Longer days in the classroom... longer days in the sun

Isn't API fun? We spent a lot of time in this classroom today and we've covered long topics such as First Aid, CPR, and all sorts of Land Survival. Death by powerpoint.

We had the class bbq this weekend. Typical burgers and buns, and a few games of beer pong.



This 80 degree weather is killing me. And its not even technically summer yet.

Day 20!

Last day of academics! (Well... except for physiology next week... but that's tied in with the pressure chamber and other stuff...)

Happy to report no failures for our Flight Rules and Regs test! Our day was really about 3 hours long today, it was awesome. We had our test at 0700, got our scores 0850ish, went to play some "team sports" outside afterwards.

We had to play either football or ultimate frisbee. Now if you know me, you know I like to give the ol' pigskin a toss-around. But the Marines were playing. And boy, are they HUGE.

Yes, bigger than the ones at VT. (And why is it that they ALWAYS need to play as one green team??)

So I played some ultimate frisbee, which isn't all that bad once you figure out how to throw with your wrist rather than with your arm...

For now, I am home, doing what I am doing... I recorded another song--first song in spanish--in 2 hours and I'm going to post it up with a link pretty soon.... But tonight, its 70s night at Pensacola beach, and its hard to thrift shop, but I think I found something psychedelic...

The less Humped Day ever

FR&R at 0830, couldn't be more glorious.
CRM brief, which was very engaging, was right after that. Finished at 1215.

PPO brief? Psh. Only for the pilots leavin Pensacola. I'm dunzos!


But I'm not looking forward to the CPR/First aid class tomorrow.... yikes.

And because you EXPECT every student aviator to marvel in their fantastic flight suits, here are the pictures you EXPECTED:

Here's my sort-of-badass picture:


And because you know I'm not that badass... here's the real me


Yeah, you like it, I know you do. I know I'm gonna get all the guys with THIS uniform.... (I wish this were true)

Whew! 5 down, 1 more to go

As Week 4 gets underway, I would like to take a moment and mention that:

I made Muddy Buddies.



Aren't they gorgeous? (Well, this isn't MY picture, but they look the same... minus the teddy bears)

So anyways, the Nav test came this morning at an early 0600. It was an important test for me, because if I happened to fail this test (and yes, failing means missing 11 out of 50 multiple choice questions, so study hard you college graduates) I would get rolled back a week. You get rolled back after 2 test failures and you have to stand in front of a board. I think I mentioned this already in a previous post, so I'm going to go ahead and just skip the explanation. Anyways, I passed! We sat in FR&R (Flight Rules and Regulations) awaiting our test scores, it was ridiculous. Our instructor for FR&R was rather... hyped up on caffeine, or so it seemed. He just knows so much about NATOPS and OPNAVINST that he goes by it so fast and makes jokes but you have to be quick on listening so you can laugh along. We didn't even finish the long chapter today (the book's only 3 chapters) and we cut it short. Finished at 1030... the schedule was odd in having us go to weight training at noon.

So basically I went home after lifting a bit, laid out in the sun studying the chapter we just covered today, then chilled out until... the idea hit and I looked up the recipe for Muddy Buddies. Look! We're back in a circle!

This is what API's all about folks. The week gets much easier after the Nav Test and then you just hope and pray you don't land wrong during Redneck Parasailing, which would delay your graduation even further (like another Hokie I know).

Toodles!

Last Monday of academics (hopefully)

PT at 0700... we did a little bit of running and CV then played some mean games of volleyball. I swear I love that sport, I miss playin it back in the fall when it was still hot outside. After that, we showered, changed out of PT gear into the pickle suits!

Flight suits rock by the way.

Nav test tomorrow. Pressure's on, if I get 11 questions wrong, I get rolled back one week and graduate in 4 instead of 3 weeks.

I WILL PASS TOMORROW.

I guess its Day 15? I'm just going by weeks now...

So, low and behold, Week 3 is finito! And I've already got one pink sheet, 4 tests behind me, a mile swim under my belt (not to mention lots of swallowed chlorine, mostly likely harmful to my health), and about 10 bucks worth of gedunk added to my great female figure. (Ok, great may be used interchangeably with "decent" here)

Passed the engines exam, learned hot to put a jet log together (well... re-learned b/c we did this stuff in IFS, except now this stuff is really testable stuff) and now all I've gotta do is keep doing nav problems until I've worn and torn the whizwheel.

Wait! I've got to pick up my flight suits at the wings n things... got the patches and velcro done. But anyways, happy stoner day.... 8 year anniversary to Columbine, official Day of mourning for VT, and lots of other celebrations. Happy Birthday Lily Tam and Ate Evelina! Later chickadoos... one more of academics and then its "lets see how many times we can drown Vanessa in one evolution" time.

Almost there...

Thursday! Flight Gear issue! I got everything on my inventory sheet except for a helmet, which supply has been out of for a while. But here's what I got (pictures will be later...)

4 "pickle" suits
2 pairs of boots
1 flight jacket
1 leather jacket (oh yeah, sexy sexy)
2 pairs of flight gloves
1 pair of aviators (yeah, I didn't expect that in the issue either)
1 kneeboard
1 logbook
1 parachute (kit) bag
1 helmet bag

It's a pretty sweet deal. We aren't supposed to start wearing them until we start Week 4, and by then we'll have all the velcro and patches and ranks put on the suits... Pretty excited to start wearing pajamas to school, yeah?

Followed by an awesome engines review... and more navigation on the whiz wheel. Nav usually eats 2 hours of the day, then it was back home to study for the exam tomorrow morning!

Hump Day, Mid Week 3

Whew today was busy... had a toll on me, but anyways let me break down the day:

Had engines class at 0700 and finished up the book. We drove over to the Naval Aviation Museum for a bit to get the visual on the types of engines we were learning about... let me say it definitely helped and I can name turbojet engines, props, fans, shafts, you name it. It was raining outside though:(.

Next at 1000... the mile swim. Finish 36 laps (72 lengths) in less than 80 minutes utilizing any combo (or one) of the breaststroke, sidestroke, and freestyle. I finished in 55:19.

After lunch, we had another long class of Nav where we learned how to use the darned whiz wheel. I was already feeling the sluggishness and headache that most likely arose from dehydration and prolonged exercise. My endurance dropped since API because I started to study more and work out less... don't do that by the way. Keep studying and working out during school.

I'm feeling a lot better now (3-4 hours later) after dinner and water and even white wine and good stories. Tomorrow I've got 0800 Flight Gear Issue and more classes tomorrow. So excited! I hope they have my size.

Days 11 and 12

Sorry y'all, I didn't get a chance to post yesterday partly because I had a lot of studying to do and also because of the tragic events that happened yesterday, April 16, 2007. I'm sure we all know by now the details regarding the Virginia Tech shooting, which affects the Highty Tighties as well as the corps and Hokie Nation. Before I get into the API day, R.I.P. Matt LaPorte, HT 09. I didn't really know you, but you have greeted me numerous times in the halls and had BP with me.

Ok, so the Aero 2 test didn't fare so well with me yesterday. You know when you take a test and you feel so confident coming out of it you don't feel like you have to worry about it anymore because you aced it? RTFQ (READ THE FULL (OR F***ING) QUESTION) or else you'll end up having to retake it the next morning. So that was a complete shot to the brain yesterday. We did our final stroke swim test: a lap of each of the 4 strokes, then we did about 75 yards in full flight gear. I hate backstroke! I get so much water in my mouth and up my nose, its ridiculous. Engines was fun, we learned about types of engines: props, fans, shafts, jets.

In light of what happened yesterday, I found it incredibly difficult to concentrate at my 0600 retest. The test seemed harder to me, and I had little spurts of emotional trauma in my mind, so I wasn't really sure about some of my answers. If I fail the test and then fail the rest, its an automatic roll to the class behind you, and you have to stand in front of a board (with a doc and 3 other aviators) and explain why you can't understand the freakin material.

So after the exam, I decided to let out some stress (because at this point I wasn't relaxed thinking about possibly failing again, at 78% or below) by playing volleyball and punching some more on the speedbag... and bleeding the knuckles a bit. Afterwards, went back to Instructor Bay and low and behold, I didn't fail! I only missed 4 questions. Sweet. So if I end up failing another test (there are 3 more: Engines this Friday, Nav next Tuesday, and FR&R next Friday), I have 2 failures on my "report card" and I have to talk to another board and get remediated. So lets not let this happen, shall we?

More engines class (long one) and then our first Nav class (long one also). Nav was just like what we practiced in NROTC from nav in the water and also what we did in IFS. No sweat right? Just loooooong and time consuming. It'll be the longest exam we have in the whole API thing.

How exciting.

Done with Week 2!

What happens when a group of ensigns and lieutenants conspire together to get out of doing a CV workout by starting games of basketball and volleyball before the instructor shows?

WE DON'T GO OUTSIDE TO DO A CV WORKOUT. WE SKIP OUT ON RUNNING! YAY

Did the speedbag a little more and aggravated the already missing skin area on my outer knuckles... so it bled through my bandaids (gross!) and now i just have bandages all over my hands. Meh, oh well. Now I look tough. Or just... wrapped.

Thought we were having to endure 3 chapters of Engines, but Chief knew we were just going to go home and study for the aero test, so he went in depth into the parts of the engines, and different types of each part (who knew there lots of types of compressors and combustion sections?) Next week will be our busiest week.. we start if off with an exam, and a swim out test in full flight gear. We also start Navigation classes. Engines and Nav, ugh. We have a mile swim on Wednesday, Flight Gear Issue Thursday, and lots of other goodies, including a visit to the Naval Aviation Museum to look at even more engines.

But anyways, TGIF the 13th! Buahahaha.. 4 more.

El Dia Nueve

AAGGH! Weather is tricky! I know all of the stuff, but since its fairly easy material (just a lot to memorize), they try to give you ambiguous questions and answers... good news is that I passed the exam and won't have to retake it and/or be remediated.

Aero was cancelled today because we finished up early, so we waited around for 2 hours before we did the WS-7. A couple of people had to do the jump a couple of times, but they eventually was able to swim to the passing line. Oh for the VT NROTC kids, Dillion rolled into my class last week, and he completed the thing on the 3rd try. (3rd time's the charm, right?) Then we had some surface debris/burning oil demos and then inflated trousers. After that, the day was pretty much done. Done at 10:45.... sweet.

More studying...? The warmer temps are back in town now so I can study out in the sun again... and now I've switched full gears--attention is on Aero 2, which covers glide ranges and endurances, spins, and lots more! And even better...

...tomorrow's Friday!

Day 8

Well folks, nothing real special here. The days seem to be getting shorter for some reason, but they start out really early. We had "weight training" this morning, but it just ended up being team sports. I played volleyball and hit the speedbag until the skin off of my knuckles started to tear off... others played basketball.

We wrapped up Aero today, which leaves us really with nothing but a Weather test tomorrow and then the tower jump/underwater swim. THAT should be interesting.

My roommate was in the Spin and Puke then the Pressure chamber today. She said she played pattycake with an Italian and kept hitting her head until she sort of blacked out (meaning she didn't remember what happened after she got out of the chamber) and reached Hypoxia. The point is to know what your limits and signals are, what your body recognizes as being in a state of hypoxia, and when to put that mask on feeding you pure oxygen. Ahhhh... refreshing.

Not much here, later guys!

Day 7

Yayy!! No more treading and floating! Helmet helped me out, thank goodness for its buoyancy. Then we put on some PSDs (Personal Safety Devices, aka red lifejackets) and practiced methods to swim with burning oil on the surface, then we huddled up as groups and sang Twinkle Twinkle as a morale booster. Next up, tower jump to the line and trouser inflation. That's fun stuff. Every day in the pool ends up being a fun day, I just like to complain about it on here.

2 more chapters of Aero got rammed into my brain, and I have to review for the weather exam on Thursday. Nothin new happening... just studying as usual. Hm.. Does pizza help with studying in groups?

Day 6

Hey there, this will be quick, as I have a lot of studying to do.

Aero 1 test this morning at 0630, on the first 6 chapters of the book. We had a female LT who had this mood swing, psh... women. She was about to start us on the test, and she got really quiet, checking her watch. Then she saw someone in the front row writing down on his dump sheet and opening the test (I guess he assumed the silence meant we could start) and she yelled at him, "Are you starting the damn test?" She went a 180 then pulled out a pink post it and was about to take his name down when she asked the rest of the class if they had started writing. (Pretty much anything pink paperish is a bad sign, we get "Pink sheets" if you fail a test or a swim evolutions... 3 of those pink sheets and you're out) She decided not to take names (I guess because there were about 3 other people who raised their hands, maybe she didn't want to do extra paperwork?) and as she was walking out, she told us "I hope nobody fails the test." The tone of voice she used, she might as well implied "I hope you all fail the test." The whole class passed the exam (which is 80% or higher) and class average is about a 94. They also do averages according to branch, and as I expected it, USN was last with 93, followed by USCG, USAF, then the USMC being the top do-gooders of the class. Who knew? j/k...

Then we had our first class of Aero 2... our prof went through it really fast, so for someone like me who didn't really read ahead of today (because I was gung-ho studying for this morning's exam), the information just kind of flew over my head. So bottom line: READ AHEAD.

Back to the pool at 1000, we did the WS-5, which was added gear and gloves. For some reason I sank faster than I did last time, so I was already having mini-freakouts during the float, where I was actually supposed to be calm. Because when I took my 5-8 seconds of float time, I did a big underwater clap and then realized that it didn't quite get me to the surface to get air, so just realizing I was sinking 2 feet and needed to expend more energy just to get air was tiring me out. But, I got through it (luckily!). Then we did more build-up laps (the fun part... not really).

Packed a yummy sammich, finished up the weather book and out by 1430 (2:30 for you non-military types). Tomorrow, we start up in the pool, same as today with a helmet. I think I am going to study tonight in the library... after a nap of course.

Day 5

Boy am I going to drown on Monday.

Today we had another weather class about Thunderstorms.. just as the prof was telling us a story about having a black cloud around (someone who just brings bad luck with him/her everywhere), the power went out in the building and it took him 10 minutes before we were learning again. The powerpoint wasn't working (go figure) so he had to actually wing it. Heh.

WS-3/4, tread and float... I was seriously getting tired keeping myself afloat with those darn boots, my face was in the water a bit, but I tried not to show any signs of distress. Afterwards we did some build up shallow laps with the boots on... it's so weird to swim around in so much drag, you work so hard to move forward, and all your momentum moves you, oh, about 2 inches ahead in the water. After that, we ditched the boots and swam racetrack laps switching strokes until we were going to pass out. Yeah, I was that tired.

Ergo, Monday, I am going to drown. We add the SV-2 (the gear) and gloves (oh no) and try again. Ok wait, let me revert to my alter ego, the Marine in me.

Errrrr oohrah lets kill and eat babies. WS-5 is going down. And so is the Aero 1 test. God, give me the strength to study hard this weekend...

Day 4

The day started out with some delicious chlorine in my system as we performed the 100 yd swim stroke test. I did arms yesterday, so my joints were a little sore, but theres something about that heated pool that makes it go away... temporarily. Then we got a demo of the tower jump and then performed it, doing the abandoned ship jump off of a tower (about 14 feet above the pool?). Did the no contact lens thing so I couldn't really focus on the horizon of which I was supposed to be staring at, and I think I loosened the nose pinch which caused me to get water up in my nose a bit. But it was all good in the end, I just hate it when you're blind and then you have to worry about water getting into your nose... its hard enough trying to figure out where you're going. Heh. Following that, we did a 5 minute prone float. Sang the same first verse everytime I went up for air because I kept forgetting the next words to the song...

Another weather class, today about frontal systems and clouds. This is prof was good in trying to wake us up after a tiring swim, made fun of the E-2s a bit and had lots of Navy humor and Marine bashing jokes. Good times.

Finally worked with a study group to grasp the first 3 chapters of aero. First time in that library... reminded me of my elementary school, except with less books on the shelves.

Today I wrote ELOs out (Enabling Learning Objectives) for a good period of time (1300 until about now, 2200) so now I won't be TOO lost when we go over the other chapters in class...

Exciting day tomorrow... weather 4 and then WS 3/4, treading for 2 min, drown proofing (floating) for 3 in flight suit and boots. Boots are probably 1/4 of my body weight! Working at the pool as a stash for 7 months taught me to not look like the one who's spazzing out, so even if I've got my head a little under the surface, the whole point is to look absolutely calm.

Remain calm, conserve energy.

Day 3

Hello all y'alls out there!

Day 3 was our first CV (cardiovascular) workout. We stretched, did a long Indian run (what do they call those runs in India?) minus our foreign students (the ones from the Saudi and Danish navy and just some more running. The swim was just more practice before the testable swim screen tomorrow--4 racetrack laps around the pool demonstrating each of the 4 strokes. Easy peasy. I can't wait until tomorrow, we do the tower jump, prone float, then the stroke test. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm secretly planning to yell "Bonzai!!!" while abandoning ship.

Weather 1 today, our instructor moved kind of fast, but hey, it got us out of class early and then we had literally 2 hours of lunch b/c our Aero instructor was not going to move it up to skip his lunch. Psh. Then we finished up aero and I think I left the class feeling even more confused about a chapter I didn't really read yet. (Reading now, folks, don't worry)



Now there's a beautiful sight! All our coursework for 4 weeks!

For all you people who want media, here's a youTuber of a quick rundown of API. In comparison, this part of the pipeline is supposed to be the easiest, so there's no point in complaining now. It's actually the fun part, and when you start flying, that's when the REAL stress comes in.
API video

Enjoy fellas.

Day 2

Woot! The day didn't start until 0800 which was good news. I had enough time to sleep, eat breakfast, etc. and make it down there ready to go. We had the intro video which explained the 4 basic survival strokes, then we were off to do WS-1 which checked our class to see if anyone had any fears of the water. Some people were asked to stay back and perfect the strokes a bit, but for the most part I think our class is pretty well off. The water was super chlorinated (b/c there are so many people that swim there) and me with my contacts off... bad juju. I couldn't see where I was going underwater, and then my eyes just felt pink afterwards.

We called the instructor and moved our Aero 1 class a couple hours early (nobody knows why they schedule our swim class and aero class so far apart) so we were done by 1230 today. I debated staying after to study for tomorrow's chapters, but decided to read it up on the pool deck of CountryWood.

My roommate had her 5th test, Navigation and scored pretty well. She was having her doubts, but she's maintained a 95 average (with one fluke of a test for aero 2), so I want to be like her! Her NSS score (what they grade you along the competition within your class) is above a 50, and I've been told that's good stuff. I was worried when she got that pink sheet (pink sheets are issued for test failures or failure of a testable swim event), because that meant if she got another one, she'd have to sit in front of the board (or stand, hah). 3 of them means you are most likely to be attrited. And I feel so responsible, well 10% responsible for her test grade, but that's because she told me to say that. It's actually more like 50%.

Full day tomorrow - CV workout, more swimming, first weather class and then finishing off aero 1. Yum. I hate these early days.

DAY 1

Hey folks, time for a quick update on the first day of classes. The day started out with lightning in the distance on the drive to the gym, which was a bad sign but quite odd because lightning was all you saw, unaccompanied by thunder and the usual rain showers. So, sadly we had to run the PRT. For some odd reason, the prior OCS guys voted sand to grass, so we had to do our best performance on hard, wet sand with random sticks spread all over the place. Needless to say, my test score was still the same from when I was in ROTC a year ago with the usual max of pushups, and a excellent low-ish on everything else.

AFter that we had about 2.5 hours to spare, so I went home, indulged in a shower, watched some VH1, chowed down on some breakfast, then slowly made my way back to API. Had briefs from the API director (who was also an XO of TBS back in the day), the Skipper of Schools Command, and the Chaplain. Headed to Subway for lunch for about an hour at the food court--probably one of the few times that'll happen, it's going to get expensive--then came back for 2.5 hours of Aero 1. The easiest chapters in one day.

Tomorrow we'll be tackling the more difficult parts of the book after lunch--after a nice Water Survival video (I've had the pleasure of viewing a bit of it while stashed at the API pool) and a mini swim screen (can you swim 50 yards=2 lengths without freaking out in the water?) just to get used to the insane amount of chlorine in the tanks. Gonna stay after to study some more aero and ahead for Weather starting on Wednesday. Exciting stuff eh? Plus they gave us 4 GMTs we've got to complete by Friday (Yay for ORM briefs AGAIN). I'm excited. Not about the weather though. It rains, and then I have to live in 80+ weather in my own apartment. Times like these I want to move to California where the weather is JUST RIGHT. Til next time, folks.