Doing our annual re-qualification for Bambi Buckets. Yeah, those are my feet hanging out the side of the helicopter. Sitting in the door gives you the best visibility for the drop.
It's been pretty slow here what with most of the unit being off to Kosovo, and me working with the rear detachment. Kind of quiet... So when I heard that distinctive Huey "wop-wop-wop" I grabbed my camera and caught this guy probably headed to 29 Palms.
In non-military related news, the Missus and I just got back from a trip to Havasupai in the Grand Canyon. Trip report here.
The last two weeks have been our annual training period, and unlike the last couple of years we actually got to do some training we needed instead of just fun stuff. To clarify, we have new pilots and crew chiefs that have to progress through a series of specific tasks before they can become qualified. While the Angel Thunder exercise last year and the Panama deployment the year prior were fun for those of us who were already qualified, and looked great on the battalion brag sheet, they didn't allow us to do the the progression training we really needed.
This year the number one mission was progression, and while we did have a couple of other commitments, they complemented rather that competed with our primary mission. As one of the crew chief flight instructors I spent most of the time on night shift working with our trainees who had progressed to the NVG (night vision goggles) portion of the training. The first couple of nights we supported some Air Force JTACs (Joint Tactical Air Controllers) in an exercise that involved us, combat search and rescue, a couple of Apache gunships, some F-16's and an AC-130. We used this opportunity to take one of our crew chiefs who was nearly completed with training for an exposure to a difficult mission in as close to combat conditions as possible. He did fine, and overall it was a good mission.
The MPs getting their safety briefing from a crew chief prior to loading
We also did a four ship night air assault to insert and extract some MPs in support of their training. This is one of our standard missions, but not something they get to do very often. We had to watch the weather since a storm was threatening the area, but it slid back down into Mexico so we didn't need to execute any of our contingency plans. It was a dark night, and dust was a bit of an issue, but the training went well.
The above video was taken by SSG Marco Lechuga, a former member of out unit. He's working with another command at the moment, but this is a small community so we expect him back eventually. It's a neat slow motion video of sling operations from the point of view of the hook up team. This night I was evaluating one of our trainees in NVG sling operations (he passed, btw). It was a tough night - we had dust blowing in and 22 knot gusts from the south (left on the video.) It kept both him and the pilot working. This is also a pretty good look at the world through NVGs. The bright light on the right of the helicopter is the red position light. It's actually no brighter than the green one on the other side, but the goggles are much more sensitive to red.
A Schweitzer 300C prepares to leave after paying a visit to the facility.
Drill this weekend was livened up a bit by a visit from this S300 operated by a local flight school. They were passing near the facility on a photo flight when the pilot noticed an unusual vibration and a reduction in engine performance. This is not the sort of thing you want to be troubleshooting in flight and the pilot wisely decided to make a precautionary landing. Nearby Sky Harbor tower pointed out our facility as the nearest safe place to put down, which he did. The pilot and photographer were then introduced to Army paperwork and spent some time talking with Operations, Security and the Phoenix police while waiting for a company mechanic to come out and look at the problem. (No, they weren't in trouble, it's just that the right process has to be followed.) As it turned out they had a fouled spark plug, a not unknown condition with that type of engine. After fresh plugs were installed and the ship tested, they proceeded on their way back to their home airport. While it was a bit of an administrative hassle for them, at least they didn't land at an Air Force base where security rolls out with loaded machine guns when an unexpected civilian aircraft shows up for whatever reason. We enjoyed the visit, and this being the first time this had happened at the facility Operations developed a standard operating procedure to use should it happen again. Good job on the pilot who made the correct decision for the situation.
We had a long drill this last weekend, partially because it was our aerial gunnery drill out at Gila Bend and partly because we're preparing for an upcoming admin inspection. As a result we had a four and a half day drill this month. This half day bit is arguably a waste of time since all it really does is ensure that everyone is tired at the start of the first full day of training, but the powers that be seem to love the illusion of progress. On Thursday, however, we managed several training flights, inspection preparation and prepared all the equipment for Fridays trip to the range. Unlike past gunnery quals this time we did not stay out at Gila Bend. Since we're only a 30 minute flight from there it worked well for us, and hopefully we'll do it that way again next time. Friday was scheduled for the crews that were fully qualified in day, night and NVG operations. This made for a fairly busy afternoon and evening, but we still managed to get everything wrapped up by 10:00pm. Saturday we came back out first thing in the morning to take care of the crew members that were not yet Night/NVG qualified and also ran some pilots and VIP's through the course on the guns. Pilots don't get to shoot the machine guns very often, so it's nice for them to get the chance. It also helps us as they get a better feel for the limitations involved. While we had the range scheduled for well into the evening and Sunday during the day in case we had some problem, we ended finishing up before noon on Saturday. Everyone gets excited about drawing 30,000 rounds of ammo, but with four helicopters that's actually only about 10 minutes at the cyclic rate of fire.
If you ain't shootin', yer loadin'...
While were were fueling at one point on Saturday the Maintenance Officer called with an interesting proposal: Between us and the Med Det we have 12 helicopters assigned, and all of them were up. He suggested we take the opportunity to do a 12 ship formation as a salute to the maintenance troops down to the Best Warrior competition at Florence Military Reservation on Sunday. While the competition would be wrapped up by the time we got there (we're not allowed to fly before noon on Sunday), the brigade command staff would still be there. Anyone who has ever been involved in military aviation knows how rare it is that they have 100% of the assigned airframes available - it just does't happen very often. We had done 10 ships flying for deployments, but no one could recall a 12 ship. We jumped on it.
I'm in the fifth one from the top, Chalk 5
Our senior instructor pilots started doing the mission planning, and by Sunday morning we were planned and approved and having our formation briefing. Since we can only launch four at a time from our facility, the plan was to launch three flights of four and lager at the nearby airfield at Superior, a dirt strip that gets little use. From there we would fly down to Florence. By 12:30 we had as many maintenance and support company people loaded in the helicopters as we could carry and were preparing for a 1:00 launch. Things were running smoothly until Chalk 11 reported a sheared starter shaft. There was no way it was going to be able to launch with us. Our remaining maintainers weren't going to take this lying down however, and requested approval to swap the starter and have Chalk 11 join up with us on the way to Florence. The mission commander approved that immediately and we proceeded with the mission.
We reached Superior as scheduled, and were updated on the status of Chalk 11. The starter replacement was completed and they were doing the operational check. They predicted launch in about 10 minutes so it was decided we would delay at Superior for 5 minutes so they would join up with us in our practice area near Williams/Gateway airport (the old Williams AFB for you wing wipers out there...)
It all came together, we joined up without incident and completed the mission. Returning to base the tower at Sky Harbor could be heard chuckling as he granted permission for the flight of 12 through Phoenix airspace. During our debrief one of the crew chief was informed by his parents who were at a MLB spring training game that they put us up on the jumbo-tron as we flew by, and sent us an phone picture of us passing by.
When all was said and done several of us were talking about it and couldn't decide what was more impressive - that we pulled off a 12 ship formation flight, or the fact that the whole mission was put together in less than 12 hours.
In addition to the Attack and Assault Helicopter Battalions in the state, we have a Med Det assigned to our facility as well. This weekend one of their pilots took his last flight prior to retiring. Here he is taxiing in after the flight. The fire department provided the water salute, a nice touch.
Being an aviation unit, our weekend drills are normally conducted from our home station. This makes sense since we can access any kind of terrain we need for training purposes easily, and why waste time moving to a different location? One of the exceptions to this rule is when we're doing gunnery training. This weekend we relocated to the Florence Military Reservation in Arizona where our small arms ranges are located. We did our annual marksmanship qualifications, some training in Army field tasks, and the ground fire stages of our aerial gunnery qualifications. This allows us to get the new crew chiefs up to speed on the M-240H machine guns without the noise and movement normal to flight. In March we'll be doing our actual aerial gunnery training and qualification, which will be another field drill. Gunnery is probably the most fun of the tasks we get to do.
This morning I heard the characteristic Huey thumping sound outside, and of course had to investigate. It was a couple of Marine AH-1 Cobras, probably from MCAS Yuma. When Bell made the Cobra, they used a lot of the UH-1 design to work from. It could be said they took a Huey and shaved the fuselage down to 36" wide and started putting armament on it. That would be a simplification, but isn't too far off the mark. The Army retired the Cobra and Huey many years ago for the Apache and Blackhawk, but the Marines have stuck with it, with Bell still updated the designs. I've always had a soft spot for the Cobra.
(Note: It just struck me how much technology has changed since the Cobra was introduced. I heard these birds, grabbed my camera and photographed them, downloaded, selected and post processed the image and posted it on the blog. As I write this, they're probably still airborne.)
The state finally deciding that we had enough money, we had our final drill of the fiscal year this weekend. This one was unusual for me as I ended up in Tucson nearly the entire weekend. We were supposed to ferry the Land Component Commander ( a General) around to the range facility in Florance and then to Tuscon, with a return planned in early afternoon. Unfortunately the weather in Phoenix decided to have another record breaking day, with weather so bad they not only closed Sky Harbor airport, they evacuated the control tower. Usually the big storms pass through relatively quickly, but this one had staying power which resulted in our VIP passengers electing to take ground transportation rather than wait it out. (The general pointed to a United 737 waiting on the ramp next to our bird and said words to the effect that they would probably get through. We pointed out that particular aircraft was diverted from Phoenix. The passengers sat out there for about three hours before things finally opened up.) Because of duty day limits command decided we should overnight at Tuscon and return the next day.
While there a company of AH-64 Apaches and a couple of CH-47 Chinooks stopped for fuel and lunch. We had quite the line up there at the airport for a while.
OldAFSarge just posted a story that brought back some memories... This was back in 1976 when we were both E-4's in our respective services, though we hadn't met. In one of the periodic flare ups that happen with depressing regularity in Korea, a ruckus occurred on the DMZ that ended up in a lethal fight with axes of all things. This snapshot was taken during our response from the USS Midway to the incident. During our month of "practice strikes" on Nightmare range; conveniently located near the DMZ we operated pretty much round the clock dropping ordinance. I remember taking this shot since the aircraft, an A-6A of VA-115 was assigned as a tanker, and you may notice he's carrying 500lb bombs and sidewinder missiles in addition to the refueling equipment. He brought the missiles and fuel tanks back, but left the bombs on the target. You should have seen what the aircraft actually assigned to bomb looked like! As a historical note at the time CAG-5 aboard the Midway had two squadrons of F-4s (VF-151 and VF-161), two of A-7s (VA-56 and VA-93), and an A-6 squadron (VA-115) handling offense. In a supporting role were VQ-1s EA-3, VMFP-3's RF-4s, VMAQ-2's EA-6s, VAW-115's E-2s, and HC-1's SH-3s. Not a bad turn out for one ship.
Here's another photo from the last drill, this one from the trip up to Flagstaff. We have routes where we do terrain flight up most of the way, but while those are fun they're also work. This trip we were moving the unit up to our training area so the concentration was on multiship operations. They also involve work, but with the higher altitude there was the occasional moment to enjoy the view. This was taken looking west in the Sedona area.
We had a busy weekend spent mostly in the Flagstaff area doing high altitude training. There was a fair amount of weather (rain, hail and thunderstorms) that we dodged in the process. It was a nice break from the usually nice but hot weather in the Phoenix area. Sunday we flew some people down to Marana and had an AH-64D Apache Longbow join up with us. Getting air to air shots is not something you get to do every day, so I grabbed my iPhone and got this one.
This last drill we flew our new land component commander down to Marana where he spoke to our sister battalion, the 1-285th AHB, the local Apache command. It was a good day for flying, and while ferrying general officers around is not the most exciting mission we do, it's not bad for a change. Our couple hour stay was made even more pleasant by the fact that the first battalion Family Support Group was having a bake sale, so coffee and conversation was available while we waited.
We heard back in March that the first F-35 had been delivered to Luke AFB, and that more were to follow shortly. I don't know how much flying they're doing as of yet, but I keep looking for them. So far, no joy... The F-16s are still the main show.
Fire season is upon us in the southwest, and part of our annual ritual in the National Guard is "Bambi Bucket" training. A combination of academic courses and practice, it gives us a chance to make sure all the buckets are working properly, but the real purpose is to make sure we're on the same page as the civilian authority that runs the fire response. The buckets we use can hold 660 gallons of water, but we normally cinch them down to 80%, or about 530 gallons. This ends up weighing somewhere around 4500 pounds, and while we can lift more the fires in Arizona can be at higher altitudes so it's good to have some buffer. We usually don't get called early in the season unless things get really bad quick. Civilian helicopter operators get the first call (they're on contract) for federal lands and as long as they can handle it we don't get the call. Later in the season, or if the fire is on state land we get called a little quicker.
By the way - That urban legend about a scuba diver being found in a burn zone is really unlikely... The bucket is only 50 feet below us, and we look at it as we're scooping and while flying. A diver would be noticeable, to say the least...
Hasselblad 500EL/M, 80mm lens at f16, 1/250 sec with Tri-X 400 film
Maintenance Test Pilots preflighting one of the helicopters for a test flight. While not all maintenance requires a test flight, any work done on components that effect flight safety - controls, engines or airframe for example, do require the services of the MTPs.
One of our Blackhawks heading south to recon some potential training sites. There's a lot of behind the scenes preparation involved in training, especially when we're carrying soldiers from other units. Our infantry units need to practice insertions and pick ups, so we check out the LZ's before hand to make sure they get the most realistic training with the minimum amount of risk.
Our Border Collie Fly goes nuts when she sees one of these
OK, so not everything in our airspace is a fast mover. On the bright side, when you sight one of these guys you have time to go get your camera, select the best lens and have a cup of coffee while you wait for it to get closer.
Olympus OM-D 75-300mm at 228mm and f6.3, 1/250 and ISO 1600.
Living as I do near Luke AFB, I get to see lots of F-16s in the pattern, as well as the occasional C-5, C-17 or KC-135. Haven't seen many KC-10's, probably because the Air National Guard operates KC-135's out of Phoenix. Today, however, I did manage to catch one on it's way in. Since the fighter mafia won the PR wars in the Air Force, we see a lot of imagery of F-15's, F-16's and F-22's, but not much of the cargo and tanker force. That's a pity, because those guys do a lot of heavy lifting. Hat's off to you guys from an Army aviation type.
So I'm back from my schooling back east, I've had my check ride and now I'm a Standards Instructor for non rated crew members. This means I can train crew chiefs and gunners, and perform evaluations on them as well as other instructors. After talking with the other instructors I decided that Wednesday will be my night to fly. While National Guard is known for the whole one weekend a month thing, in aviation we do quite a bit more to maintain our currency, to the point of routinely doubling the normal schedule. So in addition to our drill weekends and annual training periods, we as a unit generally fly three nights a week. The instructors split these nights up to make sure training is available as needed.
