Saturday, June 27, 2009

Phase II here I come

Phase I is officially history! On Thursday we took our last test of Phase I and now we will be transitioning into phase II. Phase I was primarily academics. It was a lot different than I expected. I thought that our days were going to be filled with classes and lectures and such. We pretty much have been teaching ourselves for the last 6 weeks. Every week we start a new topic and usually on the Friday of that week we have a test. Each topic has a gigantic book that corresponds to computer based training lessons. We are responsible for going to the computer lab and finishing the lessons. A typical day goes something like this: Wake up, eat, go to the computer lab, log on, study lessons, 4 hours later eat, go back to the computer lab, study for a couple more hours, then we might have an hour or two lesson by an actual real live instructor to review the things that we learned in the computer lab, then I go home, eat, and start studying again. Most of the nights we meet up with some friends and study in little groups. The last couple of weeks we have been going to the simulators to practice the things we learn about in the computer lab. The sims are actually pretty impressive. The cockpit is exactly the same as the real deal and enclosed in a gigantic circular shaped pod. The cockpit is surrounded by a circular screen that goes almost all the way around and almost all the way overhead. We practice departures, arrivals, area maneuvers, and emergency procedures in them. It is so realistic that I almost got a little queasy while practicing spin recoveries the other day. I hit the flight line on Tuesday. I can't wait. Gotta go!