3 July - 8 July 2011

Sunday, 3 July 2011

            II Timothy 1

            Why would Paul have reason to be ashamed? He wouldn’t say, “Yet I am not ashamed,” unless he had a good reason. It’s because he’s suffering, he’s in chains, he lost his high position. Those he used to work with scoffed at him. He used to put people in prison. Now, he’s in prison. So what reason does Paul have to not be ashamed?

            Assurance keeps Paul from shame. But I’m confused about what he’s entrusted Christ to guard “for that day.” Life? Eternal life? Death? And he says Timothy has also been entrusted to guard a deposit. The gospel? Community? Communion crackers? Money?

            Whatever it is we are not alone. I have the Holy Spirit’s help. Fortunately, He knows. Lord, show me what it is.

Wednesday, 6 July 2011

            Coming here by myself, living alone, I knew there’d be ample amounts of temptation. I thought, though, that desperation would keep me from giving in and instead draw me to Christ. Now, it’s come again to a daily struggle. I want this to be a place of peace.

            II Timothy 2:1-7

            How can I expect a right mindset if I’m not striving for it? It won’t just happen. A strong Christian only becomes so through hardship, through the struggles. God gave Timothy the Word of God and the encouragement of other Believers like Paul to help him grow strong in Christ. Those things were put in Timothy’s life on purpose for him to use purposefully.

            Paul illustrates this with an athlete. The athlete won’t “receive the victor’s crown unless he competes according to the rules.” He also says that a farmer will receive his share of crops if he works hard for it. I can’t expect to arrive in a place sold out to Jesus on accident. If I want to be there I must set a course for there and study and pray to know how to get there. No one has ever stumbled upon sanctification. We are sanctified through the work of the Holy Spirit when we listen and obey.

Friday, 8 July 2011

            I’m thinking about going out and buying a computer game to alleviate the boredom. I won’t, though, because laziness always accompanies boredom. Splinter Cell is in one of the boxes I put in storage. Not sure which one. Might bring that up here. Kind of glad I don’t have internet right now. I’d just be wasting time on facebook and reddit. Wouldn’t mind some TV though.

And so it begins

This was just two days after I arrived in Columbus, MS for pilot training. I spent a month doing nothing before they sent me to Pueblo, CO for Initial Flight Screening. Some of this might be a repeat from posts early on in this blog. If so, then twice as nice.

29 June 2011

It’s times like these when real growth happens. When I feel alone and desperate and reach out for the one thing I know is certain, God’s Word. He is solid. He does not falter. He does not fail.

            Hold me close, Lord. Let me know I am in Your presence. This world, my job doesn’t matter. It’s You, Lord. Have pre-eminence in my life. Have Your way with me. Shine your favor on your child. Bring light into my life. Let me know for sure I’m not alone.

Today was good but didn’t go as planned. I went to the transition office at 8am to get an early start but no one was in there. I talked with two other Lt’s who were also waiting. Like an idiot I didn’t get their names.

            The office didn’t open until 10am so things started later than hoped for originally. I got a couple items checked off at the OG building then went with another Lt, John (got his name this time) over to MPF. Filled out some paperwork and was then told I would be called when I needed to come back. Didn’t get the call until the end of the day so I’ll need to return tomorrow.

            Afterwards I went to Housing and saw Mayer (I knew he was working there). So excellent to see a friendly familiar face even though I’ve been here less than two days. Lots of nerves I guess.

            Tomorrow I can move into a dorm. It’s actually smaller than this hotel room but has more amenities. And the bathroom light is inside the bathroom. I don’t understand hotels’ propensities (and my old apartment) to put the light switch for the bathroom outside the door. Also, we’re being given a four day weekend for the 4^th so I’ll get to go to the lake! Sweaty but fun.

            The gym on base sucks. It’s probably great for most people but unconventional for a crossfit workout. No free weights anywhere, just machines. So I did a workout with the trees and the side of a building today. Still got me tired.

            Had a heavy snack before I drove off base to look at the downtown area and the Tombigbee river. The downtown area is similar to Opelika’s but a little more compact. Lot’s of churches. I thought the city would be on or at least closer to the river but they’re a good distance apart. The river’s just the river; nothing on it. It’s like the founders tried to build the city on the river but missed.

Stuff from Before

The next few posts are from my time in Columbus, MS until now that I wrote in a journal. A lot of them are just some reflections on what I was reading in the Word but a lot of it covers pilot training. This is for Chloe and my mom, who check this periodically and will, hopefully, be surprised to find multiple posts. Also because Chloe convinced me it's more fun to have this stuff somewhere online than stored in a book in a closet.

Lord bless 'em, they can't cook

                  I walked into an antique store downtown in Cheyenne looking for some furniture: coffee table, end table, some kind of chair. As I walked past the register I greeted the lady who was running the store. She returned my greeting, paused for a few seconds, then got up and said, "Well, you're new here and from the South. How long have you been here?" Taken aback by her knowledge of my life I told her I had, more or less, just arrived (I never asked her how she knew I was new and from the South and it still puzzles me) and introduced myself to her. Linda (that's her name) is from New Orleans and moved here almost 30 years ago. I asked her why she moved up here. "Well the Lord just brought me here - probably brought me here to meet you! Now, let me tell you, the people up here are fantastic, wonderful, nice people but, Lord bless 'em, they can't cook! If you wan't anything worth eating you'll have to drive down to Fort Collins or cook it yourself."
                And here I am, Cheyenne: a sweet tea lovin, Auburn football havin, still wishin I was in Arkansas livin closer to that girl, Southern boy. The reality of being way up here (over 6000' above sea level) still has not sunk in. I've been too busy in-processing to my new job at the 30th Airlift Squadron, getting settled into the house I'm renting and spending weekends away in Denver or the mountains. When I talk to people back home I'm still referring to the South as "here," even though Dixie is so far, far away.
                I can already tell I'm going to enjoy working with the guys at the 30th. Everyone seems at ease and even though the deployments are busy there is still a relaxed feeling around the squadron. All the single officers I've gotten to know well are deploying tomorrow morning. Kind of a bummer. But there are plenty of cool married folk to go around. It's hard to say much more about work than that because I haven't gotten settled there yet. I know I will be working with the Stan/Eval guys (and I only say that for people who know what that abbreviation is (if you don't know then explaining would only leave you more confused)). It's one of the better shops to work in (so I hear) and the other guys in it are all very experienced pilots that will hopefully grace me with some knowledge.
                Like I said, weekends have been busy, but not in Cheyenne. The first weekend I was here I spent in Leadville, CO, crewing for a friend who was running the Leadville 100 Trail Race. It was brutal. Starting at 4am, going all day, all night and finishing at 6:30am the following morning. Sleep called out at every corner, begging you for just a little nap. The terrain was rugged at best, often jaw rattling. Exhaustion teamed with the altitude to make any physical activity arduous.It was also hard for the runners. But, seriously, the course was a lot more difficult and demanding than we thought but the landscape was gorgeous.

Runners ran down this hill to the final checkpoint before heading over a 12,000 foot peak. Once on the other side they turned around and did it again.

This was the last aid station we had access to as crew members. About 2:30am Sunday, and about a half-marathon left.

               The next weekend I asked my cousin, Aaron, who lives in Denver, what he and his wife, Minette, were up to. He said, "we're gonna hike a 14er. Interested?" Having absolutely no idea what that involved I said yes (and learned, about 24 hours after I committed, that a little research might have saved me regret). We camped out at the base of the mountain Friday night, got up early the next morning and started the "hike" around 7pm. The base was around 9500 ft. I took maybe 15 steps and realized I was already exhausted. The next 4000 ft of my life was, put bluntly, hellish. It could be seen as a scientific endeavor, realizing the effects oxygen (and the lack of it) has on ones' body. Basically, I didn't have as much oxygen as I was accustomed too and my body tried to stage a revolution over my mind in order to turn me around and just make it stop. Unfortunately, you can always take one more step, or shuffle, as it may be. The first 2000 ft were difficult but manageable. And this made it worth it:

 However, the last 2000 ft was just a shuffle, knowing that if I stopped, I would more than likely stop for good and turn around. I think I blacked out  because I don't remember much except switching back a lot and legs burning and quads cramping and wondering what I would do if I ever made it back down. Somehow, though, the shuffle got me to the top:

Not a great perspective, I know, but I was sitting down (possibly in a very reclined position

The rest of our group was on the top about 45 minutes before I got there so they were ready to head back down. Someone asked if I wanted my picture taken. I said no for a few reasons: I didn't want to stand up, it was really cold and windy, I just wanted to eat my sandwich, I was incredibly tired and, mostly, I didn't want to memorialize or remember that moment in any way. To our (my cousins' and my) surprise the group decided to take the alternate route back down rather then head back the way we came. We quickly learned that "alternate" route means much, much more unbearable and unpleasant and devilish route.

                The first 1500 ft down was loose gravel and rocks just big enough to twist your ankle, all at a slope so steep that tilting your head forward slightly would cause you to get down the mountain very, very fast and probably for the last time ever. We were following a ridge line (note to self: never do that) down that was formed by Satan the Deceiver. We would get to a flatish dirt spot and think, "whew, finally done with these awful rocks and steep descents," only to walk to the ledge and see you were horribly, horribly mistaken. On the way up all I could think about was that, maybe, one day, I'd get to go down hill. Once headed downhill, though, I started praying to go uphill again. But then we would go uphill for a bit and I would immediately regret that prayer. This was after we actually got done with the rocky descent, looking back:

Don't mistake the joyous expression on my face. I was not happy about what we had just accomplished

Finally below the treeline.

So fast forward a few more hours and we finally made it back to the car. And I was out of oil. I don't want to talk about it. Overall I have a greater appreciation for Sam and Frodo and what they accomplished on their way to Mordor.

All in all I've been having fun up here but still missing home, people and sweet tea (also Sweet Tea). I'm flying down to Arkansas this weekend on my way to Pensacola, FL for water survival next week. Looking forward to being around my Little Rock people again and to be within hugging distance of this one:

And I'll leave you with a picture of this truck we saw on the drive up to Wyoming:

On the Spanish Inquisition and Big Red Trucks

               Understatement: I've been working a lot. True Statement: if I work more than three days a week it's a horrible week. And usually I'm not at work more than six hours. That's just in the Legacy C-130 school house, though. The guys in the J (newer) C-130 school house seem like hardworking people compared to us. They get excited when they hit the flight line, not because they get to fly, but because it means they have 5 day work weeks opposed to their regular six days a week. And on our side I was supposed to be in class today for 7.5 hours. Instead, 3.5 hours after class started I was already home and eating lunch.
                With that said, it feels like I have not been doing anything work related at all, but we have accomplished some actual work in the last month. We just finished a round of simulators covering flight with Night Vision Goggles (NVGs, of course). Aside from looking like a goob:

they are fascinating to fly with. It feels a lot cooler than it looks. Before the sim starts we pick up a "night kit" along with our NVGs (regrettably we are not issued our own pair) that contains a bunch of glow sticks and tape to cover incompatible lights in the cockpit. Yes, military grade glow sticks. I haven't found it necessary yet to use a glow stick but crack one open every time because I can and usually pocket one or two also just because I can (gotta take what you can get in this sequester environment).
                  The most recent sims have mostly been opportunities for the instructors to play pilot while we sit in the copilot's seat and raise and lower the gear and flaps (press a couple of buttons). They have years experience flying the 130 and it shows. Sometimes they get so drawn into the sim they forget they're supposed to be teaching and we end up watching aimlessly and trying awkwardly to somehow contribute. It's like "helping" your dad fix the car when your 5 years old.

Dad: "hand me that screwdriver."
Me: "here."
Dad: "that's a hammer."

But actually I'm getting really good at pressing the buttons and, as night simulators have proven, can usually find those buttons in the dark (with the assistance of a glow stick).
                   Night sims are over now, sadly, and we've moved on to flying formation in the weather, i.e. you can't see the other planes you are flying with. We do this by utilizing a piece of equipment called SKE that more or less uses radar to track the other planes in your formation. SKE is short for Incredibly Convoluted Process and is technologically fascinating but is more tedious and less fun in real life.

               The main topic of conversation around work lately has been whether or not any of us will have C-130 flying jobs in the near future. The Legacy C-130 Active Duty units are all being phased out and, with them, so are many of the Legacy C-130 pilots. Obviously this has an impact on the training classes. Many of the guys in our class received emails towards the beginning of our time here saying that they might be pulled from the middle or end of training and reassigned to a different job. One of our fellows was supposed to be stationed at Pope AFB in North Carolina but he got a call last week saying he won't be going there any longer. They didn't tell him where he would be going.
                Another fellow we know completely finished C-130 training then received a dream sheet (a wish list of potential jobs) from his commander, which means he definitely will not be flying the C-130. And that was AFTER he had already become a brand new, fully qualified C-130 pilot. There have been other stories of guys being pulled from the middle of a simulator into their commander's office and told they aren't going to be happy with what is about to be said. It feels somewhat like the Spanish Inquisition of C-130H pilots. We are all afraid someone's going to come banging on our door in the middle of the night and drag us out into the public square and force us to fly RPAs (remotely piloted aircraft). RPAs are the bane of every pilot and pilotdom.
                 Telling a qualified pilot he's going to be "flying" an RPA is like clipping a pilot's wings. It's like turning a stallion into a gelding, It's taking away a cowboy's horse, gun and hat, replacing them with a laptop, a tie and a nice pair of slacks and telling him, "Good news! We've implanted microchips in all our cows' brains. Now you can herd them with this laptop from the inside of this windowless cubicle. Don't worry, you can still wear your boots. Just make sure to take off the spurs."  

               On a fun note, one of my friends, Brandon, is a firefighter and let a couple of us play on the firetruck:

Deploying the ladder anchors. Who doesn't love a firetruck?

From atop the 100' ladder. 

Room for three in the bucket plus a cooler. Would've stayed up there longer but I didn't have any sunscreen.

360* of ROTATION!!

Grey Hairs and More Hiking

I don’t often drink coffee so when I do (as I just did) I get incredibly jittery and cannot type fast enough. Unfortunately that means a lot of backspacing because my fingers can’t keep up with the jitter demand. Uncorrected it looks like this: and thishtsei ywhwyehth I diecided to tkekerp tbackaosohfodndniong.

I came to Little Rock with no expectations but lots of excitement. I couldn't nail down why exactly I was excited to get here and, now that I am here, I still can’t express why I love it so much. A great deal of it was the first impression - granted, coming from Columbus, the standard for a “fun” city (considering only what the city has to offer (not including the people)) was pretty low - which went something like, “hey! There’s stuff to do here!” Little Rock offers an abundance of running trails and runners to go with it. On even a marginal weather day it would be unusual to see anything less than a horde of people on the trails running, walking, biking or, occasionally, sleeping (but usually that occurs slightly off the trails beneath an underpass close to sunset or just after dawn).

My parents came to visit and we "hiked" (mostly climbed) Pinnacle Mountain.
Mama didn't bring her shirt.

When I moved here I did not consider myself a “runner.” After hitting the trails a few times, though, and reading the book Born to Run, by Christopher McDougal, I caught the fever. Now, on a weekday I go for 6ish miles a pop and on a Saturday I’ll run 13-15 miles - that’s roughly 10 times as many miles as used to run in one go (as in the mile and a half during the yearly Physical Fitness Test) and approximately 13-15 times more than I ever wanted to run. I’m surprising myself. After reading Born to Run my goal was to simply enjoy running. I think it’s working.

Amidst the funtivities I still manage to fit some C-130 training in. Our class is nearing Phase 1 completion and our schedule has started slowing down. Training here has been immensely more enjoyable than at SUPT. There are no weekly EPQs or humiliating shotgun questions. I am also more motivated to know the aircraft systems and performance on an intimate level since this is the plane I will be flying for the foreseeable future (unless it gets sequestered, too). Unlike SUPT, we are encouraged to work as a crew and not trained to do everything solo. Back in Columbus if I as the pilot made a mistake and the other student sitting co-pilot caught the mistake and tried to fix it we were both chastised. I for making a mistake and the co-pilot for not letting me make the mistake. Here they say a crew save is a good save. It takes away a load of stress and encourages the team environment, which I thrive on.

These are the C-130 simulators we use.

This is what it looks like from the inside

And this is what we pretend we look like

The instructors here are mostly all salty, salty Vietnam veterans who have been flying the C-130 for over 20 years and instructing on the simulators for another 15-20 years - obviously a wealth of experience and knowledge. 

He's probably laughing at a dirty joke

After one simulator profile my flying partner, Ross, and I were corrected by the instructor pilot, instructor engineer and instructor navigator for descending in the weather during part of the mission. The details are not important but I found myself wanting to quibble then it hit me that all of these guys had grey hair. Stress might cause grey hair but you never get old by making fatal mistakes and dying young. When three grey haired, salty Vietnam vets tell you what you did was stupid and dangerous it pays to listen (their opinions on how to best work an iPhone or iPad, though, can usually be disregarded).

One of the few drawbacks to having an experienced instructor is that sometimes they can talk for, like, ever about the C-130 and take up the whole 3 hours slotted for a mission prebrief. You can often gauge how long a prebrief will take by the number of “war stories” told. Want to know about how to deal with an engine fire or throttle control cable failure? There’s a story for that. Have a question on the alternate gear-extension method? There are a few stories for that. Want to know how stupid and useless the Temperature Datum Control System is? Better believe there is a story AND a long soapbox dialogue on that. Want to hear how to solve the debt crisis and save the Air Force $300 million a year on C-130 training? There is a whole story and even a slideshow with videos for that. Oftentimes a student will bring up one of those political rabbit trails on purpose with the full knowledge it will take the next 2 hours to fully discuss because, frankly, my ability to learn ended with my patience about 10 minutes into the brief.

Anything to do with politics is always a winner but every instructor has a hot button they love to talk about: remodeling a yard, classic cars, motorcycles, guns, basketball, grandkids, college football, what a pain his son-in-law’s dog is. If you know you will have the same instructor for more than one simulator mission the goal is to find his hot button the first go. Keep prodding until you find it then never let it go. When he says, “Well, that’s enough about that,” counter with, “what other pieces of your furniture has his dog destroyed?” This saves mileage on the brain cells down the road and will help preserve your patience which, trust me, will NOT last for a whole three hour lecture on how the prop feathers (THOUGHT BUBBLE: “Ok. He’s pausing. Nod your head and say something like, ‘that makes sense.’”). Or you could spend an hour showing them the wonders of their iPhone.

A City with a View

             As I saw Columbus Air Force Base disappear in my rear-view mirror all I could think of was which type of hand towel holder I would put in my new bathroom. Not that I consider Columbus a zit on the history book of my life. I was fortunate enough to meet amazing people and form incredible relationships in just a year and a half that will have a lasting and positive impact on the rest of my life. I cannot express how thankful I am for those friendships and I look forward to fostering them as time goes on. It's just that Columbus is a zit. Flat and swampy. I love hiking, and I knew of trails in Columbus. But the visuals of tree, swamp, tree, tree, swamp and tree can discourage even the heartiest of outdoors-men. We often drove 45 minutes to Starkville to have fun. Stark-ville.

(STARK:
a : barren, desolate

b (1) : having few or no ornaments : bare <a stark white room> (2) : harsh, blunt <the stark realities of death>)

Whoever named the town was brutally honest. 

           Little Rock is a breath of fresh air. There's more than one main road and they have multiple Targets and Starbucks - neither of which do I adore by any means (Target is too red and I only drink coffee on the occasional weekend), but they are signs of even greater things. My apartment sits next to the Arkansas River and on a road that's part of the River Trail that makes a 15 mile loop. The trail stays next to the river throughout the loop, but on the north side there are some single track dirt trails that run along the bluffs that overlook the river and downtown Little Rock. I found the trails on accident when I went running earlier in the week. They make running enjoyable:

                 Of course being in Little Rock means I've started doing something again. Classes for the C-130H program began last Tuesday. The first test is this Tuesday. They waste no time in turning on the firehose of information. Which means we got these,

along with CDs of extra information and study guides. But we also got some new fun stuff like a heavy duty backpack, flashlight and safety belt (for being safe).

                 Since we all came from SUPT (Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training) this schoolhouse can be considered a graduate program. The benefit is that you are no longer treated as a newb student pilot (sadly it feels like I brain dumped everything from SUPT so that might still be a regretfully accurate title). There's no hand-holding through the program so you don't get babied as much. Unfortunately that means there is no hand-holding in the program so you don't get babied as much. Through SUPT we were told what we needed to know, how to study to know it and given constant tests and quizzes and embarrassingly public shotgun questions to ensure we were learning. It entails zero fun and little free time. Here they only tell us what we are responsible for knowing and the learning is left completely up to us. It's freeing but a little intimidating at the same time.

                   The first day the instructor jumped right into painfully detailed information about the engine and propellers. Things like Temperature Datum Control Valves, an assortment of fly-weights, pistons, springs, back-up systems, back-up system back-ups and Turbine Inlet Temperature (which, given the Air Force's proclivity for acronyms, offers an endless supply of jokes and cautious laughter (it is a PC Air Force after all (but all of our instructors are crusty old retired dudes so they don't care))). 

                Overall, it seems a little more laid back than SUPT but with an extra dose of responsibility. There's no formal release here so, once academics are over, there won't be any mandatory 12 hour days. Not to say there won't be long days. To save money (and probably lives) most of our training is accomplished in simulators. We become fully qualified C-130 pilots before we ever touch the airplane. There are only 4-5 simulator machines, though, and with multiple classes vying for those sims all the time that means they run 24 hours a day. Most sims require a 3 hour pre-brief followed by a 3 hour sim and topped with a 1 hour debrief. That means your show time for a sim could be 9 pm and you wouldn't be headed home until 4 in the morning. It's dastardly but necessary.

                 If you're reading this then pray for dedication to things that matter. Obviously I am here to learn how to fly the 130 and I want to do that well - better than I did at UPT. But I'm only here 6 months and it would be too easy to shove aside things that matter always, regardless of where you are, in the name of, "I've only got six months to learn this stuff so I can sacrifice anything else for that long." Mostly that's relationships, whether with people or with the Lord. "Whoever is faithful in very little is also faithful in much." This is mostly related within the context of talents and material possessions but I think it can also relate to how we use our time. If we are dedicated to fostering friendships when we are busy then how much more will we be able to foster those same relationships and others when we have more time? Not sure how to end this poetically so I'll just stop.