to 2.6 solo time in area and pattern.