Week 2 Download

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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.

We struggled with some basic admin this week.  It seems that no one is expecting us!  As a result, we didn't have log on details for the computer system until Wednesday, by which time, we were already a day-and-a-half behind the class schedule.  Luckily, a 14-hour work day on Wednesday sorted that one out!

Thursday and Friday were more sedate and we even managed to finish by 1330 on Friday and had plenty of time for a ride in the sunshine :)

Riding in the sunshine - irrefutable proof

Friday evening was a great opportunity for us to 'hang out' like a couple of local guys, so we visited a bar across the road from our hotel.  It was super-cool with loads of cool American stuff everywhere, really cool rock music playing at full volume, weak beer and TVs on every wall.  Cool.


     
Two guys hanging out in a bar


We decided to give the local group ride a miss this weekend and found our own way to a cycle path running alongside a river.  Well, a dried-up river.  But we were more interested in the cycle path anyway.  The mystery of what Einstein did after he had finished work on his theories - he set up  bagel shop with his brother:

Einstein Brothers Bagels

This morning we found a place that looked like it was from the set of Grease.  But instead of greasers racing hot rods up and down, this one was fenced off with a $1000 fine and 6-months in jail for anyone caught trespassing!

Grease is the word!

The end of the road


And finally this week, I started a new hobby - I first read about matched betting a long while ago, but never really had the time to dedicate to trying it.  Well, now I do!  I started on Friday this week and I already have £14.89 in the bank!

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