What happened : After coming back from the field trips, we have been busy, as always. We finished all the checkrides, we took the comprehensive written exams, and half the class got the oral comp exams. We finished most of the curriculum flights, at the exception of the gliders and VISTA. VISTA is a hgly modified F-16 which can simulate almost any aircraft you could imagine. The great thing with VISTA is that everybody get to fly in the front cockpit, including FTEs. Waow, the view is great, so much better than from the backseat !!! We also had to work on some reports, including the capstone report and the TMP report. Two of the groups had their "murder board", a 4h long meeting to review the report before it get published. We also had great qual-eval : Extra 300, Zepplin and a trip to the USS Reagan !
The trip to the carrier was really awesome ! we got to fly on the COD (a twin prop aircraft) to a from the carrier, which mean that we got to experience a "trap" (landing) and a "cat" (take-off) !!!! We also got to see landings from the bridge and from the LSO platefrom. Nothing better than standing 15 feet from where an F-18 is going to catch one of the cable and slow down from 140 to 0 knots in about 2 seconds !!!
What's next : some vista and glider flights left, HU-16 qual eval, comp orals, TMP oral presentation, some reports to finish. In three weeks, we'll be graduating ! Three weeks, baby !!!
