In June 2003, I flew to South Dakota for field training: the AFROTC equivalent of boot camp. Three weeks later, having failed three PT tests, all due to pushups, I was ejected with prejudice. This led to my forcible disenrollment from ROTC, and the transmutation of what had been a nice scholarship into a loan. [...]
Today in the academics portion of training we were learning about close air support systems. In passing, the Lt. Col. teaching us mentioned this nugget: “The Army spent a few million dollars for a custom computerized battlefield orders management system. It can handle hundreds of detailed orders per day, and coordinate them with the rest [...]
It seems that the ALSE people rock.
Aviation Life Support Equipment is a small, but heavily-trafficked office just outside the briefing rooms at the stagefield. Before every flight, one of the pilots goes to ALSE to check out life-support vests to wear in-flight. The vests are packed with goodies which are only useful after having been [...]
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 not dreamed of - wheeled [...]
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 skill [...]
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 significantly [...]
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 when [...]
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 [...]
Today, instead of the same boring pointless rituals we’ve been going through since late November, my class had a brand new boring pointless ritual! Also, tomorrow we have a Briefing! It is possible that by the end of this week, we will have advanced as far as getting flight helmets fitted! At this pace, we [...]