Yesterday afternoon Jake got his chance to solo the T-6 Texan airplane! This is a major milestone in pilot training and definitely a big deal. He was not supposed to solo until today but after his morning flight yesterday his instructor said that Jake was ready to solo and could do it that day! Jake called me to let me know and I was so excited for him! I took the rest of the day off work and went home to grab my camera before heading out to the flightline. It was hard for me to get good pictures, considering they wouldn't let me actually go out to his plane, but I found a good spot and got some good shots of his flight. He did so great!! Warning: This post contains a lot of pictures.
Jake getting ready to take off solo.
Up in the air! What a perfect day to fly!
Can you find him?
Coming in for landing.
Whew... safely on the ground. Perfect landing!
Now here comes the fun part... It is tradition that as soon as the pilot lands from his solo, his classmates grab him and dunk him in the class dunk tank (which by the way is never cleaned out...ick!). It was hilarious to watch!
The guys escorted Jake back...giving him no chance to run.
And here is the disgusting tank. Yes, the water is murky with stuff floating in it...
And in he goes! Dunked by two of his good friends, Brian and Chayce.
Don't worry though... Jake got revenge later that day on some of his other classmates.
Congrats Jake on your big day! And congrats to all the guys of UPT Class 10-13! To read more about Jake's UPT life and the T-6, click here.
3 comments:
Good job Jake! That's so exciting:) I'm glad you got photos!
It was a beautiful day for him to fly!! Congrats Jake!
First I thought... how awesome that you have a job where you can just take off work on cue when you need to be back for Jake. That's so great! And good picture taking for what you had to work with! And it was such a beautiful day.
That tank is disgusting. And I'm sure you had to wash that uniform of his after :) Anyway congrats to Jake! I'm so proud!
Post a Comment