Well, the saga continues... on friday, we went through three more planes for various reasons, but the first two weren't capable of going to England. We were finally left at 2200 (started preflighting at 1500), with finding SOMEWHERE to go to. The local choices were San Diego, New Orleans, and Key West. So after much anguish, tracking down OPS on the phone on a friday night, getting a PPR, BOQ rooms for the crew, we hopped on the plane and headed down to Key West for the weekend. All of a 45 minute flight from Jax. They parked us in BFE, on an abandoned taxiway, a DET of F16s, and a C5, C141 and a couple of 130s came in on Saturday. The aggressor squadron of those funky painted F18s were also out there.
Anyways, we carted all our bags to the BOQ office on the airfield, it took all 20 of us an hour and a half to check in! Then hopped another cab to the BOQ high rise on Trumbo annex, got to our rooms ~0030, dead tired...
You gotta make the best of any situation, and we proceeded to have a great time on Saturday and Sunday. Did the Duval Crawl, rented a Hobbie Cat for awhile and did some sailing, went on a snorkeling trip to one of the reefs, saw the sunset on the pier with all those freaky streat performers, and generally had a good time. Also hit up the bars, Rick's, Rum Runners, and of course Fat Tuesdays.
Came back yesterday, took forever and a day to get fuel, first we had to move the plane, and then shut back down, and topped off with 12k more of fuel, for 36k in the plane. We then took off at 1330 for Houston, shot an approach at Ellington, and then came back to Jax. We had to log some flight time, plus the NFOs needed their overwater stuff to complete their grade sheets. I hopped in the right seat after takeoff, missed out on seeing us leave Key West, way too many IPs (3) on board, so they were all in the flight station. Did my copilot duties, and flew the plane across the gulf almost all the way to the coast of Texas.
Got grilled on a number of systems, and on occassion showed my ignorance (couldn't remember the FE's ground checks on the Engine and Wing anti ice systems), but generally did well. Crystal clear day, some storms to the south and north of us, but was kewl to just watch all the pax jets flying above us with the contrails (we were at FL260). While I was in the seat, we ran a Ditching and Bailout drill, so I got to avoid running around the plane, and putting on the parachute. Though on the flip side, I had to answer a shit ton of questions in the flight station on those procedures, all good stuff, especially as I am nearing my check ride (3 more flights to go!). Got out of the seat after 2 hours, and one of the other 4 student pilots got in. I went and grabbed my backpack with my food and reading material, and went back to the galley and killed some time. One of the IPs came back later asking for our grade sheets, and sat down for 30 minutes asking another student pilot and I questions, we briefed the autopilot, HF radio procedures, navigation system malfs, oxygen system, ditching positions (have to have all 23 positions memorized with duties, and which of three rafts you go to), customs procedures and other stuff I am probably forgetting. At the end we talked about deployments in the P3, and what personal gear to bring, and the progression from 3P to 2P and the whole PQS system associated with it. A great discussion, and the IP provided us with some really great information.
At which point I made one of my usual stellar comments, something to the effect that the other student and I were sitting back in the galley relaxing and the IP had to come along and quiz us. Uh-oh... At which point the IP had me get out the fuel system diagram and promptly told me I was a fuel molecule in the fuel truck, and I had to show how I got to the engine. Over the next hour, all three IPs tag teamed me, rotating out, and we discussed the fuel system in great depth! LOL It was a great refresher for all of us, we had the majority of it down pat, all the associated numbers, limits and procedures, but the in depth discussion really helped clean up some areas. I wanted to do the electrical system next, but we ran out of time as we headed into Jax.
We landed at Jax, and Thunderstorm condition 1 was set (lighting w/in 5 miles of the field I believe, and no personnel on the line, or of course fueling), so we had to wait for the van to come out and get us, and we all unloaded the plane, and packed on in. I had to take the NAV bag up and break it down, and then I was done.
All in all, a good flight. I really wish we could have gone to London, but we could have scrubbed on friday, and I would have flown all 3 of my Nav flights locally like two of my friends in my class. Just to set the record straight, we had an extraordinary amount of difficulty getting this flight out (5 preflights in less than 24 hours on 5 different planes!, not to metion the 2 ICAO flight planes I wrote, 4 DD175s that we also drafted, and moving all the luggage from plane to plane to plane...). The same day (last thur), the NAVEXT to Rota, Spain, left on time with their plane (actually they stole our plane before we got there, bastards!). And the previous week, two NAVEXTs, one to Hawaii and the other to Alaska got off also without a hitch.
That is about it, guess I am going to take it easy today, and read up on the forum, and do some studying. Later!
