Civil Air Patrol O-Flights Day!

Today I went the Civil Air Patrol Orientation Flights in Brooksville, Florida. I had to get up at 5:30 this morning(ugh!). I got there at 7:30 this morning, and got a safety briefing and a seminar on flight line marshaling while the first few cadets went up. For the next few hours, I drilled and drilled and drilled and drilled some more. It was fun! There were about 40-50 cadets from various squadrons there, and we all fell in to a big formation and did what's called a drill-down. Basically, the cadet in charge issues various commands, like right face, about face, present arms, and the cadet has to get them right, and on the first mistake he has to leave the formation. The cadet in charge will sometimes issue commands that aren't correct, and sees if anyone makes mistakes then, and other cadet staff will yell commands, which the cadets should not perform, because they need to only obey commands by the cadet in charge. The last cadet left standing wins the drill-down. In the first mass drill-down, I was in the last 3 cadets left, and on the second mass drill-down I won! That was really cool. At 11:30 I went up in a CAP Cessna 172 for my orientation flight. We flew from the Brooksville Airport to the Crystal River Airport, which is right next to our house. I flew the plane the whole flight, except for takeoffs and landings. My pilot said that I was a "natural pilot"! After my flight, I had lunch and did some more drill until we left for home. All-in-all, I had an awesome day (except for my boots, which were very uncomfortable.)!