It's been a hectic week - lots of mission changes and not a lot of sleep. Our mission schedule was fairly stable for a week or so and I had a good routine going then five days ago I took the day off to come in during the day for a test flight. It was a full maintenance test flight for our aircraft coming out of phase (and a new prop of course). It was the first one I have done in an airplane and afterwards I was signed off as a test pilot - things move fast in the fixed wing world :). It's a little intimidating but I have a good idea of my skill level so I'm not going to take on anything I'm not comfortable with. This would never happen in the helicopter world (where we have a full course at Ft. Rucker to become a test pilot) but it is so seldom that airplanes ever need a test flight (they don't even do them in the civilian world) that even guys who have been doing test flights for years still have to read the checklist and follow it step by step. That is notionally what we do in the rotary wing world but it's not long before you have the checks basically memorized and you can jump from check to check. That is a necessity because with the number of test flights we do no one is happy with a slow test pilot. We have an engine being replaced on our other aircraft so tomorrow I get a chance to show my stuff as the newest test pilot. That test flight day was a long one (no A/C in the aircraft and I was sweating like my old Iraq days) and after a few hours sleep I flew a mission the following morning. My sleep schedule has been less than stellar ever since. I sleep in four hour blocks and our missions have been fluctuating so much that a couple of days four hours is all I have gotten. To make matters worse our A/C in the room died yesterday. It's amazing how fast those little tin sheds heat up. The good thing is that by the end of the week our maintenance problems should be over (at least for a few days) and I can get back to a routine. The initial plan was that we would switch up schedules and crews at the end of the month just for some variety but I'm not sure that is going to happen. Everyone is pretty happy with their slot and no one wants to go through the pain of switching. At some point I am going to have to fly with one of the IPs for my annual check ride.
This weekend being Easter sure makes me miss being home. The church services here are right in the middle of my sleep time for the evening ones and I am still flying for the morning ones. It's a great resource to have the Faith sermons on line but it is a far cry from actually being there.
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PS. The country we are currently circling over is amazingly desolate. It reminds me of our time driving through the Sinai. Everything is brown dirt and rock with scattered trees in the ravines and then small settlements along the larger rivers with isolated green fields surrounding the houses. It's really hard to imagine any sustained growth in this country. Every hard rain is going to cause flooding.
About the rivers: do they often flood? Do they dry up during the summer? Why no damns for flood control, irrigation & electricity??
ReplyDelete4 hrs a day!! I would die. I watched the Masters golf tournament yesterday & today & kept falling asleep (~:}
You didn't need to tell me they never test fly airplanes. )~:} Do they figure they can always glide to a safe landing? In the woods?? Cheers!! 65/40 cldy DAD
All very good questions that I will try to answer :). As for the rivers I do know that they flood on a regular basis. When we first arrived here it was the wet season and after a rain storm water flowed everywhere. It made a mess of the roads but within a couple of days it was like it had never rained. The land doesn't absorb water very well so just a little bit creates a lot of problems (that is for us who try to control it :). Tha being said from what I can tell they use the floods to rejuvenate their fields like the pre-Aswan dam Egyptians. So unless the flooding is exceptionally bad (like Pakistan two years ago) it doesn't affect the locals that much. It's hard to tell from the air but I would say that most of the drainages I see dry up in the summer with the exception of of couple of large rivers. There are some water control projects. There is a large dam just north of us that provides water and electricity and I have seen a few small holding ponds that I assume farmers have built but like most of this country's infrastructure everything is very local.
DeleteYou are supposed to fall asleep watching the Masters - that is what makes it so great :)
They don't do maintenance flights on airplanes because they can run through all the parameters on the ground. Aside from the flight controls the airplane doesn't know it is on the ground and if the flight controls move on the ground they will move in the air. Also I think the civilian influence plays a roll because it is much cheaper to check things out on the ground. I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised if there were very few maintenance check flights on civilian helicopters either. Since the Army isn't as worried about saving money they figure why not send up an experienced pilot and see if it stays together? :)
From previous comments, I thought you flew at night. Now I am wondering...was it just that you were scheduled to fly at night and others flew in the day? I am embarrassed that I am not putting your life together properly because I think you have explained (: I am asking this because of the wonderful obviously in the light pictures of mountains and valleys. Braided rivers. I have just figured out what this means. Geology 101 (: Do security concerns ever keep you down? How obvious are your flights? A CH 47 is pretty much THERE...how about your fixed wing jobs? Do you imagine Afghans looking up and muttering? (Or cheering?)
ReplyDeleteThe night confusion is very understandable - we share it :). We were the late night mission but as our times have changed we are solidly the morning mission and the other guys are the second mission. We finally broke down and changed our board on April 1st to reflect reality. That being said I am still fighting it because I really don't like getting up early - I much prefer the idea of working late. Where is the enjoyment of working during the day like everyone else? Since I have to send out a maintenance report every day I have been (like this morning) getting up around 2am to go in - hoping they will switch us back :).
DeleteThe only safety concerns that would keep us down are weather related. There isn't much of an air threat here (at least for us high flyers) and we have equipment to defeat it if it does show up. Our goal is to not be very obvious but I can't go into any more detail here. Your question of Afghans looking up brings to mind a very amusing story that will have to wait for my return - remind me to tell you when I get back :)
I was wondering about Christian services...as in meeting together and you answered that a bit. Know a woman whose son-in-law is a chaplain...with the last name "Divine" She liked telling me that (: He is in Afghanistan. Asking if you know him is rather like asking "You're from New York! Know my Uncle?" But I am asking anyway because I said I would.
ReplyDeleteThat is quite a name for a chaplain :) And no I have not run into him. It just so happened that our mission was cancelled on Easter morning (shouldn't be flying then anyway) so I was able to attend the service out on the flight line. It was crowded as you might expect but in a very small room :). I always feel sorry for military chaplains and this was no exception - they have almost no control over their environment and have to do the best they can with their situation. It was good just to be with fellow Christians but I would like to find a Bible study that I could attend.
DeleteI have gone back and read your last entry more carefully and have answered my "flying in the day time" question. Sorry! The other questions are still out there. (:
ReplyDeleteMaybe there isn't a Bible study...so, the obvious occurs to me (:
ReplyDeleteActually you are very astute :). I asked our Chaplin and to his knowledge there isn't. But he did mention a service that he does that I should be able to make when I have a Sunday off.
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