Flight training stands out for Wallerstein

Air Force guard A.J. Wallerstein had an interesting summer, but his proudest moment was not throwing up.

“That’s a big win for me,” Wallerstein said.

That’s not a minor thing, considering he spent the first part of his summer taking power flight, flying over Colorado Springs in a small T-52A plane that dips and dives a little more than commercial jets.

“Every time I got out of the plane, my stomach hurt,” Wallerstein said.

Wallerstein then shifted from being one of the most oversized pilots the Air Force has seen, at 6-foot-4 and 285 pounds, to a role more suited for his appearance: yelling at incoming freshmen. Wallerstein was on the leadership team during basic training for the incoming cadets. Wallerstein might have looked the part — who is going to argue if Wallerstein screams at you to get down and do some pushups? — even though it really doesn’t seem to be in his friendly demeanor.

But he remembers his own basic training (“It was terrifying,” Wallerstein said) and didn’t mind paying it back.

“When I got this opportunity, I let my hair down and got in their face,” Wallerstein said. “It’s kind of fun.”

“We had fun with it,” said receiver Jonathan Warzeka, who was also on the cadet leadership team during basic training. “It’s funny to be on the other side of things.” 

Wallerstein also was named to the American Football Coaches Association Good Works Team for his community work and named to the preseason all-Mountain West team, and his life will feel more normal Monday when Air Force begins training camp. But what stands out about his summer is the image of the massive offensive guard crammed into a tiny plane.

Consider this: Wallerstein is so big, compared to others in power flight, he couldn’t be part of a normal rotation and had to always fly the morning shift, when it was still cool. The plane’s performance wanes when the weather heats up, and the instructors were worried about how the plane would react having Wallerstein’s weight in the cockpit.

“My knees are in my chest, my knee covers the throttle,” Wallerstein said. “It’s uncomfortable, to say the least.”

He got eight hours of classroom instruction on the first day, and on the second day he went up in the plane with an instructor pilot.

“About 20 seconds off the ground they say ‘OK, you have the aircraft,’” Wallerstein said. “It’s like, ‘Umm, what?’”

Wallerstein figured it out. He still shakes his head at not realizing exactly how responsive the control stick was at first, and giving it a little too much of a shake and nearly breaking his streak of not throwing up, but speaks with pride about having a perfect landing on his fourth time out.

“I nailed it,” Wallerstein said. “That’s a cool feeling.”

Wallerstein said going through power flight was affirmation that he doesn’t want to become a pilot when he graduates, but the experience was unique and fun.

“It’s one of the coolest feelings, especially that first time when you’re in control and look out and you’re flying over the stadium and Colorado Springs — it’s a really cool feeling,” Wallerstein said.

He also leaves the experience with a new appreciation for his fellow cadets who will go into pilot training when they’re done at the academy.

“I knew what they did was hard, and I understood they went through a lot of training, but it’s way more than I thought it was,” Wallerstein said. “You have to stay at a perfect altitude at a perfect speed, you have to keep the wings level, make the radio calls, and at least for me you’re squeezed into a plane. I have new respect for pilots in the Air Force.”