SOLO!!!

Ok so,

It seems like a MUCH bigger deal to me than to all of you, but I solo-ed for the first time on Saturday, May 26, 2012!

The day started at 3pm: Mike and I went over my pre-solo knowledge test. It was open book test, and asked a bunch of questions that I MAY have copied and pasted from SOME sources. Either way, I did well, but I want to go over it and know and memorize the answers and feel confident in answering them. I mean, flying is potentially going to be my life. I can't check the emergency procedures when I'm going Mach 2, can I?

Anyway. After that, Mike and I got in the plane, and we flew the pattern a little bit (flew in a circle around the runway). I landed and took off several times, and then Mike said, "I think you're ready to go alone!"

He told me that when I solo, I have to tell the ground frequency that it is my first solo. Then, when I talk to the tower, I have to say "student pilot" at the end of my request to take off. So I told ground it was my first solo, and taxied to the runway. I made sure that my landing checklist was complete (fuel pump on, anti collision light on, transponder at appropriate setting, etc.)

I have a hunch that the ground frequency people told the tower frequency people that it was my first solo, because here's what happened:
I mentioned before that flying the pattern is pretty straight forward:

Basically flying around the runway

But occasionally, the tower asks you to do certain things.

First of all, when I took off, they told me to make a left traffic turn (like in the picture above). However, when I was about 500 feet into my ascent, they told me to make a right traffic turn.

Ok.

Then, they told me to extend my downwind (usually because there are a lot of planes in the pattern and they need to space them out). That means to keep flying on the "downwind" section until they tell me to turn. Well, a couple of seconds later, they told me to make a left 360. This means to make a 360 degree turn. The first time I did this, it felt....wasteful. I mean, imagine if, to buy time in a traffic jam, you made a 360 degree turn in your car?  It seems so silly, right? Well, it is a typical airplane maneuver when flying the pattern. So I made a 360. Then, the tower told me I was following another plane. I didn't see the plane, so I said "looking for traffic!" I STILL couldn't see it, and then the tower called in and said my "traffic" (the plane I was following), was just off my right side. I saw it, and the tower confirmed me for a "touch and go" which is a landing and then immediate takeoff. I told them that it was a full stop landing (I had to, according to Mike...) and they confirmed that.

Then I landed, and it was awesome!!!!!


Mike called out the desk people at East Coast Aero Club, and I got my photo taken. It was a SUPER hot day, and I had already been sweating like no ones business. On top of that, I was supposed to go out with a friend after my lesson, so I had worn a cute silk dress. Well, silk REALLY shows wet sweat spots. I know, I know, it's gross, but it's true. For those of you that come up in my plane with me, you will see how hot it gets!!

Anyway, I did a fun pose on my plane. I was told I was allowed to pose however I like, and this was the end result:

I love this dress. And I love this particular Tomahawk.

This is me and Mike right after:

So if you want to HEAR my first solo, I have it for you!

1) 21:05 is just about where I get my take off clearance and LEFT traffic
2) About 22:15 is where I get the change: RIGHT traffic
3) Approx 23:50 is where I get instructions to extend my downwind
4) 24:39 is where I get instructions to make a left 360.
5) 25:40 is where I'm told who to follow....
6) 26:25 is where the tower tells me where to look for the plane I'm following, and promptly gives me touch and go clearance, and then landing clearance after I ask. Yay!!!!

More Better?

You all know I've been working out a lot, and flying too. I mentioned in a previous post that I have a love/hate relationship with running. One of my biggest issues with running is that my feet KILL after I run. To the point where I feel like an 80 year old when I get out of bed. At first, it was my heels (I am a heavy heel striker). So I bought new shoes, (Brooks brand) and tried to work on changing my gait by running more on the balls of my feet. Well, that was a failure as well. I did it too much, and my arch and medi tarsels started hurting too.

When I was in Israel, I ran once, on my old crappy sneakers. It wasn't a long run, and my feet didn't hurt as much, but they still hurt a little. There were actually three girls on the trip who were runners, and who had Vibram 5 toe shoes. The premise behind these shoes is that they are as close to being barefoot as possible. The fact that they are "barefoot" apparently forces you to run in the most natural way, thus putting pressure where it belongs and relieving any pain.

My first opinion when seeing these shoes? "Stupid" and "What a dumb idea". But I NEED to be able to run in the Air Force, and clearly there's something wrong with my gait, and my awesome Brooks are not helping. So I buckled and bought a pair of five finger shoes and socks. I'm hoping that I can reprogram my gait, and then run in sneakers again correctly (U.S. Military does not allow the use of "barefoot running" shoes).

Hello Kermit feet!

The Bottom

The tops

I was told by the lady at the store that I have obnoxiously wide feet (yes, I already knew that) and they wouldn't fit into the normal version, so I got the "lace up" version.

So far? I've run in them about 3 times. I've DEFINITELY noticed that I have to focus on my gait. I definitely run slower, and I need to stretch my feet afterwards on a tennis ball. I like them though. I fly in them too, and I LOVE that I can feel the rudder pedals and brakes better than with regular sneakers. Another thing that I've noticed is that planks are SO much more effective when I wear these. When I do planks in sneakers, my legs start hurting and not my abs (which is the whole point of planks) I did planks in these the other day, and I felt it in my abs for the first time EVER.

So far, two tentative thumbs up.

Running = More Better

Another thing that I experimented this week was a juice fast. After Israel, alcohol, cheese, etc., I thought a cleanse might be a good idea. The plan is/was to drink V8 and Prune juice (I love prune juice) for about 3 days. So Monday, I worked out, drank a bunch of juice, then decided to walk to Harvard square, took the bus home, and drank V8 every time I felt hungry. Well, at about 1:30 pm, I was exhausted and took a nap. A long nap. A nap that lasted until 4:30. I woke up and was STILL tired. Then I had a power bar. I felt better after that. I don't think that I can do a juice fast AND work out AND work. I just don't have the energy. So on Tuesday I kept up with the juice fast, but added protein in the form of fish and pistachios. I definitely had more energy, but I did still fall asleep on the couch at one point. All in all, I would say a straight up juice fast is an epic fail and totally not worth it if you're remotely active.

I'm still KIND OF juice fasting, but also ingesting protein at least once a day. I'll try to maintain it til Friday, but won't be distraught if I can't.

Juice Fasting = Not Really More Better

čau for now!

Results and Reflections

Most of you are my friends on Facebook. For those of you that aren't, you probably haven't seen this picture:

So, you can see from the photo in the background that an Israeli Solider is flexing his bicep. We (me, the soldier who was part of my group, and Lauren, a trip leader) decided to do the same pose. So this is my real LEFT arm, flexing. I capitalize "left" because my left arm is my weaker arm. This is the first time I've ever seen myself like that. I was a little depressed, and a lot impressed. Depressed because I never wanted to get "big" like this. Here is a photo of my arm from Summer of 2010:

Definitely smaller. Granted, I'm not flexing here.
There are days at the gym where I look at myself doing tricep dips and I love seeing the muscle definition. See Below:

Also, I mentioned in my last post that I'm so thrilled I can do 5 (almost 6!) pull ups. I don't really want to regress from that.

So after I posted this photo, I got the following comment sequence:

AR: Is that really your arm??? 

Me: Yes, that is my arm. I am flexing my muscles. It looks different when I'm just relaxed 

AR: still, you have some guns on ya! 

Me: I know. It's a little scary to see, but good that I've got results from all the hard work I've been doing. There are other results too that are not exactly facebook appropriate. Lol. 

LM: typical L making a foooolio 

JM (The guy that made me my workout): Good stuff! My intent wasn't to get you big though....I'll have to rethink that whole plan of attack. I'm working out a new routine right now for cutting and endurance. I'll let you know how it works. GOOD JOB KAT!

Me:  Lol thanks J. While I love that I'm strong, I'm not a huge fan of the Hulk look ;-) 

JM: I've just about got the new routine down. Are you willing to use a sledge hammer (or splitting maul), and do you have access to kettle bells? 

Me: Um. Kettle bells probably, I don't think I have access to a sledge hammer or splitting maul... 

JM: crap... I'll find a substitute for the sledge hammer. The goal this time will be explosive power and endurance; you've already got strength. 

RW (Friends with JM): Women who don't want to be bulked up should do more reps of lower weights. [Thanks Captain Obvious, I DEFINITELY knew that *grrr*]  

JM: That's the route that was taken...fail.


Anyway. It was nice to know that JM had taken my request (don't want to get big) into account. I guess I could have used lower weights, but then what's the point of lifting if it's too easy? I guess I could do more reps...
I think I can actually pinpoint the day that gave me those arms...the bicep and shoulder day. The first time I did that workout, it felt like I had little bicep shoots growing. It was a good feeling!

Anyway, I will not do the biceps anymore. I might switch that day out with just a bunch of pushups mixed with abs. I'm interested to see the new workout that JM puts together for me.
 



So in Israel, I actually met a guy who went through the entire pilot process and then got booted at the end. I asked about the process, and it sounds a lot like mine. The difference seemed to be smaller "chunks' of academic tests mixed in with smaller "chunks" of physical tests. For example, he got his hearing checked after he was accepted. I got mine checked before. I have 6 different "segments" (AFOQT, TBAS, Physical 1, Physical 2, OTS, IFS), and it sounded like he had about 9-10. He also told me that the Israeli and US air forces had a fake Air Battle a couple of years ago, and the Israeli Air Force "shot down" 60 US planes, and the US Air Force apparently "shot down" 1 Israeli plane. Hmmmm. The two Air Forces apparently work fairly closely together. More so than other Israeli/US military branches.


Finally, I went flying yesterday and today. My landings are getting really consistently good. Mike wants me to Solo as soon as possible. After todays lesson, I will work on the take home test that Mike requires I take before I solo. I'm so excited! Although a little nervous! It's nice having him in the plane to fix mistakes or tell me what I need to correct. I'm a little nervous to go up ALL ALONE!!!! But I can't wait.

I'll catch you all later.

Results

So many of you have read how I was struggling with landings. You've also all read about my work out regimen. Well, it's been a while, and I've started to see results.

First of all, I went flying early in the morning with Mike - 7am on a Sunday early. There is this phenomenon called "diurnal" which is shortly after sunrise and shortly before sunset: the winds quiet down to only a couple of knots (or nothing at all). Side note! Mike is a fairly liberal (read: non-practicing) Jew, kind of like me. We went up in the plane on one of the first days of Passover, and I asked if he was doing a seder, and he said "no. Are you?"
"No"
"We're two bad Jews in a plane. Two bad Jews in a plane! You could make a song out of that...."

Hilarious. Anyway. 7 am on a Sunday was just another day for both of us. Loving flying means flying when you can. I asked Mike if flying ever gets old, if he ever gets tired of it...He said "No. If you love it, it never stops. It just keeps going and gets better!"

I'm sorry, back to Sunday. No wind, no people, beautiful day. Guess what? My landings were AWESOME. I felt absolutely great doing them. The trick for me is to focus on the end of the runway. Which makes sense: how often do you drive whilst looking at the hood of your car? Probably never. The temptation with planes is to look at the propeller and the ground coming up at you, instead of looking down the runway and seeing the bigger picture. Either way, I definitely got it. I am so ready to solo (fly on my own!!!) Even though some of my landings aren't pretty, the important thing is that they are NOT dangerous! I will not kill myself or anyone else.

So that was fantastic. However, I haven't flown since then because the weather has been absolute crap. Hopefully Saturday early again.


On to workout results. I have definitely developed better muscle definition! I will try to take pictures and post in a couple of weeks. One of my favorite ways of telling is every Thursday. Thursday is when I do my pull ups. When I started, I couldn't do one. I "tried until my muscles failed"

Today, I did 5. I DO kind of whip my body a little bit for a touch of momentum, which I don't think is EXACTLY kosher, but still. I know that 5 pull-ups doesn't sound like a lot, but for me....it is. I don't know too many girls who can do even 1 pull up.
The nicest thing is that every Thursday I add on a pull up to my count! It just happens, and it's just so nice to know that all the weights and working out I'm doing is visible. I mean, my muscles also "hurt" but for some reason, I like the perceptible, measurable increase that comes with more pull-ups.

Not all is fantabulous though. I've gained about 10 lbs since I got to Boston. It is DEFINITELY not all muscle. It is me eating delicious food. I would like to buckle down and change my diet to only fresh, healthy foods.

An example of a healthy dinner I have made - Fish and Brussels sprouts.

I'd like to tell you all that I finally found out what I do in my "eye year". I asked the doctor when I was at MEPS. Apparently, I will get PRK (eye surgery to correct my vision) and then I have to wait a year until I can go to UPT (undergraduate pilot training). During that time, I am a "casual lieutenant". I will be placed in a flying wing or some other Air Force base where I essentially do paperwork. Not awesome, but at least I get to be around Air Force personnel. AND, most importantly, I'm still getting paid.
Speaking of Air Force personnel - my friend, who is Air Force National Guard, was recently in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. He invited me out to dinner with all the other guys in his unit. It was basically me plus 6 guys. I loved it for many reasons: I was able to see what life will be like if I make it in (I'll be hanging around guys a lot). It doesn't sound that bad, but at one point, all the guys (and me too, since I was with them...) got asked to leave a bar because ONE of the boys made a lewd comment to a waitress. I didn't even hear it, but since I was with them, I ended up leaving as well.


This is the bar we got booted from. It was nice. Not this crowded though...

Additionally, it was just SO NICE to be able to talk to people about my process and hear about theirs. It made me feel much less alone. I don't know ANYONE else who is applying for a pilot slot, and I don't have any Air Force friends (except for this one), so every time I get to be around Air Force (or other military!) I absolutely love it. I got to hear about their training, their application process, and SERE. They all had some fantastic stories about it. Some hilarious, some a little worrisome. According to my friend, they all enjoyed meeting me and talking to me, so I suppose that's a good sign! It was also really cool to hear about my friend's mission: they were escorting fighters from New Hampshire to Greece. He told me about their flying formation, their processes, etc. It was also doubly difficult because they were going to take off in mist with low to no visibility. This means that you have to fly based off your instruments and an in-plane radar on which you can see other planes.

This is Portsmouth. I need to go again. Preferably by flying in.

To conclude this post, I wanted to mention that I will going to Israel this Sunday til next Wednesday. I most likely will not post any blog posts until after (17th). Much of my trip will be with Israelis. Often the Israelis are military. You all can probably guess that I'm hoping for an Israeli travel companion or two who is a pilot! Fingers crossed...

 Gratuitously pulled from Google Images....

Medical Physical

So today I went to MEPS (Military Entrance Processing Station)

This was my first military physical. I had heard a bunch of rumors about how invasive and intimidating it was, so I was a little nervous. However, living in Europe made me feel like I was probably going to be less stressed than others.

First things first:
I arrived at 5:30, and entered the building after a baggage and body scan. I went up to the correct floor, and met with the Air Force liaison. He thought that I was taking the AFOQT, and I had a brief panic moment when he asked me for a document that I didn't have. All was well though. I waited in line, signed in, and was taken immediately to the medical area. I checked into the medical area, and right after that I was taken to get my eyes and ears checked.
They have this interesting machine where you take off your glasses, tell them what is blurry and what is not, and then the machine scans your eyes and spits out a rough "prescription" based on that. I was correctable to 20/20, which is what I need to be. Then, I was taken to do a depth perception, color blindness, and heterophoria (my dad explained it to me, I still don't really get it) Anyway, I already knew I had a little vertical heterophoria, but apparently that's not a disqualifier.

Depth perception was HARD!!!! I was given groups of 3 rows with five dots across labeled A through F. A "set" looked like this:

A.  o o o o o
     o o o o o
     o o o o o

So basically, I was asked "which dot in the first row appears to be standing out?" and so on and so on, for each set. So I did it about 15-20 times. I had to blink A LOT, and often times I really wasn't sure if I was giving the right answer. By the time I got to set F, I couldn't see the second row, but I could get the 3rd row. I told her that, and she said "that's alright, you already passed, so try your best". WHEW! That was really nice to hear.

The color blind test was easy, I just read numbers. I know I'm not color blind, and as a girl, it would be VERY rare that I be color blind.

Then, I got tested for hearing. This made me supremely nervous. My hearing in my left ear is not as good as in my right, and I could kind of tell, not just by the test, but by the results. For the test, I had to sit in a teeny room with three other people. We had headphones on, and a clicker. We clicked every time we heard a tone. My right ear went quite well. I felt like I heard every tone I was supposed to hear. However, with my left ear, there were much longer gaps where I could hear the tones. I'm certain that I missed some tones that I should not have. I don't know what the numbers mean, but I can see that they are different for my left and right ears. I know that I don't need perfect hearing to be a pilot, and I hope that's true. My guess is that if I had not met thresholds for hearing and vision, I would have been sent home and not gone through the rest of it.

After vision and hearing, we were sent to a classroom type thing. In there, we filled out a questionnaire type thing asking about our medical history. We also got a questionnaire that asked about depression and speeding tickets (natural combination, no?)
We signed, dated, and then did a breathalyzer test. I know, it seems stupid, but it's an easy way to weed out people who shouldn't be there. I mean, if you're irresponsible enough to show up drunk at your MEPS medical physical, you're probably not cut out for the military. After that, we went to get blood drawn to test for HIV and other diseases that you can tell only with a blood draw.

Then we got pulse checked and blood pressure checked. My blood pressure was annoyingly higher than usual today, but still well within the limits. Then we went in for an individual consult. Air Force requires everyone (especially pilot candidates!!!!) to read a passage to see if they have a stutter or lisp. I read it absolutely fine. Then we discussed my history. I had to tell her about all 4 of my speeding tickets (embarrassing) and everything else. I think I did well.

I then waited with the other girls, and then all 5 of us girls (there were 60 guys. Ha!) went to the "FEMALES ONLY!" area. We first did urine tests. They check for drugs, pregnancy, etc. The Sargent was in the room with us and the rest of the girls were outside an open door, so there wasn't too much privacy (I really didn't care). We then took our own urine samples to the urine sample counter and watched the technician pour the sample into another cup and seal it with red tape over the cover. It was very official! I kind of had to laugh at the fact that my pee was being treated with such care and security!

We got checked for height and weight...I am not allowed to be below 121 lbs, and I have to be less than 175 lbs (huh? That is OBESE!) We then had an individual physical exam. Another Air Force gem that only I (as Air Force) had to do was "popping" my ears. Fortunately, since I have a scuba license, I learned how to pop my ears for that, so I told her no problem. The doctor (she had been a prior Air Force doctor!!!) said "You are definitely an adrenaline chaser, aren't you?" I said "Yes ma'am!"
We also had a cursory physical. Making sure we all had lady parts (apparently a girl came to MEPS one time with a strap-on...). It wasn't a big deal. Unfortunately, the doctor noticed a scar on my back from a mole removal, and said I had to send in the pathology report from it. I mean, it makes sense that they don't want to take me on if they think I'm going to be dilapidated with cancer early on. Still, a bummer. Apart from that, I'd be totally cleared to go.

After the physical came the hilarious part. We all stripped down to bra and underpants, and did a bunch of motions based on a video. We had to point our feet, do a kind of "fake" march, move our hands, kneel down, stand back up without using hands (easier than you'd think!) and then what we all had heard about and wondered about: THE DUCK WALK.

Imagine this. The duck walk is when you squat very low, so you're up on your medi tarsals, and you do a squatting walk for about five steps. It looks goofy. I pulled this from youtube. Some very mature army dude doing the duck walk with his gun:



So, my friends, that was it! Then we had lunch. It was just a sandwich, but we were all RAVENOUS. We'd all been awake since about 5, and by 11:30, when we were allowed to get lunch, it felt like 4pm. Partially because it was grey outside, but mostly because we'd had a fairly productive day. There was less waiting then I had anticipated, and I felt like I had done a ton in just a couple of hours.

An interesting thing that happened actually was that ALL the other girls were marked down for having flat feet. I was not. Woohoo! ALSO!!!! I can't believe I forgot to mention this:
Most people, including the guy drawing my blood asked what I was going in for, and when I said "pilot" they all said "Oh! Good luck! That's awesome!" The guy drawing my blood was a coast guard employee, and said:

"You know, I'm not a recruiter, but if you find out that the Air Force isn't treating you well, the coast guard needs female pilots. We have way too many guys! If you want to fly, we have planes that we fly out over the Caribbean to scan for drug boats. It's really fun."

I said, "Hmmm! That doesn't sound too bad!" GOOD to know that I have another option for flying. And as usual, it felt really awesome to have people supporting me.

I found out some more things, and I'd like to write about them too, but I think this post is long enough so I will save it for another day. Perhaps tomorrow :)