As predicted our little maintenance excitement was over in a few days and things are back to running smoothly. It’s hard to describe how much easier maintenance is on airplanes vs. helicopters. Mostly due to so many fewer moving parts and so much less vibrations but also (especially in this part of the world) due to where we fly and land. We take off and land to smooth clean runways and most of the time we are well above the blowing dust and sand, whereas helicopters are down in the thick of it and continually sand blasting everything. It is going to be a rough transition if I end up back in helicopters. I must say I enjoy flying helicopters more but the life of an airplane pilot is hard to beat.
Right now we are covering an ex-fil of troops by helicopter. There are so many aviation assets over here that an operation like this brings out all the players -from helicopter gunships to UAVs to jet fighters to platforms like us. There is a guy on the ground controlling all this and most of them are really good. Everyone brings something different to the fight so he has to know all the various capabilities, what altitudes they operate best at, and how to use them in different situations. A lot of times they are the last ones on the helicopter so their last call to you is made while running which is pretty impressive considering they are often picked up at elevations over 7000’. It’s this type of person that make you realize it is going to be a whole different battle once we leave. Even if the Afghans have the technology it is another level to be able to use it effectively. It is a little scary how good we are (the military I mean) and I imagine it is very tempting to use us to try and solve a myriad of other problems. We already see that happening in Yemen. There is a downside to having a very good and expensive tool -it is the tendency to use it for things it wasn’t designed for. Oh well, at this time my problem is much smaller – I just have to land this thing in an hour or so and figure out how I’m going to make it to midnight chow.
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well, I do have a comment. (: I remember flying into Fairbanks from Galena with many apologies from the airport staff "We are so sorry we had to cancel the larger plane..." "No problem" I said. But I was so close to the pilot and the pilot was SO casual....eating lunch, reading...the plane would twitch and murmur and I would twitch and murmur with it...relaxed? enjoying the experience? Are you kidding? I was terrified. (: So...Mr. Pilot, How are you writing your blog while you are flying? Aren't planes just a LITTLE like cars in that you have to have your hands on the wheel...just in case? P.S. Love the photos!!!
ReplyDeletePlanes are a little Ike cars but with autopilots. It's like having cruise control but for all movements not just speed. Believe it or not there are a lot fewer moving parts when a plane is flying versus a car driving so once everything is set up the plane makes small inputs to keep it steady and we just watch. As every instructor pilot I have had says it (the autopilot) flies much better than I do :). Actually in bad weather it is much safer to let the aircraft fly the approach and that is a requirement in most companies. The worse the weather the longer you wait until taking over and landing and the newer big planes actually have auto land where the pilot never touches the controls until the plane is on the runway. Helicopters are a different story because things can go bad in a hurry - the don't really like to fly so we usually have someone on the controls at all times.
DeleteThank you for your illumination. Now I have another question. Probably going to sleep is frowned upon. Is staying awake a big deal? I mean hard to do? For me, not always, but often enough on long trips, it is SO hard to stay awake. Especially at night. Are there approved stimulants for pilots? Do you know anyone who has ever gone to sleep?
ReplyDeleteFalling asleep is frowned upon. It's not uncommon on long flights to have one of the pilots close their eyes for a few minutes and that can make all the difference in the world. I would much rather have my co-pilot rest for a few minutes when nothing is going on and then have them wide awake when I need them on the approach and landing. It is hard to stay awake sometimes and about the only approved stimulant is caffeine. Really the best thing to do is be well rested and on a good sleep cycle. The worst thing you can do is shift schedules back and forth like we are doing in two days when my mission time is eight hours different from my flight today :). There is a lot of effort to get airlines to focus on sleep cycles instead of just time off but it makes scheduling more complicated and requires more pilots. And yes I know people who have gone to sleep but that is another story :).
DeleteOne more question re. "good and expensive tool" and the tendency to use that tool in ways outside the intended use. Would using the military as "peacekeepers", that is non-fighters but observers, only be in this category? What about those activities that are called "nation building" in the newspapers? Or did you mean something else entirely? Or maybe you would rather not comment? Are soldiers allowed to have publicly expressed opinions about policy? Or is a blog not considered "public"? I don't think generals can have publicly expressed opinions that are contrary to policy without being replaced. (: And I have no problem with that. (:
ReplyDeleteFirst in answer to your last question I think this blog is considered public and I agree with your view on the publicly expressed opinions of generals but I think I am inconsequential enough to get away with it :). As to the first question that is what I mean but I would add something else. How you use a military can have a high degree of variability across militaries but not necessarily within militaries. For example there are a lot of militaries around the world who focus on defense and peacekeeping and they train much different than us and have different weapons. So my concern is using the military in a manner other than its publicly stated intended use without the accompanying debate and consequence analysis. Pretty soon you end up damaging the tool or the project without realizing how it got to that point ( to revert to my tool analogy). The military ends up being the multi-tool that does a lot of different things but none of them really well. Which takes us to the bigger point that we as a nation have a very hard time prioritizing and sacrificing - we want it all all the time. But this blog is way too focused for that discussion :).
DeleteUhank you for your comments. (:
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