Our lazy class historian was finally replaced with one who does his job. I present to you my day: The day begins getting on a bus to the airfield at 0445. The parking lot in those light conditions is unphotogenic. We’re off the flight line and on the bus back to base by 1200. By [...]
I’ve seen studies that say that people who claim to have spent the entire night tossing and turning actually tend to have spent large portions of the night asleep. The problem isn’t the lack of sleep, it’s that for whatever reason, they get very little rest. Experience tends to confirm this: the alarm certainly woke [...]
Back when I was in AFROTC, hoping to fly for the Air Force, I was required to memorize a poem: Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds – and done a hundred things You have [...]
I soloed* today. I was the first in my class to do so. I rock at flight. Soloing is, of course, a strictly controlled and tightly scripted event which leaves no decisions in the hands of the pilot in training. It is a ritual designed to demonstrate that they have passed the minimum thresholds of [...]
“As an Army Aviator, you get to pick one of two goals. You can fly to provide organic air support to the ground commander, or you can fly as an alchemical process of turning kerosene into flight pay.” – Today’s Academics Instructor Today my Instructor Pilot called in sick, and we got stuck with a [...]
In Alabama, nobody seems to think that it is odd to need to use the air conditioner during the first week of February. Today I rocked at flight. I got A grades on two of the maneuvers we worked on–simulated engine failures and takeoff/landings–and I was hovering for minutes at a time without assistance from [...]
This morning at 0455 I was on a bus to the flight line. After some briefings, at 0800 I sat down in a helicopter–the first time I’ve done so in my life. Less than half an hour later, I was flying it without assistance from the instructor. Actually, flying at cruise speed and altitude is [...]
I don’t mind working eight hours in a day; it is reasonable. It gets a lot less reasonable when you impose a five hour gap after the first five hours; then, no matter what you do, you’re stuck with a bunch of time you can’t use productively or even entertainingly. What I really dislike is [...]
Given the right information, it is possible to predict certain aspects of helicopter performance. For example, given the gross weight of the helicopter, the pressure altitude, the height of the skids above the ground, and the outside air temperature, it is possible to predict the percentage of torque you’ll require to hover. Given all that [...]
It turns out that when the Army finally does get into gear and start training a person, they don’t mess around. Yesterday started at 0800 and ran through 1500. Today started at 0730 and ran through 1700. Oddly, I handle this kind of busyness a lot better than I do the previous idleness. I had [...]