It’s been a busy week. My classmates and I had a lot of academics all week. We also had two simulator sessions in Unit Training Devices (UTDs), which are fairly realistic cockpit simulators set in front of a very large television. These are getting outmoded, but are still useful for practicing flipping switches and flying instrument procedures (flying in weather without any visual lookout). Finally, we each had one simulated mission in the newer Weapons System Trainer (WST). The WST was a 360o set of video screens set around a cockpit and gives us the ability to fly real-time with other people in other simulators. It’s not much better than the UTD for simulating aircraft emergencies, but it does give us the ability to look out in any direction and see where a "decent piece of concrete" might be in the event our single engine quits.
It won’t be much longer before we fly our first flights. Next week we’re also on the hook to start to take our instrument checkrides. After that we’ll get into the air-to-air phase, which is the most fun part of training in my opinion.