I know I haven't been around here much lately. I've been swamped with lots of training at work. I haven't even been able to work on my bus for two months now.
But I'm almost done and then I should have more time! WOO HOO! Anyways, I've been in the Air Force for over 10 years now. Been a heavy aircraft mechanic the whole time. A little over a year ago, I retrained to flight engineer. I was away from home for about 4 months for training. Couldn't work on the bus then either. The past few months have been pretty intense. Hence my absence here. Anyways, I had several months of training in the simulator for my plane (the E-3 AWACS). They finally turned me loose today for my first flight! WOO HOO! Man I'm stoked. I love having a job that I look forward to going to! As a flight engineer, I sit right behind the pilots and I have a panel where I operate and monitor things like the hydraulics, fuel burn, weight and balance, pressurization, electrics, air conditioning, etc. I also plan the flight data, start and manage the 4 jet engines, coordinate, and manage the fuel onload when we do midair refueling, and handle any in flight emergency that might arise. I push the throttles up on takeoff as well. It's too much fun! So, I've worked pretty hard to make it to where I'm at and I'm just on cloud 9 today! I hope you guys understand!
Here's some pics of my day at work today. We flew over Michigan, but I couldn't see Jason's bus. Too cloudy.