But I lucked out and moved to Corpus Christi, Texas for Primary flight training. Or you can discover during anthropometric measurements that your God-given limbs weren’t meant to be tucked into the cockpit of a fighter aircraft. You can discover that you’re not meant for a career in aviation during the “spin and puke” (with emphasis on puke). You can fail classes and be removed from training. In addition to traditional academic instruction, I went through basic water survival training, aeromedical training, and was subjected to the “NAMI whammy” – the rigorous medical screening conducted by the Naval Aerospace Medical Institute. When I wasn’t cruising around Pensacola Beach – in my leather jacket, of course – I took courses in aerodynamics, aviation weather, aircraft engines and systems, navigation, and flight rules and regulations. When I graduated, I was commissioned as an Ensign and moved to Pensacola, Florida – the cradle of Naval Aviation – for Aviation Preflight Indoctrination. But the highlight was going for a ride in the plane my grandfather learned to fly in – the Stearman Kaydet. I earned my pilot’s license, joined the flying team, and spent my free time bumming rides in aerobatic planes, old warbirds, and vintage taildraggers. Wing View (Out the Window), Warbird/Vintage. Naval Academy and set out on a journey that led to where I am today. Flight Deck (Cockpit) Photos, Helicopter Photos, Lighter-than-Air Photos, Night. So, it was no surprise when I left home for the U.S. Then, something happened that changed the trajectory of my life. I gravitated toward the military airplanes, helicopters, and fighter jets that visited Paine Field every summer for the Washington International Air Fair. The night my mom went into labor with me, he told her she needed to wait until he had finished watching the latest episode of Black Sheep Squadron – starring Robert Conrad as Major Gregory “Pappy” Boyington. My dad, who became a pilot as a teenager, passed down his love of aviation before I was even born. I heard stories of my great uncle who briefly became a Naval aviator before putting his jet “in the drink” and deciding he belonged on the water instead of over it. I grew up hearing tales about my grandfather’s bombing missions in the B-17 Flying Fortress over Nazi Germany. Like many, aviation wasn’t a choice for me. Whether over the snow-capped Zagros Mountains in Northern Iraq, the dry desert sands of Kandahar, or the low wetlands of South Louisiana, my views from the cockpit shaped my world. deck-launched, supersonic, twin-engine, variable sweep wing, two-place fleet defense and strike fighter. The world looks different from 41,000 feet.
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