Earning my Wings: A Mormon Woman's Journey to Marine Corps Aviator

Chapter 13: Advanced

I cannot imagine anyone looking at the sky and denying God. ~ Abraham Lincoln.

Chapter 13: Advanced

23 June 2002

Today was my 23rd Birthday on the 23rd…. Poor Ron, he’s having some eye trouble right now & they are talking about disqualifying him from the flight program. I just don’t know what to think about all this.

I’ve started advanced flight training, & boy it is so hard! I just feel so swamped & overwhelmed! There is so much more to know & so much to memorize.

In between Intermediate and Advanced Helo training Ron was able to come visit me, just in time for my birthday. It was wonderful and he spoiled me with all sorts of Star Wars toys (sorry, action figures), and of course, his much desired company. Meanwhile, his annual flight physical had not gone well, and he’d had some trouble with his depth perception test. We didn’t think much of it at the time.

As for Advanced, I felt completely overwhelmed. If I’d thought the T-34 was hard to learn, the T-44 was at least twice as complicated. My saving grace was that, though it had two engines, they were at least the same engine the T-34 had.

It was more of the same from Primary—course rules, instruments, aircraft systems, sims—only we didn’t have the excuse of being “newbies” any more. My on-wing, LT Sweeney, was a P-3 pilot in the Navy and, after finding out I had no idea what a C-130 even looked like, made sure to take me out to see one on the flight line.

I remember looking up at that big, beautiful aircraft, and thinking ,“Oh my gosh, I will never be able to land that thing!”

The three most useless things to a pilot are the altitude above you, runway behind you, and a tenth of a second ago.~ Old pilot saying

11 July 2002

Today I flew for the 1st time in months. It was also my first time flying a twin engine aircraft. It was the T-44 Kingair, made by Beechcraft.

Flying multi-engine is weird. It’s hard to get used to. I just don’t know how I’m ever going to be able to fly, much less land a KC-130….

Oh, and I puked!

Yeah, what I remember most about Advanced was throwing up, a lot. Primary was nothing compared to Advanced when it came to me vomiting. For our FAMs we’d go up with two students and one instructor. We’d knock out our high work and then head over to Cabaniss airfield for the part I dreaded, touch and goes.

Because we took turns flying, I was invariably already nauseated by the time we reached the field. And it’s not like I could sit in the back and close my eyes and try not to throw up while the other student flew. I had to pay attention and be an active part of the crew, counting how many touch and goes the other student did. But it never failed, after the first couple touch and goes, and certainly by the time we started slewing around single engine or dealing with simulated emergencies, I was filling a bag.

I think I probably lived on bananas and ginger ale during that time.

Still, as soon as I climbed into the pilot seat and took the controls, all the nausea went away, and I was in a world of freedom and challenge. I loved it.

During my early FAMs I had a terrible habit of flying with both hands on my yoke, and leaving the power levers unguarded. My on-wing broke me of this very quickly by yanking back a power lever and simulating a single engine emergency for me every single time I did it. It was quite effective, and to this day I think of that whenever I lift my hands from the power levers.

And yes, not only did I finally learn how to spell C-130 correctly, but despite my initial trepidation, I am more than capable of landing one quite well, even the worst of conditions. But that’s another story.   

The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings.~ Sir James Matthew Barrie

5 August 2002

I solo’d for the 1st time in a T-44. It was kind of dumb actually because all I got to do were 3 touch & go’s @ Cabanniss airfield. Pretty anti-climactic.

What I neglected to mention was that I’d vomited during my check-flight (a first, even for me), and while my student partner was very concerned by this and didn’t want to solo with me, our instructor wasn’t bothered in the least.

“If she can land as smooth as that while filling a bag at the same time, you guys will be fine.”