I finished up nights with a couple of good flights with Eric, followed by my annual check ride. Eric is one of our more experienced PICs so we almost never fly together since we usually combine high and low time pilots to lower the risk (our last flight together was doing HUD training down in Kuwait). He is the same pilot I flew the acft up from Texas with and we fly a lot alike. It’s always relaxing and enjoyable to fly with another pilot like that. I have found that compatibility makes a huge difference on a mission. I can have a good flight with one pilot then do the exact same mission with another pilot and be exhausted at the end of the flight. My check ride went well but like every year I never do as well as I want to. I always end up messing up something that I haven’t had any problems with before. The very next day all our missions shifted to days for awhile. I took that day off then came in the next morning to fly a mission. It was a seven hour mission which made for a long day just coming off of nights. It was a good crew and the mission went smooth so that helped, plus I had a Monster to get me through. A lot of guys over here live on those high caffeine energy drinks – Monster, Redbull, RipIt, ect. I try to limit them but they sure do work. It was Easter Sunday but since we were flying we missed the big lunch spread with all the specialty dishes. It did remind me that last Easter I was sitting in the same chow hall (I was over here for the site survey) thinking that a year from then we would be over halfway through our deployment and here we are. The next day the first group of acft was up at AL Asad to pick up passengers when the trail acft (081) ran into some problems. They were taxing straight down a taxi way when they felt the aft right of the acft drop. J.R. picked it up to a hover and a crew member saw their landing gear lying on the ground. It must have cracked sometime previously and just chose that moment to give it up. They called the crash/rescue guys and within 15 minutes they had crates and mattresses stacked up so they could land the missing landing gear area on them. The other mission finished up, came back here, picked up the repair parts and flew back up. The repair was going to take awhile so they escorted the other acft home. This morning they went back up to Al Asad to do a mission out west but the weather was bad further west so they stayed to escort 081 home. As they were waiting they saw a wall of dust moving in and since 081 still had another hour of work they departed. The weather is supposed to be bad tomorrow so that short mission may turn into a three day stay. The pilot for that mission was slated for a MTP and J.R. decided to take it. Brian and I are so glad he did or else that would be one of us up there. By the way, the heat is back.
Dust H 102 L 70
4 comments:
Great post. Allows many possible areas of comment for the non-technician. (: First: Caffeine. I drink none. Non-caffeine drinkers like me have no tolerance for caffeine. Just a little bit makes me feel ODD. Very. I do not like this odd feeling. When I have to stay awake I go for the sunflower seeds. Why does this work? I have NO idea. But I realize the disadvantages of sunflower seeds while flying. (: Or if they make YOU feel odd...like ill. Which I think you said most emphatically. I am that way with caffeine. Ugh. I was VERY interested in your comments about easy flying partners. Never ever thought about styles of flying. An entire esoteric world with layers and layers of nuances. Fascinating. Most people think YOU are easy.(: (About flying with you I have NO idea.) But in other activities. You fit in; accommodate. Fitting in takes a LOT of energy. Another reason for the caffeine. (:
Poignant...your comment.."By the way...the heat is back." Like a last journal entry..."I can hear the wolves...the Vikings...the lions...won't be much longer now..." I can afford to be amused. I am not wearing the flight stuff with the temperature over 120. So I will say..."Hey I AM sorry." And mean it. We might be going with Maxine tomorrow (today) to help her move to Idaho. Her choice. One of her sons is there. I REALLY like Maxine but I do NOT want to drive to Idaho in sleet and snow. Hopefully this will not be MY last journal entry. Just in case...we love you and Wendi too. (: (And the others.) (:
I am sorry to hear that Maxine will be leaving. Does that mean no more cards or by now are you part of the group in your own right :) I do not envy you traveling to Idaho and I certainly hope this isn't your last journal entry :)
Re: Maxine and me. I too am sorry that Maxine is moving. Last fall a group of kids cut a hole in her screen door (the off deck walkway one) and, in a drug induced violent stupidity, tramped through her apartment...picking up this and that; checking out the refrigerator, her spare change, a hammer and her car keys; then moving along to the subsequent theft and abandonment, a block away, of her car. Which Maxine lovingly dusted before each trip to the store. (: She, amazingly, slept through this invasion but her considerable nerve was smushed and she really wanted to move. Her son had urged a move before but she resisted. Liking Pendleton and not liking moving. She found a place in Emmett she really liked. Do you know Emmett? Me neither. We, as Art has said, drove her car and ours as a return vehicle, through the parts described by ODOT as "hazardous winter driving" but they were totally free of hazard - beautiful bare asphalt. Thanks to Marilyn Holt. Do you remember Marilyn Holt? She hired on as road crew out of Ukiah and is now a big name in the ODOT world. (: Keeping Meacham and beyond bare and beautiful. (: As I was totally not wanting to go to Idaho in the snow, I was VERY thankful. Glad also to save my last words for another time. (: I am holding my own in cards now, thank you. Still a bad player but I have NEVER asked "Now what is trump?" Like some with whom I play. (: Another question about aft landing gear...the loss thereof. Did the guys just happen to have crates and mattresses around or is this SOP for soft landings? (: Whew! I bet that was a tense few moments!
That is really sad about Maxine - that would be a rather traumatic experience. Not at all something I would expect in Pendleton. I am glad to hear Marylin is still doing well. I'm not surprised - she was always a hard worker.
On the subject of landing gear - I have no idea where they got the mattresses so fast. The crates wouldn't be too hard as they are everywhere on the airfield - they use them for shipping. Believe it or not - losing a landing gear is not all that uncommon in the Chinook world. They usually don't just fall off but get torn off contacting the ground at a high rate of speed. I am sure it is always a frightening experience but as a result of the frequency there is an established procedure for how to deal with it.
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