Good-bye T-6 Texan....Hello T-1 Jayhawk

We had Track Select this week, which is when we celebrate being done with the T-6 and gear up for the next step in pilot training. For Jason, it is the T-1. The T-1 looks a lot like a leer jet, or small private jet. He's very excited to get started on this plane. Academics have begun for the guys flying the T-1 (no rest for the weary) and sims will soon follow. Not 100% sure when they hit the flight line, but it will be here before we know it. A typical sortie for the T-1 is to leave in the morning for a long "out and back" and return at the end of the day. Who knows, perhaps Jason will fly to Kansas some day soon....




The T-6:
Jason will definitely miss this plane and some of the maneuvers they got to do in it. He said he'll really miss getting to pull G's and formation flying.




The T-1:
This plane always flies with a "crew". There will typically be two student pilots and one Instructor Pilot every time one of these takes off. There are three seats inside the aircraft, a coffee pot, and even a toilet!





Here's Jason receiving his Solo Certificate from his T-6 Flight Commander; Capt. McClendon

The Solo Certificate:





The T-38:
We will have four guys from our class training in the T-38. Pilots who train in this aircraft go on to fly fighters or bombers. They will spend the next 6 months training in the T-38 and find out toward the end of their training which career fighter or bomber they'll fly.





Some T-6 airplanes flying formation:







Our Pilot on the wing of a T-6:





Our future pilot on a bus ride to the RSU (Runway Supervisory Unit):



Look who they let in the T-6 Sim! They allowed us 30 minutes to fly the T-6 simulator. It was so much harder than I thought it would be. I'm happy to say that I never crashed and I had a very respectable landing, but there were some questionable maneuvers. The instructor even told Jason that I over-G'd (pulled too many G's) and should've crashed, but for some reason didn't.






Our future pilot:
Here's the little man in his flight suit. He had Daddy's patches on at Track Select so he looked like a Mini-Me. He had quite a long week with late evenings, skipped naps, and a babysitter here and there. By the time Track Select finally rolled around, his little system was warn out. He did great and crashed when we got home. He was finally acting like normal by Friday.





My pilots: