Hello again from Texas! Carissa and I can gladly say we're now less than 50 days from seeing each other again. Seems like such a hurdle now a days. I have to remind myself that I'm in a much better position than my former Army buddies, who have the possibility of being sent away from their families for up to 18 months at a time.
The Electrical & Environmental (ELEN) course I'm in down here is going pretty well. I'm keeping my test scores high, which is keeping my attitude positive. My goal is to graduate top of my class...so far I'm on track with a 98% avg. (plus I have to show all of those young whipper snappers that I'm smarter than them, haha. Can't let them out do their Staff Sergeant)
Since my last post I was very fortunate to have Carissa come down and visit for several days. It was like a breath of fresh air, a reminder that I married my best friend. I'm the luckiest guy in the world to have someone support me like she does, and to treat me so well.
This is right after I picked her up in Dallas. Think we're happy to see each other?!
That weekend we ended up going wine tasting at the local winery. It was surprisingly great wine. I didn't think Texas had the capacity for good wine since the beer selection has been so poor. We might even bring a few bottles of wine to enjoy on the drive home.
We did some other driving around and exploring and really enjoyed ourselves. It was nice to just be together and relax. Something we hadn't been able to do for a while.
Fast forwarding to the first weekend in October, Sheppard AFB had an open house and air show. Did someone say air show?! I was there and armed with my camera. Perspective of my excitement: When I was 11 years old my Dad surprised me with a trip to Brunswick NAS for an air show. We saw the Blue Angels, an F-117 bombing demo (in the height of it's service life - around the time of the first Gulf War), an F-16, A-10, and P-3 demo and countless other aircraft on static and flying display. It was that very day which started my love and fascination for aircraft. And here I am today getting into the guts of them. Thanks Dad!
Here's a small squadron of T-38s with pilots from the NATO fighter training school here on base. The engines were fired up and they were getting ready to taxi for a formation flight over the crowd to start the show. (notice the large tail in the background?! Don't worry, I won't leave that one out.)
There were lots of aircraft on static display, which really gives you an opportunity to appreciate how large/small they are. Here's a German AF designed/owned Panavia "Tornado" (also flown by the UK, Italians and Royal Saudi AF. It has variable sweep wings and is a multi-role fighter aircraft that is still in heavy use. (long flight from Germany to Texas!)
Here's the old and new versions of the T-6 "Texan". The newer one is part of the NATO training school here on base. They have upgraded it a lot over the years to keep up with technology and fuel efficiency. The NATO pilots start out on this airframe before they can move on to the T-38 during their 14 month school. (and I thought 5 months was long!)
Here's a couple that I don't know what they are. The first is Czeck built I think, and the second is built by the British Aerospace Engineering (BAE) super-giant. I'm just not sure exactly what models the aircraft are.
There was a great flying demonstration of WWII era aircraft. Lots of them were US aircraft, but there was a Japanese "Zero" there to prove that it was much less capable than our P-51D "Mustang". Most of my pictures of these planes were taken while they were on the ground.
And then, there was a demonstration put on by a C-17 from Travis AFB. Not the most impressive C-17 demo I've seen. They left out the short field landing and backing up after landing. That's ok though, it was still nice to see one again. After the demo I showed a few of my classmates around on an Altus AFB C-17 that was on static display. I explained to them what I knew about the aircraft, which is still fairly limited. That will change in the next few years :).
Fun fact: the C-17 tail is 55 feet off the ground. There's actually a small passage way through the vertical stabilizer to allow an ELEN mechanic (my future trained capacity) to fix/change the light on the top of the empinage (tail). I bet there's a nice view from up there :).
This one's for Kyle and Jenna: two one-seater F-15 "Eagles" from the Oregon Air National Guard came to be on static display. These are the planes that intercepted the float plane which was in the Air Force One air space a few months back when the President was in Seattle. They have a top speed of around mach 2.5 (1,900 mph).
(the tail flash says Portland, OR)
Kyanne & Ryan sent me a cool postcard a week or so ago with a JN-4 "Jenny" WWI training aircraft on it. Ironically I saw one at the airshow. It's one of only 4 left in flying condition in the world. Between 1916 and 1920 there were a few hundred JN-4s at Sheppard AFB (then it was Call Aviation Field). Very interesting to see a piece of history like this still flying!
An F-16C (which is a one seater, the F-16D is a two seater) came to put on a demonstration, and then complete a heritage flight with a WWII aircraft that's 45 years its elder. The demo was amazing. Incredible to see it fly by the crowd at 650mph and then climb straight into the sky. What a fun ride that must be!
And to finish the show, the Canadian Snowbirds put on a demonstration. I have to admit, I was impressed with the quality of the show. They fly 9 jets together in formation. Their jet of choice is the CT-114, a Canadian trainer jet. Not a very capable aircraft, but it's stable and smooth which allows them to fly in cool formations like these:
This next formation was cool. Two of them flew on top of each other with two other Snowbirds "threading the needle", which means they were rolling over the smoke trails of the two stationary jets. It was really cool to see. I haven't seen the Blue Angels or Thunderbirds do a stunt like it.
And one last formation before they came down to land.
Now, back to studying so I can graduate and get out of this state. I think oil was the only thing to keep people here. Not a very pretty state, that's for sure! Take care everyone! -Chris
Anyways. Not much else besides that. Bear and I are holding the fort down. I just cleaned this place within an inch of it's life. I dare Martha Stewart to try and find a speck of dirt. Try me.
