basically it's been a perfect day and half [with only a few things tainting it.]
first good thing.. i made the flight to colorado springs and the flight home, with no problems.
next we went to peterson air force base and went through a bunch of classroom stuff that was actually really interesting. we learned about situational awareness, hypoxia, a lot of cool stuff about night vision, just a lot of neat things. one of the air force guys was telling us a story about how he had to throw up on a flight cause of a hangover and so he threw up down his shirt! "it's like a warm hug. like a hug in a hottub" soo gross!! and then we finally got to go in the air chambers. we wore these really sweet helmets and got face masks with oxygen going through. for the first half an hour we denitrogenized where we breathed 99% oxygen and went to 11,000 feet and down to make sure our ears and sinuses would be fine. after the half hour they sealed the chamber and we went to 8,000 where we took our masks off and then rose to 15,000 feet and put our masks back on and then went to 25,000 feet. keep in mind this isn't like an airplane, it's not pressurized, hence the masks. so at 25,000 feet we take off our masks and it's the weirdest feeling. you can tell the air is thinner. now, one of the objectives was for us to recognize what signs of hypoxia we each got amd take corrective action to get oxygen. i lasted the longest! after probably 6 or 7 minutes i started feeling dizzy and light headed and started to feel tingling. [after, everyone told me that i was totally euphoric and just laughing at everything. another symptom and i didn't even notice!] but with our masks off up there we tried to fill out a worksheet and i actually did good and was able to answer the questions they asked. when everyone had their masks on we descended to 18,000 feet and took off our masks and turned off the lights to simulate hypoxia during a night flight. then masks back on, and started the descent and we switched to an emergency oxygen bottle for practice and it was scary! it's a high pressure bottle which requires pressure breathing where you have to do reverse breathing. normally when you breath you actively inhale and passively exhale. but with pressure breathing you have to actively exhale. the oxygen is basically forced into your lungs and you really have to force air out. it scared me at first cause it felt like i was suffocating! you really have to forcefully exhale. we finally got down to elevation but the entire thing was such a crazy experience! being at 25,000 feet with no pressurization and no oxygen is way weird. so glad i got to do it. i was so worried about decompression sickness but it was all good.
i have been driving in the pretty sweet minivan [aka the party van] with mark as pilot, and matt, brent, and chris. i love mark, matt is eh, brent is pretty funny, and i don't really know chris but he's strange. [the other car had larry-our 65 year old teacher, kizna, alex, chris, and hollie.] me and mark decided we wanted to ride go-karts [cause where else would 9 college students go?] so we drove to mr biggs fun park and got a sweet discount cause the guy liked us and we did a few rounds of go-karts and a couple games of laser tag. oh and can't forget the bumber hockey! the go-karts were fun. i almost cried laughing at larry. just picture this old guy, sitting in a go-kart with his hat on backwards, racing. so great. and laser tag was a blast. even though my team got killed, it was lots of fun cause mark was on my team and i had forgotten how much fun laser tag is. we decided it was time for dinner and i got to be mark's copilot [brent said we make a cute couple haha] and we went to cici's for dinner. mark, hollie, and brent decided to have a pizza eating contest. mark just barely won. 17 pieces and one bite of 18. hollie got to 16 and a half. she made it all the way back to the hotel before she threw up! haha but i got to ride shot gun and be co-pilot again. i showered and then hung out in the boys room for a while watching water boy.
i hated leaving, i wish i could hang out with them everyday...and going home means back to no friends and it's been great here. all the pilots just have such a great time together. it's a never ending good time. we're such pilot nerds too. there is an aviation reference for everything. [such as...i hate how slow the go-karts are when you have to taxi out...or...us pretending like our minivan was an airplane. i was co-pilot. flaps set (back windows open) full throttle (put in drive) airspeed alive (mph) i was laughing so hard!] colorado is really pretty. and i like mark more everytime i'm with him. he is such a good guy. and hillarious. he has the best one-liners. i just laugh constantly. i get sad when i think about the next time i'll see everyone...hopefully at the open house but then probably not again until spring semester in january :( i wish i could have driven home with them..but i couldn't afford it since they rented a car, especially when i can fly free and then i wouldn't have a ride home from logan. i would LOVE to drive home with them though...10 hours with mark in the party van...can you say time of my life??
the group at laser tag
me and kizna in the chamber
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