Greetings from Mississippi

Hello everyone!

Here we are...settled in Columbus. Please meet our new friend, the T-6A Texan II. There are aproximatly 90 of these planes on base. Sometimes it sounds like all are flying over our house at the same time! Our house on base is directly below the flight pattern, so every day is an airshow for us! Chris is very much looking forward to flying this plane starting mid-October. Before Christopher can start flying, he must complete six weeks of classroom training.

The first two weeks included physiology training which involves:

Parachute Training

(On this day, Chris was taught how to land with a parachute incase of an emergency bailout. This involved jumping and hanging from various platforms.)

Altitude Chamber

(Chris is second from the left. I was able to watch this portion of his training. Inside the chamber, Chris is experiencing the equivalent of 25,000 feet, where the air is very thin. They made him remove his mask so that he can experience and identify the signs of Hypoxia. HE says that he felt euphoric and light headed before he put his mask back on. From where I was sitting, he just had a REALLY goofy look on his face!

Signaling Training
(0530 - Chris is a grumpy fellah, until he gets to play with fire. Gyro-jets are used to signal aircraft to your location during search and rescue. Chris set off a dud flare and almost started a forest fire. In this photo, Chris is demonstrating the use of a ground flare.