Week 13 (1 - 5 May 06)

Again a busy week. Quick synopsis...
Took a Theory of Radar exam on Tuesday. I think I did well.
Still have the same academic classes as last week.
Flight time: Flew 3 times this week.

Flight 1: Monday, flew an integrated systems demo flight in the NP-3D here at TPS. That was pretty cool, as we got to learn the radar (in air-to-air and air-to-ground modes), the FLIR, and the moving map. It was neat to see how they can all slave together to give a "big picture" look at whatever we really wanted. We targeted a tugboat going up the Chesapeake Bay using the FLIR signature from his engines, then slaved the radar to paint us a nice picture of him and the surrounding area, and then told the moving map to give us a pictoral view of where in the world he was, including LAT/LONG coordinates as he moved..... Easy to see why GPS weapons are preferred using a system like this!

Flight 2: Thursday, Flew a T-38C again with Smokin'. We flew his Handling Qualities #2 flight, which was nice. I had no reporting due, so it was really free flight time with no deliverables for me! Those are the BEST flights!

Flight 3: Friday, Flew a T-2C with Doc for the first time. We just went up and practiced turn performance so that we could repeat it later in the T-38.

A great week! Look for more details and maybe some pics for next week's blog.
-Vanna