Gosh, what a difference a year makes….. It’s been a year to the week that I left to move back to Arizona. If you remember, well you don’t really have to remember, just re-read the entries above. In February I went to work for First American Title Company as the Commercial Real Estate Account Manager for Tucson. First American is one of the largest title companies in the country and in Tucson we have the largest market share of title and escrow business. And in the case of the homebuilders market we have a 48% market share! So I started that job in February still not sure whether the Air Force Reserve thing was gonna happen and of course it finally did in April and then things just start happening really fast.
In April, I put the uniform back on for the first time in 15 years and within a month I was on active duty and in San Antonio Texas at Lackland AFB for Basic Flight Engineer School. And here we are nearly a year later I am still on active duty and will be until May ’08.
So come May I jump in the Bronco and drive out to San Antonio for my first military school in 23 years. It is about a 16-18 hour drive, so I did it over 2 days and spent the night in El Paso. Chris Kohn, Tommy Walker’s nephew is always talking about how good the Mexican food is in El Paso, and being the Mexican food lover that I am, I met Chris and his brother when I got to town and they took me out to one of there fav spots in town. Dude, chili con queso!!!! And they also gave me a place to stay for the night and saw me off in the morning. Thanks Chris and Heidi!!!
My first school, Basic Flight Engineer (FE) School, is basically 6-weeks of chart reading, math and taking very difficult tests every week. The main part of the flight engineer’s job is using these crazy hard-to-read charts and some math to determine how fast and far an aircraft can climb and fly at different altitudes and temperatures when it is loaded with such and such amount of cargo, fuel and people. I am not a huge fan of math, but I am a huge fan of flying in cool military aircraft, so “you do the math.” I did pretty well in the Basic FE School and totally stoked when my Mom said she wanted to come from Tucson to San Antonio for my graduation ceremony. I think the best part of the whole time there was having my Mom pin my wings on at the end of the ceremony!
My Basic Flight Engineer Class
My Diploma and Top Graduate Award
After leaving Lackland AFB I was supposed to have a 5-day break in Tucson before heading off to New Mexico for the next part of my training, but as I was about leave Texas, my boss told me that I would have to squeeze a 3-day trip to Spokane Washington for Underwater Egress Training. This class teaches pilots and other aircrew members like me what to do in the event of a ditching (crashing in the water). If you have seen the movie, think A Perfect Storm, when that helicopter runs out of gas at sea…. Ummmmm, yeah, not much fun. The class was pretty cool, but doing it real world would not be cool at all. Check out the photos and click on a link to see a video of a sample of the blindfolded escape that I had to do from what is called “The Dunker”. If your not comfortable in the water this class would be pretty difficult.
So, then I headed back to Tucson to grab the Bronco and head up to Albuquerque’s Kirtland AFB for my next class, Mission Flight Engineer Qualification Training. This is the class where I got to take all the book/ground training I got in Texas and apply it to the helicopter I will be flying in my unit in Tucson, the HH-60G Pave Hawk. At this point I am in month 5 of 6 months of school and when I head back to ABQ after Christmas/New Years break I will have about a months worth of flying to do and I will be done. Cant Wait!
This has proven to be the hardest part of my training so far, actually doing the job in the helicopter. It is very mentally and physically demanding. At Mission Qual we learn all about the different systems of the Pave Hawk, how to accomplish the rescue mission and defend the helicopter in the process. And also learn how to do the all that at night on night vision googles!
This has proven to be the hardest part of my training so far, actually doing the job in the helicopter. It is very mentally and physically demanding. At Mission Qual we learn all about the different systems of the Pave Hawk, how to accomplish the rescue mission and defend the helicopter in the process. And also learn how to do the all that at night on night vision googles!
Video of H-60 landing as seen thru night vision googles
Essentially my job as a FE in the Pave Hawk is as follows: Preflight: attend a permission brief, do a preflight inspection, load necessary rescue gear, read checklists as the pilot’s start engines and takeoff. During flight the FE reads different checklists, monitor the rate at which we are using fuel, operate the rescue hoist to lift downed pilots and other injured folks, infill and exfill special forces teams (Navy SEALs, Green Berets, etc), operate one of the two crew-served weapons we are normally armed with (see video below) and scan the area around the helicopter to make sure we remain clear of other aircraft and trees and other obstacles when we are landing at remote landing zones. Before landing I read more checklists and after the flight I do a post flight inspection and attend a post flight debrief. All this means that for a 2-4 hour flight I can expect to work about a 9-10 hour day, and that is on the short end.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS0o5YO79Z0&feature=related
In my flight gear before a night flight
The Pave Hawk
(That is the Flight Engineer in the door hoisting a survivor up to the helicopter)
On other exciting fronts, I am currently in the market for a house in Tucson. Made an offer on a used home back in late November, countered back and forth and it ended not working out. I am now considering making an offer on a new home (not built yet) on the north side of Tucson.
I should be done in New Mexico by the end of January and will head back to Tucson for some final qualifications and combat survival training. I should be finished and fully qualified in May ’08 and have heard I will be heading to Afghanistan in June ’08 returning sometime in Sept ’08. More on that later……
Hope you have enjoyed the update, hope to see you over the Christmas break (I am in LA from Dec 22nd till the 1st of January).
God’s peace and love to all of you this Xmas season!
