Life with the Obies: Nick: Primary Complete

April 23, 2012: Nick checked into VT-3 Red Knights squadron for Primary Training.

June 01, 2012: Nick had his very first flight in the T-6B Texan II.

September 14, 2012: Nick had his very first solo (contacts solo) in the T-6.

January 22, 2012: Nick had his very last flight in the T-6 and is Primary Complete!!!!

It's been a long process. The summer brings rain every single day so it took quite a while for Nick to get through the contacts phase but once September hit, and the rain subsided, he flew almost everyday (well, everyday that planes were available and the occasional bad weather days. And he was med-down (unable to fly for medical reasons) for about 3 weeks).

Today was his last flight, which was his formations solo. I was lucky enough to be able to sit on base and watch him fly by for the break, and then as he came down to land (I couldn't capture him actually landing because there were trees in the way and I parked where I could get a video of him flying in formation, because I felt that video was cooler than him landing.)
In these vidoes, he's flying at 1300 feet MSL, which is 1100 feet above ground level, at 200 knots.

Nick is the rear plane.

The video below is Nick (rear plane) and his instructor flying (I suggest clicking the bottom right hand corner button on the video to enlarge it so you can see it better since the planes are tiny in this video.)

The video below is Nick and his instructor coming in, separately, for their landing. Nick's instructor is the first plane coming in and Nick will be second. You can see them off in the distance by the tower, then they come in, loop around, and come down for the landing. I do not actually capture him landing on the runway because there are trees and a building in the way. I positioned myself to get a better video of him flying which I thought was more important for videoing. If you watch until the end, you'll see him pass in front of the trees after passing that building. (Again, I'd enlarge the video to see it more clearly.)

After he passed by, I hopped in the car and drove to the line shack to meet him as he walked off the flight line.

There he is!!! Mr. Primary Complete!

I don't know if you can really see it in this picture, but he is smiling from ear to ear.
That smile is what makes my homesickness, my "I'm a planner" anxiety, missing my significant other, and hatred of change, worth every bit of this military lifestyle.

Proud wife with her dedicated husband!
(It was sooo cold!! Well, to me. It was about 50 degrees.)

LOVE seeing him in all his gear. Good thing I'm a sucker for flight suits ;) It's definitely my favorite uniform he owns.
If he gets his first choice at Thursday's platform selection, this will be the last time he wears all the mask and G-suit. (Unless he opts to come back here to be an instructor for his shore tour).

Then he updated his very last Aviation Training Jacket for Primary

and totaled up his log book for the last time in Primary. (He gets annoyed with me taking photos but I wanted to document this day because it's a big milestone!)

and that was it! He is Primary Complete and will be selecting his platform on Thursday!!! (I will blog about what this means and why it's a HUGE deal tomorrow.)
He is really excited to find out what he'll be flying next, but he is really sad about being finished with the T-6. He thoroughly loved Primary and really loved flying that plane. As of now, he says he'd love to move back here and be an instructor for the Primary.

I cannot begin to express how incredibly proud of him I am. It fills my heart to the point I feel like it's going to burst when I see him up there flying or when he's walking off the flight line (and it doesn't hurt that he looks sexy in that flight suit, especially when he has all of his gear on). I just feel so blessed to be able to watch him as he works towards achieving his dream of becoming a Naval Aviator.

I also feel so incredibly blessed that I'm able to share in these milestones with him. I love attending his different traditions such as his first solo, tie cutting, and selection or just simply watching him fly. I know in other communities, it's not as easy to share in the service member's continued accomplishments and watch them at work. I could not be happier that we are a part of the aviation community for these reasons (among many others.) It's been nothing short of fun and exciting and I look forward to all the wonderful memories and milestones I'll continue to be a part of in future trainings and in the fleet.

We've both greatly enjoyed our time in VT-3. It has a bad rep, but that's only coming from people not in VT-3. {The only (negative) difference is that they have Knight School (this is where it gets the bad rep from. It's a mandatory 2 hour, Monday through Friday, morning "meeting" with the class and one or two instructors to discuss the contacts phase of flying.} I cannot say enough wonderful things about this squadron. They have a lot of fun traditions (such as the way they do tie cutting, the pool dunking after their first solo, and their platform selection), they are very family-oriented and welcome any and all to join their events, and camaraderie amongst the class is awesome to witness. Nick and his classmates gather together often whether it's bowling, barbecues, or nights out downtown. They all come to every one's solo pool dunk, tie cuttings, and selection (even though they're in the same class, they all end up in different stages of training because of schedules and hold ups so not everyone does these things at the same time and even within the same month as others.) We're really going to miss our time here at VT-3 but we're looking forward to the next training squadron we'll become a part of!