Today was a superb day! Scrappy, Pitch, Scooter, and I were going to double-turn ACM sorties. The original plan was to try to play "ACM Baseball," with Scrappy and Pitch "batting" first sortie and Scooter and I "batting" second. We set up four waypoints in the sky in the shape of a diamond. The object was to start at "homeplate," and fly from first base (the first waypoint) to second base, to third base, and back home. Red Air would play outfield by attempting to get a simulated kill on Blue Air, and if Red Air scored a missile or gun hit on Blue Air, Blue had to return to "homeplate" and start the trip around the bases over again (sort of like getting tagged out). If Blue got around the bases back to "homeplate" without getting tagged out, Blue scored. After both sorties, whomever had made it around the bases the most would win.
As life happens, Scrappy had a problem with his jet just after takeoff, so he held at the field with Pitch chasing him while Scooter and I flew some high-aspect BFM. We got about five sets done, which is actually quite a bit. Two things were working in our favor: We got airspace close to the field and it was VFR (no divert fuel required).
On the second sortie, all four of us managed to get out to the airspace, but the weather didn’t really facilitate a "baseball" game by that time, so we switched to something more like Tap-the-CAP. It was still a blast, even though Scrappy was in a completely clean jet (unlike the rest of us who were carrying centerline tanks).
With the second flight of the day my monthly training requirement was completed (I’d made RAP, as we say)! Of course, now this means no more flying for the rest of the month!
