Living the dream...

Song of the week...  Take it away, Elvis! Seven photos in black and white, without people and without explanation.  They didn't all make it to Facebook due to a few connectivity issues, but here's the full run down: Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 Day 6 Day 7 I have become a huge fan of the 3-day work week!  We had Thursday and Friday off to give thanks for things various.  I chose to give thanks to our hire car, cheap petrol and Route 93 to Las Vegas. Cheap gas! We are currently paying $2.319 per US gallon for petrol, which works out as 45 pence per litre.  I'm figuring out how to bring some home. On Thursday, I drove to see Elle, Ben and their family in Las Vegas.  Elle and I were both University Cadets together, so we first met 22 years ago!  We ended up on the same flight during Initial Officer Training at Cranwell, the same Tornado conversion course at Lossiemouth, we lived together for 2 years when ...

Song of the week this week is a classic from Billie: Trixie to the B It has been a busy week in the Academic Training Center but I managed to find a bit of time to get out and about in the local area and snap a few photos.  The first one is the garden (!) outside work, located at the intersection of Phantom Street and Fighter Country Avenue.  There have been several serious injuries due to cacti falling over in strong winds, so this one has been propped up and it now resembles a kind of cactus Major Oak: Fighter Country and Phantom Here's the City of Goodyear sign up the road from our hotel: Welcome to Goodyear  And the local Fire Department keeping us all safe from harm: Fire Brigade, it's the Fire Brigade... Although I'm not sure how effective they have been lately; I've already met two families staying in our hotel because their houses have caught fire and burnt down.  I guess it doesn't help that there hasn't been any rain sinc...

This week's blog is best enjoyed whilst listening to this fantastic ambiental house composition from 1990.  I remember listening to this song in my bedroom when I was younger and thinking how wonderful the desert sunsets must have been... And then this week, we were lucky enough to start the week with some little fluffy clouds and a fantastic sunset over Phoenix. Little fluffy clouds I have spent most of the week learning to play my new video game!  I don't have a photo of my setup, but it comes complete with a touch screen, throttle and stick.  Lots to learn, but I'm getting better each day... On Thursday this week, Maps and I hosted our coursemates for pre-dinner drinks at the hotel prior to heading out for nachos and pizza.   Waiting for the crew to arrive Victor, Johnny, Alfa, Maps, Mickey, Crab (back), Rehab (front), Siv and me! Too many drinks, too few nachos   We had Friday off work to commemorate Veterans' Day....

Training started in earnest this week!  On Monday, we met our coursemates - four Norwegian F-16 pilots and two Italian AMX pilots.  I met one of the Italian pilots at TLP - his callsign is 'Victor' and he was there in 2015 during the crash.  Victor was trapped in his aircraft whilst the one next to him was on fire; he suffered burns to his head because he was strapped into his ejection seat whilst flames were licking up the side of his aircraft and into the cockpit.  When the ejection seat from the aircraft next to him detonated, he considered ejecting himself, but this cannot be done with the aircraft canopy open as it would interfere with the seat trajectory.  As he closed the canopy to make an ejection possible (but still very dangerous) the flames were held back long enough for him to quickly unstrap and conduct an emergency egress.  It was a very lucky escape for him and it's great to see that his career is taking him in an exciting new direction. ...