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Published: January 8th 2009
Hawaii!
At Xmas Eve dinner with Hannah and Keely (my nieces)Well my little experiment with a regular blog didn't work out so well. I guess I'm just too used to the Travel Blog site. Anyway, I figure that since I won't be updating it every day, and I have felt like I'm traveling since I left Maryland, this kind of works... I'll republish the other stories I had on my other blog, then probably dump that site. There's a new entry at the end, so even if you're read the other blog site, there's a new update.
My first entry from 11/28/08: I'm attempting to find an easier way to keep up with friends and family about where I am in the world and what I'm doing, since it changes so quickly. I think anyone who reads this probably knows where I am now, but in case not... I finished my surgery internship at NNMC Bethesda in July, then took the tropical medicine course, which included 3 weeks in Peru. I got back in August and worked in the plastics department at NNMC until I finished there (which eliminated any trace of doubt that I want to do plastics). I checked out of NNMC in September, then had 6 weeks
The rents
A nice pic! At the Xmas Eve dinner in Hawaii off before checking into flight school at Pensacola. During that 6 weeks, I did a lot of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, visited with family, and traveled to Japan for 3 weeks. I drove down to Pensacola, FL on Nov 5th, with an overnight at my cousin Meem's house in North Carolina. I checked into the command here on Friday Nov 7, and began the hunt for somewhere to live that weekend.
After seeing a handful of places on Friday and Saturday, I settled on a nice little house in the historic district of downtown Pensacola. Ok, so it's like 1 block away from the ghetto, but it's a cute house on a cute street, and is perfect for my needs. I'm only here for 6 months, so it really didn't matter much what I picked. But it's nice having a garage and a backyard! My next task is to find a hot tub for the backyard...
School really started on Wed Nov 12(Tues was Veteran's Day), which was two days after they delivered my household goods. What a pain in the butt!!! You don't realize how much crap you have until you have to unpack each and every thing.
Keely
Runs in the family I guess The first first week of school was mostly introduction lectures, background of aviation, basics of aviation, and some other warm-up stuff. On Friday Nov 21 is when the fun began. Our first phase of flight stuff is API -- Aviation Preflight Indoctrination. It's 6wks total, but the first 4 are the tough academic weeks. The course starts every week for a new class. API is usually mostly Navy pilots (or pilots/NFOs in training), a couple of marines, a couple of air force, and maybe a foreign national or two. 6 classes a year have a handful of flight docs too. Obviously, I'm in the one with flight docs. They start off with lectures about how tough it is, and how serious it is if you fail. Then they tell you to study about 5 hours a night and 8 hours on each weekend day. Passing is 80% and you get 1 retest the next day if you fail. Well, I can't speak for how difficult the tests will be since the first one is on Mon, but the material isn't too complicated yet... Just some memorization stuff.
Our first day, Friday, was mostly just intro stuff, then an
Snorkeling
In Hanauma Bay in Hawaii. With mom and Hannah afternoon of aerodynamics I. Mon was more aerodynamics I and a running/swimming test. Tues was more Aero I, Weather, and more water survival stuff in the freezing cold pool. And Wed morning was just another hour of Aero I and we were cut loose for Thanksgiving. Our first test is Aero I, on Monday. It's pretty cool to finally learn this stuff -- things like lift and drag, and Bernoulli's equation, and what the different parts of an airplane are called. So my next 3 days will be nose in a book, studying Aero I and reading up on Aero II and Weather.
My parents came in on Mon night. It was great to see them again! I was especially grateful for the present I had when I got home on Tuesday afternoon: the whole house was cleaned, any unpacking that still needed to be done (yes I still hadn't finished unpacking!) was done, stuff put away. It was great! Finally the house feels settled. We just had a chill day Wed and went to a $3 movie on base. Just hangin out with the parents was a nice relaxing vacation, even if I didn't go anywhere. Tday was
Sea Urchin
Snorkeling in Hanauma Bay -- love the waterproof case for my camera!! just as nice -- slept late, yummy meal, then hanging out. Unfortunately, mom has to preach on Sun so they had to leave Friday morning to drive back home. 😞 A short stay. The next time I see them will be in Hawaii for Christmas! Woohoo! I can't wait... I think that it can seriously improve your quality of life to have something like a trip to look forward to. It carries you a long way.
Anyway, that pretty much catches things up to now. Once my hammock comes next week, all will be right with the world as I relax in my backyard, swaying in the balmy Florida weather, with a cool glass of iced tea in one hand and an aerodynamics book in the other.
My second entry from yesterday: I'm writing this on the plane from Hawaii back to Florida, during the last vestiges of my Christmas break. It's been an interesting month! Turns out, flight school starts out with an intense 4wks of academics. It wasn't really that bad. They prepped us by telling us we're gonna have to study for 5 hours a night during the week and 8hrs a day on
The rents -- Hawaiian style
Isn't that a great pic? I love it! the weekends. We were all like "We didn't study that much in med school!" Well, they were either trying to scare us into taking it seriously, or some people really do need to study that much. Either way, it was nowhere near that bad. I thought the stuff was pretty interesting actually. Now that I'm here, I actually have some idea of what my 6 months actually entails.
We checked in and had about 2 weeks of flight doc orientation. Then we started API ( Aviation Preflight Instruction) and have 6 wks total of that (4wks of academics then 2wks of pure training - water survival, parachute landing, land survival, etc). I started right before Thanksgiving. My parents actually drove down for the short break we had. It was great to see them I just wish I had more time! They're planning on coming back in Feb though. I just finished the 4th week of API before Christmas break. Next we go to Whiting Field (about 45min north in the town of Milton, FL) for primary (for real pilots, primary is 2yrs long and involves a LOT of flying and lots of studying). Our version of primary involves 7
Hannah
Such class... haha required flights (with an instructor, of course), where we are actually flying the plane. Our trainers are the T-34 turboprop. We also train in helicopters, but I'm not sure what kind yet. Depending on how lucky we are, we might get all our flights done in the first week then have a couple of weeks off. We'll see... After that, we join back up at Pensacola for some actual medical classes. Apparently that'll be death by powerpoint for the last couple of months. Sometime in early March I should find out what billets are available for us, so standby on my dream sheet of possible locations. Then we slide on into graduation on May 29.
Our flight surgery class (there are 3 a year - July, Sept, and Nov) is made up of about 25 docs, most having just finished internship, as I had. There's a big mix of specialties (surgery, medicine, anesthesia, etc), and the group is split between Bethesda (me), Portsmouth, and San Diego (the 3 major training centers in the Navy). We're all Navy. There are a couple of older docs in our class (reservists, and a few others with their own stories), but most are
The sisters
I wish this wasn't so blurry. A nice pic! my age - which is to say that they're married with kids. Grrr Fortunately, I do have a few friends down here from previous classes, so there are still some fun people around (don't deny it, you marrieds know what I mean).
The class was split into 2 groups for API. Each group gets incorporated into a class of aviators (most have been stuck in Pensacola waiting for months for their class to start!). Most of my classmates are fresh out of college (some from the academy), some on the pilot track, and some on the NFO track (I think it stands for Naval Flight Officer, but it means non-flying officer - they're the navigators and other backseat positions). There are a handful of air force people in our class (they have their own training, but some of them get to go to Navy training instead for some reason), and some of the classes have foreign students, but ours doesn't. We have one coastie, who is actually our class leader because he outranks everyone else - he's a LTJG. Haha. It's funny because all the docs are at least LT (there are a couple of LCDRs) but we can't
Family pic
Father and daughter. At Netty's wedding (my half-sister for anyone who doesn't know) be the class leader (for good reason since we're not aviators). We all go through the same training for the first 6 weeks (and are held to the same standards), then the class breaks up as everyone goes to their assigned primary squadrons. We all go to Whiting, but they split up and go a bunch of different places (some go to Whiting).
Week 1 of API started out with Aerodynamics - I finally know what makes an airplane fly (and can name all the parts)! It's really not magic and fairy dust after all. That class actually lasted 2 weeks. Concurrently we learned the nuances of weather (and what makes for good flying and bad flying). After weather, we started engines. I thought I would finally learn how a car works, but I still have some learnin to do for that. Turns out a car engine and airplane engine are a little different. However, I do know how a turbojet and turboprop engine works now, and what all the components are. After engines we started navigation. This was the 3-headed monster of the classes. Everyone says it's the hardest and is when most people fail. We each got
The Happy Couple
Just before the ceremony. A small wedding ceremony in a little church in Honolulu. a chart (detailed map with topography, towers, and airports marked specially), dividers (looks like a compass - the thing you used to draw perfect circles with, but this one has 2 points instead of a pencil in one side), a thing like a protractor to measure and plot angles, and something we called a whiz wheel (I forget what it's really called). The whiz wheel is so complicated. We were joking that you could throw away your computer and just use the whiz wheel. You can do everything from simple math, conversions, plotting winds, figuring out airspeeds, machs, on and on.... It's like a little magic genie. You just rub it and ask a question and it'll answer almost anything you ask! ha. Apparently they're expensive too. It's just a couple of pieces of laminated cardboard, but there's so much info packed into there. If it fell into the wrong hands... haha Anyway, I loved navigation. Charting, and figuring out times, and planning out your jet logs so you can plan your trip. Fun! I guess I was good at it too - got a 100 on the test.
After nav, we all got to wear our flight suits
Mommy!
Me and the momz (it was like we were finally grown ups! Out of the stuffy khakis and into pajamas). Except for the fact that my boots are extremely stiff, the flight suit is a welcome change! Very comfy. We all got issued 4 flight suits (2 green and 2 tan - not sure how long it'll be before I get to wear the tan in the desert...), a helmet, 2 sets of boots, aviator sunglasses (not as sexy on me as on Tom Cruise), a nifty green flight bag, gloves (which they were out of), green jackets to wear over our flight suits if we get cold (they're out of them until April - great), and a really nice brown leather jacket that we can wear with any uniform including flight suits (but not until after we get our wings - good thing it's warm in FL!). A pretty nice haul, thanks to all you taxpayers. 😊
Our last class after navigation was flight rules and regulations. Not very interesting stuff, and taught by the most boring person in the world. At least everyone else who taught was fun to listen to and had good stories. This guy was terrible. But I
Family bonding
Ceremonial cutting of the ponytail after the wedding. hear he's better than the one that normally teaches it. Dang. Can't imagine. We had our last test (that one) on Friday Dec 19, just before break. By 10am I knew I had passed it and was officially done with academics. Woohoo! Celebration time!! Throughout academics, each course came with its own book (about 60 pages) and a test at the end of about 3-5 days of lecture. Fairly intense (but nothing compared to med school). Passing grade is an 80 (yikes!) on a multiple choice test of about 50 questions each (if you do the math, that doesn't allow for very many missed questions). If you fail a test, you have to remediate later that day and retest the next day. If you fail 2 exams (or the retest), you get pushed back a week and redo that whole week. If you fail 3, you go before a board and are likely kicked out. We had a few people roll back a week, but I don't think anyone got kicked out. The rumor is that they're gonna start making it harder though because they have too many pilots. Seems like the smarter solution would be to not train as
The reception
At the Oceanaire restaurant in Honolulu. Soooo good! Ate way too much... uuuggghhhh In the back is my nephew Joe, who got married on Dec 20 in Kauai (the reason everyone was in Hawaii to start with). many, but I guess someone decided that attrition was a better form of population control.
About half our time during API is spent in classes (which, in total, really isn't that much - a few hours a day). The rest of it is spent in water survival training and group PT. The water stuff is actually fun (I think anyway). We started off with just simple evolutions, like treading water for 5min. We built up to doing it in a flight suit, then in a flight suit and boots, then in a flight suit with boots and helmet by the end of the 4 weeks. We also jumped off a tower into the pool (about 20ft high). I thought it would be fun, but it was a little scary once we were up there! It was supposed to simulate jumping off a ship. Kinda cool. First you scan the water for debris, then you pick a spot on the horizon to look at, then you wrap your hand around your face, with your pinky under your chin, your thumb and forefinger holding your nose, and the rest of your fingers splayed out on your cheek. With your other arm
It's official!
They're married! you give yourself a hug. A deep breath, a dose of courage, and you step off the tower, making sure to cross your legs before you hit the water (if you plan on having children in the future). We did that in bathing suits, then later in the course in flight suits and boots. Many of the days ended with swimming laps (which really meant swimming in a circle around our square pool since there were so many of us). All in preparation for the mile swim. A few other fun skills we learned were how to surface in the middle of burning oil (which involves scissoring your arms above your head as you surface to clear a spot on the surface, and make you look pretty retarded). Another fun move was something resembling the sprinkler (for all those who know and love the 80s dance move). This one REALLY makes you look retarded. I guess it would be useful for swimming through burning oil, but I really wonder when was the last time anyone needed to swim through burning oil - um 1945? It all culminated with the mile swim in flight suits and boots. Really not that bad.
My new pet
I went out to check the mail (at night) and caught some movement out of the corner of my eye. I think I'll name him Hank. Not exactly fun, being weighed down by all that crap, but not bad at all. The choices were sidestroke (pretty easy), survival breast stroke (my favorite - like the regular breast stroke but involves more gliding underwater), or the crawl (I don't think anyone went for the crawl - that is freakin hard with a wet long-sleeved flight suit!!).
Sprinkled in with academics and water survival is organized PT. It's actually not as bad as I thought it would be. Since everyone passed our PRT at the beginning of class (pushups, situps, and 1.5mi run but on a crappy awful chip trail!), they were pretty lenient with our PT. We often had free time in the weight room, or a choice between football and soccer (I loved the soccer!), or it was just canceled altogether. My only complaint is that there's no good lap pool to use. The only one on base that's open for laps is only open from 4:30p-6p and 7p-9p. Not very convenient when we finish class around noon most days. Plus they wouldn't let me use my headphones - boring lap swim without music. 😞 I hear there's a pool at the University of West Florida that we can use, but it's a little far for me to venture. I've been copping out and just running. I miss my routine from home though. I also haven't found a good jiu jitsu place here yet. I miss that too! At least there's a standup bag in the weight room to practice on. The gym has yoga classes too - I might actually check those out. If only my shoulder weren't bothering me all of a sudden... I do have to endorse the iron gym though. Bought it recently and couldn't be happier. Hung it over my bedroom door so whenever I'm just wandering around I do a few pullups. I'm already up to 3! (and almost made 4 before I left for vacation).
And for anyone who was following my computer woes, I had a major computer malfunction recently. My beloved Dell Inspiron laptop (had it for a few years now with only a few problems, and only had to send it back once - to crappy service that didn't fix the problem) decided to short out the screen. It might just be a blown bulb, but I can't get anyone to help me with it. I was going to try to replace the bulb, but it's like $100 for the part and might not even work (a good chance that I'll royally hose my computer in the process). Since I was in a bind and didn't want to go without a computer for weeks while I figured this out, I just got a small TV monitor for it, and now use it as a desktop. It's my first LCD, and it's actually pretty nice! But I've gotten so used to having a portable computer, I had to get a new one. And fast - I was leaving for vacation in a couple of weeks! I had toyed with the Mac Air since it's so portable (ultrathin and ultralight), but it comes with a hefty pricetag. However, I figured that everyone loves macs (I'm still part of the PC generation), and maybe it was time I made the switch. Well, after I ordered it, it began to sink in how much of a lifestyle change that would be. I'd have to buy all new programs, the crap I have on my Dell wouldn't be compatible with my Mac, who knows about any of the files, etc etc. Pain in the BUTT! Compound that with the face that I ordered it through the Navy Exchange (I got a good deal) and it was (no joke) THREE WEEKS before I called up wondering where the hell my computer was, and they just told me that the order had been sent and they're just waiting. Not that it had been shipped and was taking a while, or we apologize for the length of time but they're mining the ore and smelting it now. Just that it was placed and that's all they knew. Well I told them to screw that and cancel my order. It was the best thing I ever did!!! I'm SOOO glad I didn't get the stupid thing! You pay a ton of money for some supposedly special computer (because it's thin and light) but you sacrifice function and performance. Instead, I did a little more research and found an amazing little gem in the new generation of netbooks. For those who don't know, netbooks are like mini notebooks. I had seen one, but laughed it off as some toy, not to be confused with a real laptop. They've gone pretty far though. The one I ended up getting is a Samsung (NC-10 for anyone who cares), has a keyboard almost the size of a regular computer, is just as fast as any other computer, if not faster, has a 160GB HD, is about 10in (way smaller than most laptops out there), has a great screen, built in webcam, and is super light. The only thing it's missing is an optical drive. And it's less than a third the price of the Mac Air! Almost a quarter the price! And I got a high end netbook. You can't beat it! Except for the missing optical drive (still trying to cope with that) I don't know if I'll ever go back to notebooks! Anyway, I recommend.
I got my little netbook just in time. Built into our training schedule is 2 weeks off for Christmas/New Years. Our last test was Dec 19, and I was on a plane to Hawaii on Dec 20. Meetin the fam out in Honolulu for 2 weeks! They beat me there, and were actually on Kauai when I got to Oahu, at my nephew Joe's wedding. I hear it was nice. They came back to Honolulu a few days later, and we had a nice week and a half together! We all stayed at the Hale Koa, on Waikiki. It's a hotel that's somehow affiliated with the military. I'm still trying to figure out how. I think it's privately owned and run now, for profit, but was built with military money. It's a prime location, and is open only to military and guests that they sponsor. My half-sister's fiance is retired air force, so he sponsored some and I sponsored some. In the end, we had 3 rooms on the beach in Waikiki. All in all, the hotel was ok. The rooms were nice and clean, the location was nice (the heart of Waikiki and right on the beach), but there were quite a few things lacking (like internet!). We all spent lots of time on the beach, got some snorkeling in (I saw a sting ray within 6 ft of me and almost peed myself - which might have caught its attention, I'm not sure), ate at A LOT of restaurants (there was a fridge but no microwave or freezer anywhere in the hotel, so we couldn't even get creative with microwave cooking. That sucked!) I fulfilled almost everything on my bucket list for Hawaii (which included shave ice from the North Shore, Boots & Kimos mac nut pancakes, Da Big Kahuna pizza, taro bread—include Hawaiian sweet bread instead on the list from now on, Teddy's Burgers, lots of sushi, and Todai's). The only thing I missed was the shrimp van. Their hours suck! I finally got to see the Arizona memorial though! And the Punchbowl. Plus I added a few new items to my list (AWESOME ramen place and Oceanaire restaurant).
The weather was hit or miss. Most days on Waikiki was sunny and warm (with occasional clouds and maybe little sprinkles). It was the days we ventured out to Bellows - cold, windy, and overcast - Hanauma Bay, and a few other touristy things elsewhere on the island (the Swap Meet, the Arizona memorial, shopping) that the weather sucked. However, I still managed to get plenty of beach time in (never enough!), read a few books, and see some sea turtles. It was a great trip, but Christmas just wasn't the same. We woke up on Christmas morning and it was like any other day. We traded little gift bags, but it wasn't really anything that special. Kinda sucked. New Year's was much the same (except I could give a crap about New Year's). Most of the evenings were spent eating and just hanging out. Part of the reason that we were all there was for my nephew's wedding. The other part was because my half-sister got married while we were out there. The wedding was supposed to be on New Year's Eve, but groom had to go back early so they bumped the ceremony up a few days and got married on Dec 28. It was a small ceremony in the church, followed by an awesome dinner at the Oceanaire restaurant. For New Year's, we had some champagne, went to dinner, drank a little more, and everyone was too tired to actually do anything. I feel like the real New Year's was at 7pm local time, so I didn't really care (not that I normally care about New Year's anyway). Instead we just hung out and had champagne at the hotel. It was my first time seeing fireworks for New Year's though. It was a pretty impressive display! We had a pretty high floor in the hotel, facing the beach, so we had a great view. There were a few other shows going on in other parts of Waikiki too, so it was like fireworks in stereo.
And that pretty much catches me up to now. The fun begins this week at API -- we do survival stuff and parachute stuff. More fun stories to follow!
A slight addendum: The past few days have been the start of the fun stuff in API. Mon was land survival. While this sounds cool in theory, in actuality it was a very long day with very few breaks. A rough start coming back from vacation. It almost all classroom. It was kinda cool though -- learning what types of plants you can generally eat (blue and black berries ok, red, white, and green not so much, and you can eat the new growth on almost anything from a fern to a tree) and how to start a fire with nothing (the rub 2 sticks together method. Incidentally, I finally found out why I suck at building a fire in my fireplace -- I left out the kindling! Tender (i.e., paper, fluff, bark) then kindling (smalls twigs), THEN larger wood... oops). Overall it was cool to learn about. Normally it's a 3-day course that this guy teaches, of which 2 days are spent in the wild with nothing but your skills from day 1. By the way, everyone should buy a magnesium stick from Walmart-- those things are amazing! You can start a fire from nothing with that and a knife! Cool!
The next day was day 1 of our 2-day aviation physiology lectures. The first day was all lectures. The second day, however, was the altitude chamber AND the spin and puke (multi-sensory spacial disorientation or something like that is the real name). My group had the spin and puke first. I had forgotten, but I've actually done that one before. First they give you a lecture about night vision, and in a completely dark room, show you some cool tricks your eyes play and ways to combat it. Then you get in the ride. It actually is a ride -- it was designed by the engineers who modeled the teacup ride at Disney after it. And that's exactly what it's like. You get in your little sealed chamber, everything gets black, put your headphones on, and to the tune of Van Halen (there were only 3 choices for us to pick from and Top Gun got ruled out), you follow instructions about pushing buttons, moving the joystick, and entering numbers -- all while trying to figure out what direction you're going. No one puked in our group (but if it had gone on longer...) After lunch, we came back and did the altitude chamber. This was my 3rd time in the chamber (and apparently we do it every 4 years when we recert this stuff). The point is for you to see what your symptoms of hypoxia are. They pressurize it to 25,000ft and you take off your mask (normal airliners cruise around 30-35,000 but they pressurize to about 8,000 -- lower than the slopes in Colorado). At that atmosphere, there isn't enough oxygen to keep you going for long. Within minutes you start to notice the symptoms -- different for everyone (and changes each time apparently). For me, my symptoms have always been dizziness and lightheadedness (feels like I'm drunk). This time, it was more intense and started making me a little nauseous (probably from the spin and puke). The first time I did it, I stayed off O2 long enough to start getting a little goofy. The second time, I went longer and just kept doing my little baby game (the one with the shaped blocks that go into the ball) until I couldn't even recognize what I was doing -- that time someone actually had to put my mask back on b/c I was so out of it. This time, I went back on almost immediately. Nothing too exciting there. They have to you play patty cake while you're off O2 so everyone can watch and laugh as you make a fool of yourself. Most people's initial symptoms were dizziness, some with tingling in fingers, but if you go long enough, everyone gets retarded. You get slower, forgetful, can't follow directions, can't focus, then finally just freeze with a blank look on your face (right before you pass out). Put this mask back on and you're back to normal within a few seconds. Pretty cool. On our way back down from 25,000ft, they suddenly lost power to the chamber. Apparently that was the first time that's every happened. Fortunately, they found the pneumatic controls fast enough so we only slid down about 3,000ft before they picked up and slowly descended the rest of the way. That would have been a rough rapid decompression if they blew it down to 0 from 25,0000! Picture the movie where the door blows out of the airplane while it's flying. They said that had never happened before. Our luck, we had just finished everything and won't have to do it again.
And that catches us up to today. Tonight I'm goin for some fun local bar trivia in a few hours. Tomorrow is bay ops -- I think that's where we get picked up (really tea-bagged) by the rescue helo in the bay. Hope all is well with everyone -- will post pics when I actually get some on here...
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Aunt Mad
Madelyn Tusay
Wow!!!
You certainly are having some amazing, challenging adventures! It's sooo great that you were actually able to fit Hawaii into the middle of all of it! God bless you!