naval aviator
Coffee Date
Wednesday, April 5 • about me, coffee date, milso, round up
Hey friends! Please forgive my long absence and join me, at your leisure, on my “coffee date” blog post. I hope you can take a break, sit down with a cup of coffee or your favorite beverage and catch up with me...
First of all, a month ago, my husband, Daniel, earned and received his Wings of Gold. After almost two years of training, Daniel is officially a Naval Aviator. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the aviation community, earning one’s “Wings” is a milestone accomplishment (I have a timeline posted in my earlier blog post). During this same timeframe, our wonderful parents came down to visit us and celebrate the occasion. It was so much fun because we got to venture around Pensacola and play “tourist” with them for a week! It was a great time showing them around our “home town” before we moved. Also, they were very helpful with everything around the house, which made the stress of moving much easier! That same weekend was also Mardi Gras so we all celebrated that as well. If you want to experience Mardi Gras, without the New Orleans craziness, I’d recommend Pensacola. There were three different parades with massive floats, lots of awesome live music, and a multitude of bright and colorful beads. Additionally, in Pensacola, these celebrations were all family friendly.
Next up, we received orders to move to San Diego, California. Daniel’s orders gave us two weeks to move. We were fortunate in that the movers were able to help us pack everything and then transport almost all of our belongings across the country. At the same time, Daniel and I drove our cars, Jack (our dog) and Nala (our cat) from Florida to California. Along the way, we saw some fun towns and landmarks which made the drive more fun and interesting. As for Jack and Nala, they were out of their crates and comfortably slept in the back seat of Daniel’s truck most of the way. Jack was a little restless at times but for a six-month old puppy, he was great. We were very proud of our furry babies!
When we arrived in San Diego, we had a hotel room but no house. Finding housing here is very difficult because the average home is only on the rental market for about five days. Nevertheless, upon arriving in San Diego, we scheduled five home viewing appointments. After just viewing the first home on our list, we learned that we qualified (early) for coveted base housing! We also had the pleasure of having my brother, Ryan, and his girlfriend, Hannah, come to visit us during our first week. In between house hunting, we got to explore San Diego with them and go to Disneyland, which made our first week in the area that much better!
Fast forward to now. Our movers delivered our furniture and boxes, the furniture has been set up, the boxes unpacked and now we just have to organize things. So far, we are loving our new home and are very grateful! Daniel is beginning his next phase of the Navy flight program and I’m enjoying being a stay-at-home wife while looking for jobs. I would like to get back into blogging since there are so many things I’d love to share. I’d love to know what y’all would like to see on the blog in the future so if you have any input, please email me or comment below.
Thanks for joining me on this crazy “coffee date!” I hope you have a good week ahead and I'll do my best to write more soon.
Flight School Timeline - Student Aviator
Wednesday, October 19 • adventure, aviator, florida, milso, quick guide
Hey everyone! I wanted to write this post about the flight school timeline because when my man first started, I googled everything but couldn't seem to find a good timeline. All of the following info is my personal experience and you must know that everyone has a different experience! Also, each person's timeline is different. They may tell you 6 months and it takes 10 months; so don't expect your timeline to look exactly like this!
When the aviator graduates from Officer Candidate School, they are usually given a couple weeks to get their things together before reporting to NAS Pensacola. My aviator was given 4 weeks to come home and pack his life up then drive down to Florida.
After they check in in Pensacola, they wait to start IFS (this process can be anywhere from a week to 4 months).
IFS - Introductory Flight Screening: This portion of training takes place in Pensacola, Florida and is where the pilot learns to fly a Cesna or Piper Warrior airframe. Some aviators get to skip this portion if they have already obtained their private pilots license. During IFS, the aviator has a series of flights and tests to become FAA certified.
API - Aviation Preflight Indoctrination: This is the "fun and easiest" part of flight school according to my hubby. They spend four weeks learning about weather, aerodynamics, aircraft engines, systems and other things needed to fly the T-6. After the classroom work, they learn basic survival skills. This includes the infamous helo-dunker where they are tipped upside-down in a cockpit, submerged underwater and told to get out. Overall, this process takes about 6-8 weeks.
Primary: Primary is held in either NAS Whiting Field or NAS Corpus Christi (I highly recommend staying in Pensacola - especially if the aviator wants to go Helos!) Primary took about 9 months to complete. Primary is by far the most challenging part of flight school. Its here that aviators learn to fly the T-6 Texan. They have multiple tests, simulations and flights to go through before they are done. I wasn't with my aviator as he was going through this (I was finishing up college) but he seemed to be stressed out to the max! This is a time to really support your aviator and do what you can to help them because its a crazy amount of work. If you aviator makes it through then they will select their airframe. This is an exciting time yet still stressful because you have to pick the airframe you want to fly in the future.
Advanced: Once the aviator is selected for an airframe you will have to move to where that airframe's location is. (If anyone has any questions about where advanced is held, send me an email and I'll tell you - I don't want to put all the training bases on the internet.) Advanced has been pretty busy and stressful this far. Not quite like primary but still challenging. My aviator selected Helos so he is having to re-learn how to fly a rotary aircraft. We were told that advanced takes about 6 months but its looking more like 8 months before we get sent to the fleet readiness squadron (FRS). After that, we don't know whats going to happen but thats part of the Navy life! Adventure is out there!
If anyone has any questions, please send me an email. I know what it it like to be a confused student aviator significant other so I'm happy to help anyone else out.
When the aviator graduates from Officer Candidate School, they are usually given a couple weeks to get their things together before reporting to NAS Pensacola. My aviator was given 4 weeks to come home and pack his life up then drive down to Florida.
After they check in in Pensacola, they wait to start IFS (this process can be anywhere from a week to 4 months).
IFS - Introductory Flight Screening: This portion of training takes place in Pensacola, Florida and is where the pilot learns to fly a Cesna or Piper Warrior airframe. Some aviators get to skip this portion if they have already obtained their private pilots license. During IFS, the aviator has a series of flights and tests to become FAA certified.
API - Aviation Preflight Indoctrination: This is the "fun and easiest" part of flight school according to my hubby. They spend four weeks learning about weather, aerodynamics, aircraft engines, systems and other things needed to fly the T-6. After the classroom work, they learn basic survival skills. This includes the infamous helo-dunker where they are tipped upside-down in a cockpit, submerged underwater and told to get out. Overall, this process takes about 6-8 weeks.
Primary: Primary is held in either NAS Whiting Field or NAS Corpus Christi (I highly recommend staying in Pensacola - especially if the aviator wants to go Helos!) Primary took about 9 months to complete. Primary is by far the most challenging part of flight school. Its here that aviators learn to fly the T-6 Texan. They have multiple tests, simulations and flights to go through before they are done. I wasn't with my aviator as he was going through this (I was finishing up college) but he seemed to be stressed out to the max! This is a time to really support your aviator and do what you can to help them because its a crazy amount of work. If you aviator makes it through then they will select their airframe. This is an exciting time yet still stressful because you have to pick the airframe you want to fly in the future.
Advanced: Once the aviator is selected for an airframe you will have to move to where that airframe's location is. (If anyone has any questions about where advanced is held, send me an email and I'll tell you - I don't want to put all the training bases on the internet.) Advanced has been pretty busy and stressful this far. Not quite like primary but still challenging. My aviator selected Helos so he is having to re-learn how to fly a rotary aircraft. We were told that advanced takes about 6 months but its looking more like 8 months before we get sent to the fleet readiness squadron (FRS). After that, we don't know whats going to happen but thats part of the Navy life! Adventure is out there!
If anyone has any questions, please send me an email. I know what it it like to be a confused student aviator significant other so I'm happy to help anyone else out.
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