30 Sep

It’s hard to believe it has been a week since I last wrote. I did have a couple of slow days but the last 4 days I have flown 15 test flights, five of them today since Brian and J.R. are rotating from days to nights and back. Most of the flights have been on 170 coming out of phase. We knew it was going to be tough since we had to change out a blade and reset all the other ones. The last two days we have been trying to find a vibration that is saturating our tracking equipment. It has made the days go by fast – I get up at 6:00, eat and get to work by seven, I eat a bagel and juice for lunch that I get at breakfast, I leave work around 7:30 to make it to dinner before it closes at 8:00. It’s looking better because daylight savings time ended today so now the sun sets at 6:00 which is my quitting time. One thing I don’t like about working like this is that it narrows my focus. I don’t really have any idea what the rest of the unit is doing – it’s like we are in two different worlds. I have always tried to avoid that because you lose empathy for what others are going trough. It has been hard not to lose my patience when the mission guys come up to me at the end of the day (start of theirs) and start describing problems with the aircraft and asking how we are going to fix it (it’s usually the same few people).

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I found another picture of me - Tony took it while I was listening in on the daily flight platoon briefing.

This is what the cockpit looked like. The amazing thing is that they got it all back together and the only thing messed up was a couple of radio connections which we fixed pretty quickly.

This is Delgado working in the avionics closet testing all the wires - quite a mess.

These are a few pictures of 081 (the aircraft with control issues). It was pretty amazing how much stuff they ripped out trying to find and broken or chaffing wires. These are some of the components they took out of the avionics closet.

This is a picture looking towards the Syrian border. They are very a attached to arches as monument architecture over here.

This is Moore and Hull stuffing the Spongebob Squarepants piñata that Read's wife sent for his birthday. It was very entertaining watching him try to hit it while blindfolded.

24 Sep

I have flown test flights every day for the last five days. You would think that only flying four aircraft a night the odds are pretty good that one of these nights they will all come back good. Or at least not require a test flight since most of the maintenance we do doesn’t. After putting over ¼ million dollars worth of parts into 081 it was finally good enough to put back onto a mission. It’s not perfect but it is safe – at least it doesn’t try to fly into the ground on every turn. On its first night out it didn’t even get off the ground before another AFCS (advanced flight control system) part failed (one of the few parts we didn’t replace). I test flew it again today and it is going out for another try tonight. We think it might be scared of the dark. Today I did a test flight and a ground run in the morning then I was able to come back to the room for five hours – four of which I slept. I even made it to the gym this evening. I really need to get back into exercising. Another thing I need to do is make it to church. I have ended up working every Sunday since getting here so I need to figure out a way to rearrange my schedule. They only have one service which is 11:00 – right when test flights are ready.

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I found this very amusing. Tomlinson created this on the barriers right outside our office. You can click on the picture to see a bigger image and read the sign. It actually reminded me more of the rock piles we would see outside the Buddhist temples in Korea.

Rigdon refueling our aircraft after the mission. In the background is our hanger where all the phase work is done. We are working on getting doors put on but who knows when that will happen. We just got lights installed a couple of weeks ago. I must admit we do get much better service for construction projects from the Marines than we ever did from the Army in Balad.

All our cargo is brought out on forklifts like the one you see at the back of the other Chinook. Behind it is one of the big cargo planes that bring supplies in and out of country. Most of them are Russian design and operated by Russians and other Eastern block nationals. This war is certainly fueled by a global economy.

Another view of the Euphrates river winding through the country.

I thought this was a strange sight - there were several houses with these bright green lawns and trees surrounded by desert. They are some of the only green lawns I have seen anywhere in country.

Loading up some Marines at a base out west.

19 Sep

I was able to go on another day mission yesterday. It was pretty much the same as the previous one except this time we flew out to a small post right next to the Syrian border. It doesn’t look any different – just more of the same land on the other side of a big dirt berm. Since it was out first time out there we had to have a Marine CH-53 pilot on board with us to show us how to get in and out of the landing pad (they fly out there quite a bit). It worked out pretty well since they had a -53 broke down out there and we were able to escort another –53 with parts from Al Asad (no one is allowed to fly single ship). I was really tired at the end of the day and hoping to take today off but at breakfast I learned a bunch of stuff broke the previous night. Only two aircraft were flyable and they were on the day mission. I was pretty much going from 7AM until after sunset. My crew was able to get dinner just before it closed at 8PM. We got a lot fixed but one of the day crews managed to over-torque the aircraft hauling fuel and water sling loads. It just so happens that the aft transmission was one of the old ones limited to 100% so they had to fly it straight back here and it is going to get changed out tonight. The aircraft we got from Balad to replace 171 is giving us fits. It keeps wanting to go into a dive every time you turn and I have no idea why. At least it is getting cooler.
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16 Sep

Things have just been cruising along – it’s hard to know one day from the next except for the day you eat steak and crab then you know it is Wednesday. Lately football has become a time tracker – as in how many more days until the next game. They show a lot of games here but they start at 9PM and go until 4AM. They will replay some of the games the next day but by then if it was a good game people are already talking about it. I did finally figure out the problem with my computer so now I can record things. I don’t really have a lot of time to watch TV so this should make it more efficient – I can skip through the commercials. Maintenance has calmed down a little bit – we have had the normal breaks but nothing really big the last couple of days. Tonight is Brian’s first night on the mission schedule so it is just J.R. and I for test flights. J.R. had his second test flight by himself today and ended up having to land on the other side of the airfield because of a hydraulic leak. Of course we don’t have flight line drivers’ licenses so we had to get an escort to drive over there and get him the parts which was a nut roll. They flew it back but by then it was dark so after it was fixed I decided to fly it with NVGs (night visions goggles). The exact same leak happened to me at the same spot on the airfield but I wasn’t about to spend hours getting back so decided not to land – the advantage of having lots of hydraulic fluid on board J

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It is a wild country - you can see why it is tough to stop smuggling from Syria.

The only places that show any signs of human habitation are the low areas that collect water. I couldn't tell what crop they were farming but there were plowed areas that showed signs of tractor use.

Another look.

A view of some of the canyons out west. I don't know if much water ever runs through these river beds any more. It certainly looks like at one time this area's climate was a lot different. It reminds me of those pictures from Mars.

A group of Marines waiting for a ride at Al Asad. These people have been running the loading areas for long enough that they operate pretty smooth - it just takes time to load everything.

This is the crew I flew with yesterday: L-R Alderman (gunner), Joice(Chew chief), and Rigdon(Flight Engineer-the leader). Each crew is assigned it's own aircraft but even when they don't get to fly on their aircraft (as was the case this time) they stay together as a crew.

A better picture of the Euphrates River. There are different places where the river has been channeled and branched off to provide irrigation. You can see how vital water is in this area.

12 Sep

I finally flew on my first day mission out west. Moore said it was my reward for signing off J.R. It was so nice to get away from the test flight area and not worry about fixing aircraft. On the flight out this morning it was actually in the 70s and the dust was pretty much gone. I was comfortable even in my body armor and I realized again that this flying is actually pretty fun when you can see where you are going. Night goggles give us an incredible advantage and keep us safer but they sure take a lot of the fun out of flying. I flew out west on my last tour but see it during the day and you see how much of nothing is out there. We flew over miles of rock and dirt then there would be a little house in a low spot with plowed fields around it. We even saw places with trees around the house and a green yard. I have no idea how they make their living but it doesn’t look like fun. Its was a pretty standard mission of carrying people and cargo. We had the usual frustrations of waiting to get stuff loaded and unloaded and people not showing up but it was a great change of pace. On another good note – I finally got some laundry back. It is hard to complain when someone else does your laundry but once you get used to a system it sucks when it breaks down. Lesson learned – don’t skimp on the amount of underwear you bring.

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Relaxing in my chair with remote in hand - this is my reading/tv location and when I work on the computer I sit on the tough box my feet are on. It is right in front of the air conditioner which makes it pretty comfortable.

A view of the room towards the door. It's narrow and a pain to set up if you are sharing a room but for one person it's not bad at all. I even have room to store my bike inside.

My room with all my photos hung. It really does help having these pictures of Alaska. It's not a bad setup (my room that is) - it's just too bad I don't get to spend much time there.

Moore and Lambert working hard on all the paperwork that keeps the higher-ups happy.

11 Sep

We got the bushing in for 169 so the last couple of days I have been getting up early to finish off the test flight. This getting up early hurts – the first night I went to bed at 1AM then woke up at five for some strange reason. I felt good until around 2PM at which point it was hard for me to even keep my eyes open. Today wasn’t much better but on the positive side we finished the test flight. There are always a bunch of little things that I wish would have been fixed but overall this is a really good aircraft. I signed J.R. off as a test pilot so he can start doing the flights on his own. He says he wants to work in on our rotation which is great news because it means Brian and I will be able to do some missions. One of us will be flying night missions while the other two are filling the day and swing shift slots as test pilots. The initial plan is to rotate every two weeks but we will see how it works outs. I think it will be a nice balance and keep things interesting. At the end of the day we had all the aircraft up for the first time since we have been here, but it won’t last long because two days from now another one drops into phase. Today is the six year anniversary of 9/11. It is hard to believe that was six years ago. So much has changed – people were right to say our world would never be the same. It is going to take a lot of years to put this time into perspective. It is strange to think I am a part of something people are going to analyze for years.

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These are the leftover puddles of gorilla snot (at least that is what they call it). It is used to glue together the top layer of dirt and keep the dust down. It works great but I can only imagine what that stuff is made of (probably not real environmentally friendly).

This is a replica of the moose we had in Balad on our last deployment - once again a product of Tomlinson's skills. It's a nice little touch of Alaska.

Our civilian crew taking the blades of 172 in order to replace the aft drive shaft. It doesn't take long working in that dust to turn your hair a nice gray color.

The sun during our recent sand conditions (doesn't qualify as a full blown storm). These are some of the buildings we call home. The one I call home is on the left.

This is Friend, Kidd, and Ocasio - three great guys that keep the company running.

Here is Missy (one of our TIs (technical inspectors)) opening up some Birthday presents that friends in Alaska sent her.

8 Sep

It has been a lot easier having eight aircraft again. We have so much more flexibility and we are able to keep aircraft off the schedule to fix minor problems before they get big. Out biggest challenge the last couple of days has been power dynes (a machine that is used to apply large amounts of torque to bolts). We only had two of the big ones we use for rotor heads and three days after we had to send one off for calibration the other one died. We were able to borrow one for a day from Balad to get two aircraft up, then within hours of sending it back we had two more aircraft that needed rotor heads taken off. In the rear we go for weeks without taking a head off but here it is an almost daily occurrence. We got one shipped to us this morning but now we are dealing with dust (can’t do the test flights). The last two days have been pretty bad with visibility down to less than a mile. It clears up some at night when the wind dies but within hours of the sun rising it is thick again. I just need a couple more days with J.R. to get him signed off but right now the phase aircraft (the one he has to fly to do the maneuvers) is at work stoppage waiting for a bushing to be made in Balad. I have been getting more sleep lately but right about the time the dust rolled in I developed a nice little head cold (coincidence probably). A head cold in the summer is no fun – it just doesn’t feel right. One thing about the dust – it keeps the temperature down.

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4 Sep

The last couple of days work has really slowed down (a good thing in the maintenance world). I switched to the swing shift (noon-midnight) which I like much better. I have been staying busy implementing the suggestions the accident investigation team had for us. It is always a good thing to have someone else come in and look at how you are doing things. They didn’t find anything that connected to 171 but they did show us some things that we should be doing and other things that we could do better. The investigation is still open but they finished up here and now engineers are going to look at the parts they shipped back. The focus is shifting towards the aft swashplate but it will be a couple of months before we know anything more. I am already feeling the urge to get back into flying missions but it will still be awhile since Brian has to go to nights first so he can stay current on NVGs. The statistics came out for our first full month of flying. As compared to the unit we replaced we have flown 33% more people, 92% more cargo in less than half the hours. It’s like I told them back in April – the Marine’s focus was on how many flight hours we could support but I said the goal is moving stuff not flying hours. So far they have done a good job of keeping us full. I got my computer back up and running but this whole internet thing is really getting me down. The second system still isn’t up and people are driving me nuts. I decided to take today off – my first since 12 Aug so maybe I will be more relaxed tomorrow. :)

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Rigdon came up and took this picture right after we landed at the end of a test flight. I realized I don't have any pictures of myself on this blog (I always feel a little funny taking pictures of myself).

Here are some leftover Russian made bombers. I will leave it to a more knowledgeable individual to identify them. This is the base where right after the invasion a bunch of planes were dug up out of the sand. Saddam had buried them hoping to dig them up and use them after the war was over - he had a pretty good idea that it was useless to use them against us.

Here is another bad picture but what you see in the distance (you can click on the picture to make it bigger) is the Euphrates River in the area of Ramahdi. As you can see just a few miles away from the river it is pretty much desert but it changes rapidly when water is added.

This is a rather bad picture of the lake near our base. I have better ones but they are probably not something I should post on the blog. You have to have something to look forward to when I get home :) Every time I fly by it I want to land on the shore and jump in (by that point I am always drenched in sweat) but I imagine it looks better from a distance than up close.