Tim...In his own words

It's been a while since I updated the blog. Things continue to move along and now we have less than 2 months until Bean's arrival and Tim's trip home! YYIIIPPPPEEEEEE. I got a fantastic e-mail from Tim that seems quite telling of his time there so I thought I'd cut and paste it for all of you who are interested. Here is Tim in his own words:

One of my goals for my year (before I got here) was 100 missions and 200 hours.

I currently have 100 missions (108 sorties) and over 225 hours. It makes me feel good inside that I am achieving a goal while I am here. Now I guess I need 300 misssions and 750 hours… just kidding. I cannot keep this pace going. If I did I would have 400 missions and over 1,000 hours. Not possible. But sure would be fun to try for it.

I am still teaching the #@!%$ out of these guys. If they ain’t good in 1 year’s time, it is not from a lack of effort on my part. You can only squeeze a rock so hard. ........

These guys are just civilians with basic survival English skills. Most have not flown at night, in the clouds, or in any kind of weather. .... I flew back from Faluhjah the other night down the Euphrates and the guy had never been in an airplane at night. He did well considering but imagine teaching a guy to fly instruments at night who you just assume knows what you are talking about. Think about all of those night classes and sims you had before you went out at night. Well, I got guys going from pedestrian to King Air Co-pilot in 60-90 days. That is including Phase 1, Phase 2 and Phase 3. Nights, Instruments and contact. ...... We are busy.