01-09-2008
(Sunday 2245) We got at the
A few hours (and a thousand pictures) later we drove off towards the East along
the canyon, then crossed it over a bridge and further along it's Northern edge.
We had stunning scenery all along the way and took many pictures along the way.
At one point we decided to pull over and take a formation picture of all six
cars with some great back-ground. Then we stopped to watch the sunset and drove
on into darkness and now we're here at yet another motel (don't ask where...)
The plan for tomorrow is to continue North along Route 89 towards Salt Lake
city where we plan to stay at Hill Air Force Base and hopefully see some of
their A10's and F16's in action. I will upload some more pictures of our great
adventure in a few hours time.
/GEA
01-09-2008
(Monday 2345) I found out that we had
just crossed the border into
Now I'm off to reply to some mails and then I'm off to bed as I'm wasted.
/GEA
02-09-2008
(Tuesdsy 2315) We spent most of the day
at
After that we got back on the road on the way to
/GEA
04-09-2008
(Thursday 2335) Last night at the
States. Right now we're at Malmstrom Air Force Base in
Things ahead don't look too good. Apparently they were expecting us to arrive
Hold on
to your butts!
/GEA
07-09-2008
(Sunday 1205) Here I am at
The whole trip through the states to
Police: Do you know why we pulled you over?
Me: Probably...
Police: Probably?! We caught the first one on radar doing 149 km/h.
Me: Were we really going that fast?
Police: Yes, you don't have Canadian plates either. What are you guys doing in
Me: We're on the way to
Police: Oh I figured, you guys are pilots - I guess you all just HAVE to drive
sports cars.
Me: Yes, we couldn't afford a car like this back at home. It would cost at
least four times as much as there. And when you guys all whine about your
astronomical fuel prices, just remember that back in Europe we pay over three
times as much for fuel.
Police: How about speeding tickets? Are they also more expensive in DK compared
to here?
Me: Let me see... Uhhm, no they're much cheaper in DK.
Police: Haha. So do you guys actually know what winters are like in
Me: I've heard that they get quite cold - come on, say something nice now.
Police: Something nice? Well, compared to the other two guys in the Corvettes
you'll be better off in your Mustang in the winter where everything is snowed
in. You guys are free to go. Hope we don't meet again...
/GEA
08-09-2008
(Monday 2115) We had our first day
today. All went ok inspite of not having our formal uniform. Fortunately we
almost all had our flight suit with us and the one who didn't borrowed one from
the senior students here at "The Jaw."
It was a hectic day with plenty of briefings and introductions. Just the
military way of living is a cultural shock here compared to
Normally after a week or two on holiday I look forward to go home. And this
time it's no different. After two weeks in the states I miss my home but now
I'm here in
Tomorrow we hope to get the cars registered with a Canadian license plate, get
a Sasketchewan driver's license and get the cars insured. Apart from that we
have to order internet and get a cell phone that actually works here. It's so
frustrating not to have intenet or a phone. Every day we visit one of the
senior students to borrow some internet and check our mails etc.
I started looking at the aircraft EP's (Emergency Procedures) and have learned
the first three of them so far. Tomorrow I'll take the next three and I hope
that by the end of the week I know them all by heart. Welcome to Moose Jaw!
/GEA
09-09-2008
(Tuesday 2205) Bed time soon. We had the
day off today apart from a meeting with our Senior National Representative,
who's an ex F16 pilot back in
Off to
bed now.
/GEA
10-09-2008
(Wednesday 1525) Just got my helmet,
harness and ALOT of winter clothing. They all seem over-warm but apparently
I'll be needing them when the weather gets colder. When the temperature is
below a certain point you have to wear all that clothing on top of your flying
suit. Then when the temperature gets below -39C you don't fly at all as you
would risk of freezing to death if you eject. Hmmm, made me wonder...so is -38C
not cold enough??
All I left have today is an interview with my Course Director, which takes
place in an hour's time. As you probably know, the Canadian AF aerobatic team,
the Snowbirds are based here at
I've made quite a feq new friends here, mostly canadians. They're very nice
people, no matter if they come from the French or the English speaking part of
However our class is made up of entirely Danish and Canadians. We Danes will do
our best to get the top six places in class. There are 4 flights in all: A, B,
C and D and we'll soon be part of the "Bandit Flight."
/GEA
11-09-2008
(Thursday 2205) Finally I got my car
inspected, registered, and insured and it now carries Sasketchawan license
plates. I also got them to install a block heater which will prevent the engine
from cracking when I try to start it in the extreme cold weather. It's good to
finally have it all in place and now I can actually enjoy driving it instead of
being worried about getting pulled over all the time, not being sure if I'm
actually completely covered or not...enjoy it until the snow hits us of course
and then I probably won't be able to drive it, but let's wait and see.
I also got a Canadian military ID, bought myself a mobile phone and internet in
the barracks should work from tomorrow on. So it's great. Otherwise not much
new here. The intro week is almost over and on Monday we start learning for
real. I look forward to it, especially now that all the hassle with the car is
over and I can concentrate all my energy on the flying business.
This afternoon we played a bit of beach volley here at the base. The
temperature was 22C today so we're trying to get the best out of the weather
while it lasts.
The weekend is coming up and we plan to take some "hero shots" in our
flying suits with the cars in the background this Saturday. Let's hope the
weather stays good - the forecast is promising, anyway. Stay tuned!
/GEA
13-09-2008
(Saturday 1055) Last time I mentioned
something about the flights here at the school. As I mentioned there are four
flights, namely Apache (A Flight), Bandit (B), Cobra (C) and Dragon (D). I'm
going to be part of the Bandit flight when we get to the flying part of the
course. A, B and C flights all fly the Harvard II and D flight flies the Hawk.
So we're all hoping to make it all the way to the Dragon one day...
The way it seems is that we're going to have ground school with ALOT of theory,
tests and exams the next month or so, then we get into a stage where we'll have
both ground school and flying and after that it'll only be flying.
It's nice to think back at RDAF Flying school where our callsign on the radio
was "Baby" followed by the flight number. Now it's going to be
"Bandit" followed by the flight number.
We went to the mess yesterday and had a great time. They have the best mess in
the Canadian Forces here in Moose Jaw. It is really beautiful and apparently
they have a big budget too. Afterwards we considered going downtown but we were
all too wasted so I just went to bed instead. Tonight we have a BBQ at one of
our Canadian class mates and his wife. We look forward to it and hope that it
won't be too cold in the evening.
Next weekend we also have a couple of arrangements. On Friday we have our intro
party, arranged by the students who started a couple of months ago. The theme
is "70's Olympic athletes." Any suggestions to what I should wear???
/GEA
15-09-2008
(Monday 1255) First day at ground school
and things go fast here! Most of the other guys in class have flown privately
before joining the Air Force, some even have Commercial license with
Multi-engine rating and so on, so they're quite acquianted with the syllabus.
We have had some of it back home in Denmark but it's always different to be in
a new school doing things "their" way.
We had a few lessons in Aircraft Technical where we learned a bit about the
electrics of the Harvard II, a meteorology lesson and a briefing about stress.
Next on the programme is Aerodynamics, probably the most demanding subject on
the course, which will also fill the programme for the rest of the day.
/GEA
15-09-2008
(Monday 2045) First day went good and
I'm well in the process of getting prepared for the second one. After school we
drove to Regina, which is about 45 minutes from here. Our container with our
personal stuff has finally arrived and was being held at customs so we had to
go there to clear it off and declare what's in it. It was good to get into the
Mustang and wind up the engine a bit again. However the road itself was as
boring as it could get. Completely straight and flat all the way. The weather
is still really nice and warm, however the forecast seems to be predicting
winter arriving this weekend. As soon as the jetstream moves our way we'll be
getting polar air and winter hits suddenly. I don't look forward to it as I
don't think I can prepare myself for it, no matter how hard I try. All I have
to do is justtake it as it comes I suppose. Just come on and take your best
shot at me! Hehe, let's see if I get more than what I gamble for...
Some of our learning here at school takes place in the class room and some of
it is called CBT (Computer Based Training) where we get the syllabus on the
laptop which we borrowed from Bombardier for the duration of the course. Then
we teach ourselves subjects like aircraft systems, topics of aerodynamics and
other essentials. I have a feeling that the course in aerodynamics is going to
be rather hard and in depth but at least I think it's interesting and exciting.
Now I'm off to prepare some more for tomorrow and study the EP's.
/GEA
16-09-2008
(Tuesday 1615) Second day over yet it
feels like I've been here for months already. The days are really packed and
when you get off school you just hit the books for many hours and time just
flies by. This Friday we have our first exam. It's in Aircraft Technical which
is basically about aircraft systems such as avionics, electrics, hydraulics and
I suppose we'll have a bit about pneumatics too, but I'm not sure yet. The subject
isn't specific for any aircraft type, but covers aircraft in general, both
civil and military. Otherwise we had some more aerodynamics and Meteorology
today. Apparently we'll be having a progress test or an exam every week so
we're on the edge all the time.
The Canadian Forces are really professional and the school facility are
fantastic, which makes it more enjoyable to attend and easier to learn I
suppose. There are still some cultural differences we have to get used to - one
of them is saluting. This morning COM and myself were on the way to school when
an officer came across. COM asked me if I knew what rank he was and I couldn't
see his rank from my position so I just said: "I have no idea, but let's
just salute to be on the safe side..."
We later found out he was a Captain so it didn't hurt to salute him.
Some of the Canadians in class have a difficulty pronouncing my callsign in a
Danish manner so some of them just call me Steve O, which is ok with me.
Actually I'll order a name tag with that on just for fun.
That's it
for now.
/GEA
18-09-2008
(Thursday 1940) First week over soon but
as you know, tomorrow we have the first exam at 0730. I feel quite prepared for
it, yet I have experienced that the times when I feel most prepared are
probably the times when I should be most concerned. So I'm going to study and
restudy my stuff until I cannot hold my eyes open any longer.
The amount of information that is thrown at you at school is unbelievable. It's
basically like trying to drink through a fire-hose going flat out - you have no
chance of getting all of it in, not in one go anyway! The Harvard II is a very
complex aircraft and since it's powered by a jet engine, most systems are new
to us so there's quite alot of new stuff to learn. The checklists are also
somewhat longer than the ones we had back at flying school in Denmark. The good
thing on the other hand is that the aircraft is over five times as powerful as
the T17 we flew back in Denmark and will definitely be much more fun to fly -
that in itself is quite motivating.
TGIF is approaching rapidly and to be honest we all look forward to it. However
I'm sure that we'll all be using most of the weekend on studying, at least the
next few weekends here in the early stages of ground school.
The weather is still great here, today we actually had about 30 degrees again.
So yesterday, during our lunch break I took my GT for a spin. One of the guys
asked me why I did it. "Well, just because I felt like it!"
Oh by the way, TGIF stands for "Thank God It's Friday"
/GEA
19-09-2008
(Friday 0955) The exam is over and
everyone made it ok but to be honest I'm quite pissed off. I got 98% which is a
shared lowest position among us Danes. It really doesn't mean anything but it's
still frustrating. My only wrong answer was one of the RTFQ. I hate when it
happens because I obviously knew the answer but got mixed up in the words. If
you've forgotten what RTFQ means, it means "Read the f***ing
question."
That's it for now. It's time for some more AOI (Aircraft Operating Instructions)
which is basically about all the systems in the Harvard II. Next test will be
on Tuesday and incorporates the first half of our Red Pages, also known as
Emergency procedures. Stay tuned...
/GEA
20-09-2008
(Saturday 0320) Just back from downtown
where some of us partied a bit after being at the officer's mess. We had an
arrangement called Hungarian night tonight at the mess, where the Hungarian
students made food and enetertainment - Hungarian style! It was a good evening.
At one point there was a competition where they needed a representative from
English Canada, French Canada, Germany, Italy and Denmark...and guess who drew
the short straw. You guessed it - I had to represent the Danes. The competition
was about drinking three shots quickest with your hand tied behind your back. I
won and brought the honour to the Dane camp which made me feel a bit better
after today's exam. Zhe Zerman instructor who was representing his country was
quite experienced in the game and therefore quite confident that he would win,
hehe, but no.
At one point we'll be having a Viking night, where we, the Danish students,
will do a similar arrangement for everyone else. Our intro party got postponed
to next Friday by the way but tomorrow we have a welcome party by the senior
Danish students and our Danish instructors. We look forward to it. Now it's
time to go to bed.
Next time I'll remember to say my prayer before an exam. I get quite religious
during exam periods. The prayer should sound something like this: "Dear
Lord, please don't let me f**k up."
/GEA
20-09-2008
(Saturday 1430) One thing I'm blessed
with is that I never get any hangovers. That way I can party and still be
somewhat productive the next day. Today I learned the Pre Start checklist for
the Harvard II, which incorporates just about 70 items in the cockpit which
have to be dealt with in the check. It's the first one of many, so tomorrow
I'll go on to the othercheck lists.
I took a drive in the Mustang today, just for the sake of it after having
visited MAT. It's still so much fun to drive it - I love it! And I seem to
appreciate it more now than when we were in the USA. It's not that unlogic,
considering that we drove 6-10 hours per day during our road trip.
It was fun when I was downtown at a club yesterday and this guuy comes up to me
and says: "How are you doing, Bandit brother?"
We're ordering some Bandit Flight T-shirts soon with our callsign on them.
The T-shirt says:
When we're good, we're good.
When we're bad, we're better.
When
we're drunk, we're naked.
Bandits!
/GEA
21-09-2008
(Sunday 2015) The weekend is almost
over, yet it was another good one so no regrets from here. The welcome dinner
at our Senior National Representative yesterday evening went great. We had a
good time and got to know eachother a little better, those of us who hadn't met
before, anyway. Otherwise we did some physical training today and some more
studying of the Red Pages (EP's) and some more of the White Pages (Normal
operation check-lists). JØR and myself also took our rides "for a spin
around the block." It was good fun. The Mustang gives you most horsepower
at about 6000RPM and best tourque at 4500RPM. So I figured that the quickest
way to accelrate would be to rev it up at 4500RPM and then bring the RPM up and
keep it up while changing gears. It goes nicely and it's amazing that the
wheels actually spin when you go into second gear and release the clutch, even
though you're going pretty fast by then...
Tomorrow we'll be having a few lessons in Aerodynamics and Aircraft Operating
Instructions. Other than that we have a test in the first half of the Red Pages
Tuesday and a test in Aerodynamics on Friday. This isn't exactly a walk in the
park, yet I don't feel under a stressing amount of pressure yet. perhaps it
gets worse - let's wait and see. The weather is starting to change, rapidly
indeed! The locals say that it gets cold very suddenly. I don't look forward to
the freezing weather but we've passed the point of no return I guess.
/GEA
21-09-2008
(Sunday 2225) Still awake but it won't
be long before I head to bed. I've just uploaded a few pictures from the road
trip and been looking at our route on Google Earth. Man, what a great adventure
that trip was! I'll probably never experience anything similar in my life.
It's just over four weeks ago that we left Denmark, yet somehow it feels like
it's been years. I guess it's a number of factors that make it feel like it's
been longer than it actually has. One of them is that we've experienced so much
in such a short span of time. The other factor could be that it's because we've
been so busy during the whole period. First with buying six sports cars, then
the road trip itself with lots of planning, changing of plans, driving and
sight seeing and since we got here we've been busy with Ground school.
Today I was dying to charge up my A4 Skyhawk model and make a flight with it
but I don't want to fly it until the exams and the hardest part of ground
school are over in about 3-4 weeks time. It would only take time away from my
studying which wouldn't be too good. By the time I'm less busy it would
probably be too cold to fly models so I'd probably have to wait for spring, but
that's ok. Right now, NFTC has my first priority by far. Off to bed. G'nite.
/GEA
23-09-2008
(Tuesday 1950) We had two tests in
Aircraft Operations Instructions (AOI) today, specifically about the Harvard
II. They went ok for all of us I guess. The first part was about the first half
of the red pages (EP's) in which I think everyone got 100% correct answers. You
might get the idea that it's an easy test because of the results, but it isn't!
You have to know every little detail in every procedure as one day it might
save your life. They take them very seriously indeed. One of the reasons is
that some of the systems in the Harvard can only be operated from the front
cockpit which means that on your very first flight you might get a real
emergency which you'd have to deal with...and the instructor sitting about six
feet behind you won't have time to explain and guide you through the procedure.
You just have to know what you have to do.
The other part of the test was hard I think. I only got 95.4% which wasn't too
good but I'm ok with it. This Friday we have yet another progress test, this
time in Aerodynamics. Then next week we have the last AOI prog test at the
beginning of the week and the final exam in AOI at the end of the week...and
perhaps another Aerodynamics prog test.
I suppose they just want to make sure that we don't get bored and that we don't
notice the weather getting colder until it's too late. And by the way, it IS
getting colder but nothing I can't handle yet. However I don't think it'll be
many days before it goes freezing.
/GEA
25-09-2008
(Thursday 2120) Just finished studying
for tomorrow's Aerodynamics test. It's quite a handful to be honest and there's
alot of new stuff, even considering my background at Flying School in Denmark
and the background in gliding that I have, and not to mention all the books I
read in Aerodynamics just of pure interest.
Well, we'll see how the test goes tomorrow. After school we have our intro
party tomorrow, where the theme is "70's Olympic athletes." The party
is organised by the class who started before us (2 months ago) and it will most
probably involve ALOT of drinking. There will be alot of onlookers as the intro
pary is always fun for the audience, as you would see all the newbies go
through a whole torture programme just for the sake of it. The only problem
tomorrow is that we're the newbs. But we look forward to it none the less.
The weather development has taken another turn. Apparently it's going to get
warmer again in the next few days which is just great. The longer it stays
warm, the better.
I'll probably won't write tomorrow evening as I'll be at the party but I might
drop a word or two during the day just to let you know how it went with the
test. If you don't hear from me then it's probably ok. As they used to say:
"No noose is good news..."
/GEA
26-09-2008
(Friday 2135) Quite a few things
happened today and they changed all of our plans. First of all the test went ok
- everybody passed. Myself I got 96.88% which I'm satisfied with.
Apparently last weekend some broken beer bottles were found outside the mess
and because of that, this weekend we're going to have inspection at 0700, both
Saturday and Sunday. So officially it means that we're on duty both days and
are therefore not allowed to drink tonight in order to be presentable tomorrow
morning when the base commandant comes over to inspect our rooms, our uniforms
and most importantly us. We're all quite frustrated about the whole thing but
there's no other way around it. So our intro party got postponed to tomorrow at
1pm. That way we can drink our brains out in the early afternoon and still be
able to recover for Sunday morning's inspection. Somehow it feels like the old
times when I was a recruit doing Sergeant school. We'll survive. I suppose I
better find my formal uniform and clear up this mess I have in here. Have a nice weekend!
/GEA
28-09-2008
(Sunday 1150) Not much of a Sunday
today... Started off at 0700 with the inspection. I got up at 0600 in order to
clean the place up, take a shower and shave and get everything ready. Since
then I've basically been studying for tomorrow's AOI test number 2. The test is
again shared in two parts. Half of the red pages, where the pass mark is no
less than 100% and then the actual Aircraft Operation Instructions where the
pass mark is 85%. I'm not nervous about the red pages as I have them under
control but there's still alot of systems in the aircraft that I have to learn
about before tomorrow. The Harvard II must seriously be the most complicated
aircraft in the world, considering that it doesn't have any weapon systems or
autopilot. Some of the components are so over-complicated and the names that
they invented for them are mind blowing. I think that the engineers who
designed those components got commission for inventing fancy names.
It's amazing how much flying experience most of the instructors have, here at
the school. One of them has had time on aircraft from the F86 Sabre, F4
Phantom, F104 Starfighter and F16 among MANY others which I just can't remeber
right now. That must be the dream carreer to have done duty on so many
fantastic jets. There are quite a few veterans who quit flying in the Air Force
and are back as ground instructors. It's really entertaining to hear about
their "war" stories.
One thing that was entertaining was our welcome party yesterday...
/GEA
29-09-2008
(Monday 2035) Another day over and it
was an eventful one too. This morning I had to show up at 0700 for my first
egress training. It's basically a lesson in how to strap into the aircraft and
how to get out of it in a hurry, without using the ejection seat that is...
It was nice to finally sit in the Harvard and see the cockpit. All the
instruments are CRT's except for the standby ones, which is why it's called a
glass cockpit. When the aircraft is switched off, all of the screens are black
so I can't wait to get some life into it. Tomorrow I have the next egress
lesson and should be able to unstrap myself and exit the aircraft in 15 seconds
if all goes well.
We had the AOI progress test two today and everyone passed. I got 100% in the
Red Pages which was good as the pass mark IS 100% but I got 97.17% in the other
half of the test as I had a couple of (stupid) mistakes. JØR is the one doing
best at ground school so far, having got 100% in all the tests - not bad at
all!
This friday we have the final exam in AOI, where half of it is ALL the red pages
and the other half is the AOI itself. Passmark is again 100% for the red pages
and 85% for the rest.
Today I also had a chat with my old friend, PLA, who has recently started
flying the Hawk here in Canada. He says it's fantastic but I almost figured
that out on my own. It's a big motivating factor for me to have the Hawk as a
reward for doing well on the Harvard - not to mention the F16 at the end of the
line.
/GEA
29-09-2008
(Monday 2135) I mentioned yesterday that
some of the components in the aircraft have very fance names, so I thought I
should give you an example. The harness lock handle on the ejection seat is
called:
"Powered inertia retraction device lock release plunger."
Now that's just one component out of a million in this aircraft. However I do
think that it wins my award for the fanciest name in town. That engineer must
have got a big chunk of money for coming up with that name!
Greg, one of the Canadians has just been here so while he was here we quickly
tested eachother on all the Red Pages in order to stay sharp on them. All went
well and it feels good! As the AOI instructor says: "One day, the red
pages might save your life." So there's good reason to take them
seriously.
I really like my Canadian mates. We get along well and they're all quite
relaxed and are very open towards us Danes.
Anyway, now it's time to study another half hour before I hit the pillow and
get ready for yet another great day in the praries.
/GEA