gearing up

being in the Air Force has its perks.
they DO have some really sweet planes.
and if you're good, they let you ride in them.

 
my residency awarded an incentive flight
to the best resident in each class, based on first quarter performance
and i won for my second year class
i was supposed to fly last month
and the damn fiscal cliff threatened to take it away
but the wing commander decreed that if it was a flight i was promised,
a flight i would get.
so here i am.

yesterday i had egress training

in preparation for my flight today.

what is egress training, you ask?

well, it's basically learning how to get out of the plane in an emergency

either while it's in the air, or on the ground.

i won't lie.

it was some scary ish.

took the whole experience from this is awesome! 

to i could potentially die from this...

favorite lines from the training day:

"pulling on anything labeled yellow and black will result in violent action"

(the eject handle is yellow and black. so is the canopy release.)

"if your parachute malfunctions during descent, 

you have the rest of your life to fix it"

(ha. ha. ha. funny death joke.)

[via]

there's a Google image of my aircraft. the T-6.

i'll be up there in the backseat this afternoon

joystick between my legs

pedals at my feet

and a bunch of buttons i'm not supposed to touch.

here's hoping i can hang on to my lunch

while we're pulling G's up there...