David flies on wings of an Eagle

Wednesday, April 23, 2014 marked David's first flight in the F-15E

 David's the first plane, in the front seat.

 Take off:

 First wheel off...

 Airborne!

Background:

~This journey started at OSU in 2009, while we were dating, and David called to tell me he got a pilot slot. 

~We married July 2010 and less than a year later David graduated and commissioned as an officer in May 2011.

~David was assigned to Laughlin Air Force base for pilot training and we moved to Texas January of 2012.

~In February of 2012, David went to IFS (Initial Flight Screening) for a month and learned to fly the DA-20. He passed the screening process meant to weed out officers not cut out to be a pilot.

~The year of Undergraduate Pilot Training started April 2, 2012, where David flew the T-6 for four months.

~With hard work David ranked in the top of his class and tracked fighters on September 26th of that same year, he soloed in the T-38 a month later.

~April 12th, 2013 David went to assignment night and was selected to fly the F-15E.

~April 26th, 2013 was graduation day and the completion of a very trying year known as pilot training.

~After a short break, David went to three shorter training's (Parachute, SERE, and Water Survival) over the course of a few months.

~In September 2013 David and I followed orders to Wichita Falls, Texas where he began Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals, a 2.5 months long course, and at completion said good-bye to the trainer jet. 

~We moved to North Carolina in December and David started academics in B-course for the F-15E, January 23rd, 2014.

~Three months later, the first flight.