Track select and "Ice Storm 2010"

On January 19th I went through my track select for pilot training. This event signifies the completion of phase two and the beginning of phase three, the final one. I am all done flying the T-6 and the track select night is when they assign you to one of four possible follow-on trainers. The two main aircraft we can go to are the T-38 and the T-1, both of which are here at Vance AFB. The T-38 is the track you go down if you are going to fly a fighter or a bomber while the T-1 is the track for the heavies, cargo planes, and re-fuelers.

The two other less common options are the T-44 and UH-1. The T-44 is a multi-engine prop aircraft owned by the Navy that is used to train Air Force pilots specifically for the C-130. So going to fly T-44's means you also know what your final aircraft will be. If you get selected for T-44's then you have to move to Corpus Christi, TX since that is where the training is. The UH-1 is the least common of all and that is a helicopter to train pilots for that route. That training is done with the Army at Fort Rucker, AL.

Usually how it works is that in a class of about 30 students, 1 or 2 will want to fly helicopters and they can get those spots pretty easy. As for everyone else, most people want to fly a fighter or a bomber so they fight for the 4 to 6 T-38 slots that are given to each class. Then about 3-4 T-44's are given to the next bunch of people who want to fly the C-130 while the rest of the class fly the T-1. As strange as it sounds, I went against the grain and I put T-1's as my first choice so it was pretty obvious that I was going to get it. I like the mission of the cargo planes more than the rest so I think I will be happy with that! Nevertheless the track select night was filled with enjoyment and it was pretty neat getting my assignment.

The way they run the ceremony is they have each student come up one at a time, they make fun of you for a few minutes and then they put up on the screen what you were selected for. They said that I would be "most likely to find a spelling error in the bible" since I was always finding errors in our flight publications that needed to be fixed. In the end I did get selected to fly T-1’s so the good news is I won’t have to move. I started academics for the T-1 the very next day and I should have my first flight in mid February.

Now on to “Ice Storm 2010.” I’ve found that down here they like to name their storms by the year they occur…like “Blizzard ‘09” that hit Oklahoma city in December. That concept right there is pretty funny and should tell you right away how often they get snow. The weather guys had been predicting this recent storm several days in advance and I’ll explain the humorous chain of events which lead up to Thursday’s storm.

On Monday, well in advance, we were already under a winter storm watch. The weather on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday was a clear blue sky and 65 degrees…I was wearing shorts. By Wednesday afternoon they declared a winter storm warning (while it was 65 degrees) and by Wednesday afternoon the Oklahoma governor declared a “preemptive state of emergency” which had me rolling on the floor laughing when I heard about it. Thursday morning rolls around and the only thing that changed was an overcast sky and temps in the 30’s…no precipitation yet. But to stay on the safe side Vance AFB closed down and we had a “snow” day due to the weather on it’s way. So I had the whole day off and then snow didn’t even start to fall until 4:00 PM.

The snow then continued all the way through Friday evening with breaks here and there, so we got Friday off too. All in all it did end up snowing quite a bit, especially for around here but boy do they freak out when a storm is coming! All of the pictures were taken on Friday after it had been snowing for a while and my car was covered pretty well.