Nick's First Primary Solo

You might be thinking, "didn't Nick solo last year?"  Yes, but this is waaaaay different and much more bad ass.

I'm going to try to keep this very simple to understand given that the majority of my readers are not familiar at all with the military lingo, especially the aviation world.

If you recall THIS post, Nick soloed in a small Piper plane.
Today, he soloed in the T-6B Texan II.

It's a very powerful and bad ass plane.  I don't really know much about it because planes aren't my thing but it's pretty powerful and they go pretty freaking fast.  I mean, the majority of Nick's flights he's pulling a significant amount of G's, thus wearing a G-suit.  It's a pressurized cockpit and thus he wears the sweet masks you see on Maverick and Goose in "Top Gun".

Nick started Primary (his last phase of the three part training before finding out the type of aircraft he'll be flying) in April.
On June 01, 2012, Nick had his very first flight in the T-6.  Due to lots of weather delays and not having planes (will cover this in the blog post I will write next week (I promise) updating you all on flight school) it took him way too long to get this first part of Primary over with.  He's in a phase called 'Contacts' which is basic flying with visually seeing outside the cockpit, visually using ground references and not flying through clouds or any bad weather.

Today on September 14, 2012, Nick went to base for his check ride.  This is basically where he briefs and then flies the plane with an instructor in the back, who essentially passes you saying you're knowledge enough and safe enough to pilot the plane by yourself.  Nick rocked his checkride and was given the go-ahead for his solo.

He came home for lunch and as any male who doesn't fully understand how women operate, gave me about 30 minutes to shower and get ready to go back to base with him for his solo flight.  However, I was not able to shower, blow dry & flat iron my hair, do makeup, and get dressed in this time so I met him at base after his brief.

I arrived right as Nick was walking out to his plane to take off for his solo.  The next almost three hours I was a nervous wreck.  I was shaking (and for some reason thought I could paint my nails to pass time??  I looks like I let a four year old paint them).  I attempted to read but couldn't concentrate.  I finally just succombed to the nerves and sat there shaking and sweaty.  So much for makeup and trying to look cute =/  It might sound silly, but to any aviation significant other, you can relate and understand the nerves that accompanying knowing your husband is flying.

Proud and nervous wife waiting in the car

The hangar and the flight line on the other side of it

Unfortunately, I was not able to actually watch him fly.  Unlike IFS (which was a small civilian airport with less than 10 small distinguishable training planes), where Nick takes off and lands for this solo at NAS Whiting Field is much, much larger.  It's a military airport with limited access, with over 100 identical training planes.  There would simply be no way to know which plane was his, and probably not even able to see him.  Not to mention, unlike IFS, he's not flying in a rectangle above us.  He takes off from NAS Whiting Field, flies around, makes his radio calls, and did about 4 landings and take-offs in an "out-lying field" (which is really tiny airport) all for about an hour and a half. Then he comes back to NAS Whiting Field.

About 3 hours later Nick called saying he was safe (silence the butterflies) and asked me to meet him at VT-3's line shack (VT-3 is his squadron).

VT-3's Line Shack (fancy, huh??)

The Flight Line

Despite the fact that he was dripping with sweat and smelled like complete ass, I was so happy to see him.  I could not possibly begin to describe how proud of him I was.  Seeing his smile just filled my heart.  I love seeing that he absolutely loves what he does for a living.

Taking off his gear

Taking off his gear

After some pictures were taken, it was time for VT-3's tradition of being throw in the "pool'.  It's a small metal pool and each student in their squadron gets throw in after they complete their solo flight.  I was not looking forward to this part because I had seen that pool on other days and it was gross.  Black water and full of slim (and I'm sure bacteria).  It honestly looked like a pool that hadn't been covered up all fall and winter.  Thankfully for Nick, the pool was cleaned out just hours before his solo flight.  Not sure how he got so lucky!  (Sure sucks for all the others that went before in the previous weeks!)
Quite a few guys from his class came back to base (because it was about 5:45pm by this point) for his solo and to do the honors of the pool dunking.  Guess people like Nick or something??? ;)
Just after he took all his gear off, he was throw over the shoulder of a classmate and throw in the pool!
Check out the video below:

Mike, Nick's on-wing partner, congratulating Nick

I am so thankful I was able to be a part of this.  It's a pretty big milestone for them and it's something to celebrate (he will have a tie cutting ceremony in a few weeks so stay tuned for that.)
I am so thankful I get to be a part of all of his milestones.  I know not all wives are able to attend their husbands functions so this is not something I take for granted.

Nick putting his gear away

Nick's helmet, mask, and G-suit

Walking through the hangar to head home

So what's next?
Monday Nick will start the next part of Primary, Aerobatics.  Which is just what it sounds like.  Aerobatics with the plane.  Doing barrel rolls, loops, and all kinds of "fun" stuff.  (I put that in quotations because flying makes me sick and the thought of doing those things in a plane does not seem fun to me.)  He will start out with CAI's (which are explained in the next post) on Monday.  On Tuesday, he will do aerobatic simulators.  Then on Wednesday he will start his 1 of 4 aerobatic flights with an instructor.  After completing those 4 flights he will have his aerobatic checkride.  When he passes that, he will have his aerobatic solo.
The weather is finally nice again.  No more rain all day, every day.  The great weather coupled with the fact that Aerobatics isn't very long, he should be soloing in about a week and a half!

I tried to make this as easy to understand as possible.  It's hard to explain because Nick explains things to me as if I'm another aviator and I understand what he's saying.  I don't.  I usually look at him as if he has 6 heads.  He tries to explain it in laymens terms but it's still hard to follow.  Writing this post, I found myself talking in aviation lingo that I do know and had to change things repeatedly forgetting that you all don't understand how I'm talking.  Sorry =/  If anything is unclear, please comment or as most of you do, shoot me an email via the "Contact Me" link.