The road to my wings
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| Date | 16-09-2010 |
| Location |  |
| Message | (Thursday 1700) Flying went really good today. Everything is starting to make sense and for the past few days I've been practising stuff way ahead of the syllabus and today we focused more on what I'll be tested on next week and I felt pretty good about it all. Tomorrow we have another written exam. This time,once again, it's about five different subjects and you have to pass every section individually in order to pass the whole exam. Most of it is rather basic stuff about how the instruments work, what the atmosphere consists of and wake turbulence and vortices, which are all repetition subjects for us with some flight experience. There's also a section about flight accidents in the Army, about how to report them and how an investigation is done etc. and a section about components which are only found on helicopters. Shouldn't be such a big deal to pass the exam but you never know. I still haven't got used to hearing the alarm clock go off at 0300. You know when SCUBA divers look at their bubbles to orient themselves when they lose orientation under water? Well, I need a similar technique to orient myself in the mornings because I find myself walking into walls and bumping into stuff until I get my bearings. If you have any suggestions, let me know... /GEA |
| Date | 15-09-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Wednesday 1430) We did some more flying today and everything is progressing nicely. My IP is a very quiet IP when we're flying and never really comments on how I'm doing. He just tells me what he wants me to do and I do it but I never really get any feedback. Today, however, he mentioned that I should expect to fly my first checkride next week. I thought he was joking as I don't feel ready for a checkride. He said that if he would send me for the check today, he's certain I'd get a solid 95% score. I was actually pretty surprised. It was a good (and needed!) boost for my confidence and morale, not to mention motivation, which was way down in the basement lately. The first checkride is like a solo check but you just don't solo. Here they want you to fly as a crew and do everything as a crew. Flying solo is, ohh, very dangerous, and you couldn't possibly do everything on your own...according to the US Army anyways. The bullshit meter is still off the scale but we're getting used to it. Getting shouted at is part of the routine. But as long as you know your crap, you're kind of safe. But you never know when somebody screws up an emergency and the whole course ends up in the learning center for two hours after work... /GEA |
| Date | 13-09-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Monday 1825) Saturday wasn't a particularly good day. I got some bad news from back home and it's always hard to be away from the family and feel so helpless being so far away. Yesterday my American stick-buddy and his girlfriend came over and we went over some flight studying in the afternoon and then later on we went out for dinner together. As I've probably mentioned earlier,the week shifts alternate here, which means that one week you have the morning flying shifts and the next week you have the afternoon shifts. It's a terrible idea as you never give your body a chance to get used to a daily rythm. This week is our early week, meaning that we get up at around 0330, get picked up by a bus at the base at 0430 and driven to the airfield to brief at 0530. It's really strange to literraly get up in the middle of the night to go to work. The good thing is that when you go flying the temperature is still cool so you don't melt down doing the pre-flight walk around, which takes awefully longer on helicopters than it did on fixed wing aircraft. This morning we had about 21C at takeoff which is alot more comfortable than the usual 35-40C. Flying is progressing nicely. I had my first autorotation all the way down to the ground today and it was scary to say the least. The ground just comes up at you so fast and you really feel that you're going to make a big hole in the ground. /GEA |
| Date | 09-09-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Thursday 2055) We had an awefully long day today. During the flight commander brief (must read: "questioning") some of the guys didn't know their stuff well enough, so our old flight commander decided that we should all go to the learning center for 2 hours every day from now on until everyone gets all the emergency procedures and limitations correctly. So after work, at around 1730, instead of heading home for some very well deserved dinner, we went to the learning center, which is basically a kindergarten-concentration-camp, where you punch in when you go in and punch out again before you leave, just so that your flight commander can confirm that you were actually there for two hours. We sat there for two hours and tried to study but it was useless. We spent most of the time laughing and bitching at how rediculous it was. Anyway, tomorrow morning we have the second written test in aircraft systems, which is quite a good subject if you haven't flown any helicopters prior to this course. You get quite a good idea of how everything works and a nice "big picture." Flying was good today. Yesterday, when I tried hovering for the first time, I thought I'd never learn it. Today it was like I had been doing for a while. He got me to hover forward, sideways and backwards around a pattern on the helipad. I'm getting the hang of it but I think it's very spooky to hover backwards. It's just SO unnatural! We also did a couple of simulated engine failures at altitude where I entered autorotational descent and recovered once I got properly established in the autorotation. One thing I like about this place is that you actually fly every day and that gives you a good continuity. Now I better go do some studying for tomorrow's test and make sure I know all my emergency procedures and limitations as I don't want to spend time at the learning center during the weekend. But knowing my stuff will probably not make any difference anyways as there's always somebody who screws up and we all have to pay for it. There has to be method to this madness - I'm just too old for this shit. I can only imagine how my Norwegian friend feels with 14 years experience on the F16. That's that for now. Stay tuned for more unbelievable (real life!) stories. This has got to be enternaining for the readers! A big thanks goes to the US Army. /GEA |
| Date | 08-09-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Wednesday 1945) We had our second flight done today. It was somewhat more enjoyable than I thought yesterday's was. The upper air work was all good and I also got to hover on my own today. It's pretty hard at first but like anything else, once you get the hang of it, it all starts making sense. I'm also getting used to how close other traffic can be allowed before you do somthing drastic about it. With fast jets, as soon as you saw another aircraft you called it out and took evasive action practically right away and every time. Here you don't even bother to call out the other traffic unless it's heading directly at you and is getting pretty close. Same with the birds. Most of the birds that you see here are vultures. They're big and love to fly in thermals. Funny enough, they don't even get scared when you fly right by them, even though the helicopter is pretty noisy. Reminds me a bit of when I used to fly gliders and you share a thermal with some big birds that almost regard you as a bigger bird. I guess by the end of the week we'll get introduced to auto-rotations. Auto-totation is what you would do if your engine should quit. When my stick buddy was flying today, and I was sitting in the back and enjoying the view over LA (Lower Alabama), we flew over a river and I could clearly see crocodiles down there. So I quickly erased "water" from my mental list of emergency landing sites. Most of the landscape here is forests with some fields and ponds here and there. Now it's time to take a shower and do some studying. So much to learn - so little time to do it in. /GEA |
| Date | 07-09-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Tuesday 1915) Today we were on the afternoon flying shift, meaning that we didn't have to be on the flightline until 1130. But that doesn't mean that we could sleep late or anything. We had groundschool at 0730 and from there we went directly to the flight line without even getting a lunch brake. I got home about half an hour ago so it's some long days indeed, just about 12 hours from the time I leave home until I'm back and that's the way it's going to be for quite a long time I think. I had my first flight. It was ok I guess but it didn't quite change my view of helicopters. Shortly after the IP gave me the controls, he leaned over and looked me in the eyes and said: "OK, you're not in a dogfight and nobody is trying to shoot you down." I have to adjust my brain away from the turning and burning, fighter mentality. Forward flight isn't too different from flying a fixed wing aircraft, apart from the fact of course, that you're going REALLY slow and that you risk of getting bird strikes from behind because the birds are probably flying faster than you are. However, once you start slowing down to a hover, it's a completely different way of flying. The aircraft doesn't really want to fly. It's centre of gravity is up high and you have to constantly make control inputs because it's constantly trying to get you killed. You simply cannot let go of the controls at any time. Now I'm going to take a quick shower and start studying as there's alot of new stuff for tomorrow. /GEA |
| Date | 06-09-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Monday 2205) Last day of the long weekend and tomorrow it's back to business. Actually, tomorrow's where we really get down to business as we have our first flight. To be honest I'm not the slightest bit excited about it. I'm sure that I'll enjoy it and really start to like it once I get back in the air and get into it, but right now I just want this to be overwith. Motivation has never been so low in my life. I did a bit of studying this weekend and some other practical stuff. I also attended a party at one of the American course mates yesterday and then we ended the evening at the cinema in Dothan. We watched "Machete" which was one of the best movies that I've seen in a very long time. Lots of action from beginning to end, hot women, guns and lakes of blood...and quite a few stars starred in the movie too. Anyway, one last quick go through the emergency procedures and then I'm off to bed. /GEA |
| Date | 03-09-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Friday 1620) This was a hard week, today especially. Most of all because I still haven't recovered completely, yet decided not to miss any more classes since Tuesday. We had the first systems written test yesterday and I actually thought it was pretty hard,but mostly because I really had a hard time staying focused. The test had 50 questions divided into 4 sections and you had to pass every section individually to pass the whole test. So in reality you could get 92% and still fail if you have too many wrong in just one of the sections. Today we had our first real day at the flight line, where we met our assigned instructor and he gave us a bunch of practical information about the "flying choppers" business. We started the day by getting up at around 0330, yes, that's three thirty, it's not a typo... Then you drive to the base where a bus picks you up and takes you to the airfield. There are very limited parking spots at the airfield so they don't allow us to drive there. It's rediculous and it wastes alot of time. Hurray for the friggin' US Army! First thing when we got there was a briefing by the flight commander, who used more time to ask us questions about limitations and emergency procedures to see how much we're studying than he used on actually briefing us. After he shouted at us and told us how useless we were,we headed for lunch and after that we had more ground school until 1600 so it was a long day indeed. Now we have a long weekend (Monday is a public holiday). Tonight we're heading out to one of the American class mates for some BBQ and games. Tomorrow, LOD and I plan to go to Dothan for the day (a small town, about 45 minutes drive away) as he wants to buy a table soccer. We plan on eating at the local Hooters just so we can say that we've tried it... That's that for now. I gotta get used to this Army crap; being shouted at as if I'm a complete idiot. The Americans seem used to it and refer to it as "part of the day." I suppose it makes sense to start off hard when most of the guys on this course have never flown anything before and have to get used to learning a whole bunch of information by heart and observing procedures in a very strict manner. But for those of us who came over with wings on our chest, it seems overkill. We know what we have to do and how we have to do it so there's no need to shout at us to make us understand. You gotta love the Army way. Have a good weekend! /GEA |
| Date | 31-08-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Tuesday 2050) I'm feeling a bit better and I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to attend class tomorrow. I missed some really important classes today and I don't want it to happen again but some things you just cannot control. I saw the doc this morning at the base and he gave me a whole bunch of medication, probably enough for the next ten years or so. I think it helped. I get surprised every time at how over-complicated helicopters are. Apparently good old Igor didn't know about the K.I.S.S. principle. I do, however, take my hat off for his persistency. It must have been unbelievably hard to get those first helicopters to work properly back in the early helicopter days. On Thursday we have an important test about the systems in the TH67 Creek, known in the civilian world as the Bell 206 Jet Ranger. It's the helicopter that we'll be flying initially and it doesn't have many helping aids, which means that the pilot has to constantly fly it. It's all hands and feet, which is something I like at least. In the evenings when I'm about to fall asleep I often hear some big calibre guns in the distance. It's probably the AH64 Apaches on their shooting range. They sound great and I bet it's quite a spectacle too to see them shoot at night. The base has several helicopter types. The Creek, Blackhawk, Apache, twin Hueys, Chinooks and I even saw some Eurocopters. It really is a huge base and we've only seen a fraction of it. Unfortunately they're very anal with cameras so I haven't had the opportunity to take any pictures of the aircraft yet. The base consists of several airfields spread out all over the place. It's by far the biggest Army aviation base apparently. If my wife was here right now, she'd be saying: "You have to go sleep and let your body be sick so that you can recover," and my reply would most certainly be: "I don't have time to be sick!" By the way, Monday is Labour day, a public holiday, so Tuesday will be the day where we get the nickel ride. In contrast with RDAF flying school, where you give the IP a dollar on your first ride, you give the IP a nickel here. For those who aren't very acquianted with the US currency, a nickel is 5 cents, a dime is 10 cents and a quarter is obviously 25 cents. The 5 cent coin that you give your IP has to be from the same year as your birthdate. And guess what. I already found one from '79 with some help from an American class mate... /GEA |
| Date | 30-08-2010 |
| Location | |
| Message | (Monday 1815) I finally got internet, cable tv and a home phone. Unfortunately I don't really have time to use them as I'm really busy this week. Apart from that I'm sick as a dog. I think it's a combination og climate change, stress and a whole bunch of other things but most of all the friggin' air conditionings. You walk outside and sweat alot because of the very hot an humid conditions and then you go inside a building and it's freezing cold because everyone sets the A/C on artic temperatures, understandably. Then you go out and sweat again right away and after repeating that ten times in a day for a couple of weeks you get sick, really sick. I just don't have time to be sick right now. This Thursday we have another test and Friday we hit the flight line and they expect us to know everything, ready to start flying. There's no flying on the first flightline day but there is on the second, which will be on Monday I guess. I'm actually starting to look forward to flying those damn choppers. Today we had the first CPT (cockpit procedure trainers) where you sit in a mock cockpit and flip some switches. Here you get an assigned "stick buddy" and you fly together every time. Normally the stick buddy who's not flying the trip sits in the back seat and acts as an observer during the flight. You work as a crew meaning that you don't do anything by yourself. That's one thing I know I have to work on and get used to, coming from a single seat enviroment. Now it's time for some dinner and then I'll try to study for a few hours, but I doubt how much I can retain in my inefficient brain cells when I feel this crappy. I'll just have to find out I guess. This week I have to learn all the limitations, emergency procedures and a bunch of definitions (the latter being for no use whatsoever other than pilot harassment). That's it for now. /GEA |
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