There’s a small howitzer, almost a mortar, on the helipad at Camp Casey. I’ve seen it a bunch of times, but never at 1700. At 1700, it seems, it gets set off with a blank charge daily. When this happens, there are a few consequences. A 20-foot fireball shoots briefly out the muzzle. A shower [...]
At the beginning of this month, I got a task: I was to produce a comedic video short, 10-15 minutes long, celebrating the tenure of the BN Commander, to be shown at his outbound Hail and Farewell dinner. One of my peers would back me up, and I’d have command support for getting the filming [...]
Seoul is beautiful to fly over at night. This is an entirely unsurprising observation. What’s a little less obvious until you’ve actually seen for yourself is that whoever’s in charge is clearly a huge fan of SimCity. It’s a big, successful city, so there’s no question that they’re good at it. Still, it also shows [...]
Every time we preflight, we take a fuel sample to ensure there is no contamination. We pump about a liter from the sumps of the tanks, ensure there’s no water or particulate matter present, and then discard it. It’s not that huge a waste, tossing an extra liter of fuel from a helicopter which burns [...]
Presented in timeline form: -15 minutes: Friends are encouraging, but everyone repeats one caution: no matter what, do not touch your face with your hands. Keep them behind your back if possible. +0 minutes: The immediate effect isn’t actually very dramatic. The mouth burns, of course, but not much more so than when eating any [...]
Delta charges the Army about a thousand dollars to fly a soldier to Korea. Given the Army’s policy of never buying a ticket more than three days in advance and Delta’s policy of allowing ten free checked bags to active-duty soldiers, that’s really not that bad. The Army has no policy preventing individual soldiers from [...]
Anthrax vaccine comes in two doses, and it is important to ensure that they not go into the same limb. It also gives the sensation that the injection site has swollen into huge bulb; quite disconcerting when no such bulb actually exists.
It’s my birth month, which means that like every other Army aviator on their birth month, I went in yesterday to get a flight physical. It’s a pretty comprehensive exam, but they run through it quickly here; they get lots of practice. It’s not difficult or particularly painful, but still nobody looks forward to it; [...]
It turns out to be surprisingly difficult to properly fly in formation. The big challenge is altitude control: you need to stay within about +- 10 feet of the altitude of the person ahead of you. If you go too low, you run into their downwash and get to deal with problems ranging from turbulence [...]
A sufficiently small bird will be invisible until it has disintegrated into a smear on your windshield. Enjoy your holidays!