Well it was really strange because the instructor yells at you if you deviate from the course and I was afraid I would fail, but then when I wasn’t lined up with the runway I thought I was going to fail as well. Was in a no win situation…
This next BFQ is going to be tough being that I’m not the greatest when it comes to the CDU…
Just passed BFQ #10. Thought that one was going to kill me… Not sure what it is, but I’m just not sir speedy when it comes to entering all of that information into the CDU. Another qualified minus rating, but just glad that it’s done.
I did just notice though that my overall rating for the BFQ appears to be a 79. Makes me wonder if I’m going to need to take another one of these quals that I didn’t score particularly well on again in order to get an overall passing grade through the program.
BFQ #11 in the books. One of the more fun BFQ’s as I think formation flying is just rather cool. Gotta say though, this instructor needs to cut back on the coffee as he was not exactly Captain Smooth. Maybe I can wrap up the last BFQ this weekend and move onto the next series…
So BFQ #12 is proving to be more of a challenge than I originally thought it would be.
I’m not sure if this is a problem with 2.5 vs. prior releases or if it’s meant to be a ploy to get you to fail, but if you attempt to follow the instructor in trail formation you get dragged above the 1500 feet maximum altitude restriction all the time. Took me 3 different attempts in the practice mission to figure out that I essentially have to not only stay in trail formation, but BELOW the lead through the entire mission. This makes it tricky because it can be hard to focus on where he is going by looking out the top of your canopy while at the same time making sure you are not hitting the deck. I also found through a successful run at the practice mission that even if you are “out of formation” for what I felt was a decent section of the flight, as long as you hit your WP’s in time you can apparently pass the check ride. (I’m assuming with a qual minus rating.)
Now that I have a better feel for what I need to do to not get the dreaded “terminate terminate terminate”, I’ll attempt the actual qual this evening and hopefully get this wrapped up.
Whooo hoooo! I am now A-10C basic qualified. 
Time to move on to some advanced training.
Congrats! Enjoy the next phase!
Just want to say interesting stuff happening here! Got nothing to add so erm… carry on? 