11 December 2009

Today marked a good day in my tour; Today I hit 90 hours in country in 21 days, to some this doesn't mean a thing but to me it's great. Once a pilot hits 90 flight hours in country he's giving a mandatory two days off; what will i do with all my spare time... Possibly build my bed up so that I can have a desk underneath it. I'll make sure to add before and after pictures of my room for all to see. Today we flew a mission to resupply a little FOB in the middle of know where. We had to climb over some mountains that were 13,ooo feet plus but I was using O2 so no problems. You will see me in the pictures below with the 02 plugs in my nose, good times. I haev a funny story to tell! Before we deply we were sent to this class that put you under a mask and had you fly in simulated high altitudes; pretty much they would reduce the amount of Oxygen that you could breathe and then record your symptoms so that you knew what to expect if and when you flew that high for real. Well my symptom was Denial; pretty much I would fly until I passed out. Of course there are a lot of other symptoms and each pilot is different on how they react. well about a week ago I was flying a high altitude mission and was at 12,500 - 13,500 and my co-pilot looks over at me and says, "man I can feel this altitude, I'm very air hungry (symptom)(meaning he's trying to breath fast for more air). I look over at him and say, "Your such a P@##!", he then looked away a little discouraged and a few minutes later looks back at me and askes me what my primary symptoms were? After a great deal of thought, I reply, "Denial" We laugh and then decide to descend to a lower altitude. That's pretty much my weekend in a nutshell. Oh, was made Company SP which is a big deal but each day I learn that it's more work and I realize how much I really don't know. Wish J.R. or Rosten were here for guidance and mentorship.

Oh, here at Bagram there are a lot of big wigs so it's a big salute area. Also with big wigs we have a lot of Rules to follow. One of the biggest rules is that we have to wear a reflective belt after SunSet at all times, it's such a big deal that if your caught not wearing one you will be fined $45. Well a few days ago we had a weather day were we didn't fly so our crew dogs (crew chiefs) got together for a fun picture and placed 8 reflective belts together and around a chinook and here are the pictures. They posted them all over Bagram and added the comment that it was the required aircraft gear to fly within 5NM's of Bagrams airspace.... Soooo funny

cont......

This is my pilot of the day, Jeff Ballew. Thanks to him we have all the pictures below. Jeff is a farely new pilot and is one of the up and comings. Today marked my 21st flight since being in country and he was the first to want to sit Right Seat. I'll expect good things from him in the upcoming months.

For flying in an aircraft without a pressurized cockpit, this is a big deal. 13, 100 feet MSL

cont...

Dropping off supplys in the middle of know where. The tempature was -4, fun times but does bring back good memories of my Alaskan Family.

Just a few pictures of the view a long my flight, would would ever guess were at war here.

This is my christmas tree that was sent to me. I promised the wife I would put it up and this is the proof that I did what she requested.

Another FOB we landed at to resupply with wood, food, etc.out

These are the apaches that followed us the whole way and made sure the people kept the peace.

cont..

We went to a FOB the other day and this was the priority. WOOD, packed as much as we could inside the aircraft and dropped it off. Amazing how much we take for granted.

These are the Afg. troops we dropped off. Withing minutes they were all loaded inside truck beds and driving off. Were is the safety officer when you need one.

More Sling load training.

I gave my camera up to get these pictures. One guy is holding a grounding rod which is hammered into the ground. Our aircraft can produce up to 40,000 volts of electricity at a hover. Don't miss! I'm in the right seat waving at the camera while my pilot is flying the helicopter

10 Dec 09

Here are a few pictures of some missions that we have done since I've last posted. Below you we were doing loads for training. This is us hoving a hook-up crew about ready to sling two 500 gallon blevits.

Few pictures of the landscape as I'm flying along.

11/27/2009 Todays Mission

This is a picture after I just landed. The camp/fortress is located a few miles from a city. Supposedly these are the good guys that look over the camp. We help resupply them from time to time and hope that they help the city close by but you never really know who are the good guys around here. The rule of thumb is, "Trust Knowone and always watch your back" Today we had a few Apaches (AH64D's) up above watching over us! Thanks guys...

Basically we don't stick around that long. The one man on the right next to the helicopter seems to be the man in charge directing everyone all the time. Most of everything was in what we call tri walls (which are boxes 4 feet by 5 feet with bottoms and tops) We picked them up for transport and the FOB didn't tie them down so when we arrived to drop them off they were all falling apart. When we stop at places like this in the middle of knowwhere we try to get in and out as fast as we can. I was chalk two on this mission flying and made the mistake of trying to land with my sister ship and ended up loosing her in the dust and had to do a go-around; rookie mistake my first go around in 18 days. Glad none of my pilots were on board with me to see it! :-) The big brown bags (about 5 feet long and 2.5 feet radius)we thought were loaded with potatoes but come to find out that it was fire wood. Man, places like this make you appriceate what you have in life. Most and I mean by most i would say 90% of the homes are made of clay and have no electricty. During my inprocessing we were given a few facts about this glorious place. Afghanistan is approximately the size of Texas, 11% is known (key word) to have live mortars still left over from the russians last stand. I believe they said 90% are personnel minds and 10% are tanks minds. The FOB I'm staying at has minds still in the fob but since the dirt is so packed down from travel of vehicles and such it's deamed livable but we are told over and over not to go hitting stakes into the ground; fun fun fun... I'm not making this stuff up, its kinda of funny as I think and type this. The weather here as of lately hasn't been that bad. I'm on days right now, I wake up at 0500, get to breakfast by 0530, and am at the flight line by 0600. I usually get home/hootch/place where I sleep by 1930 (do the math, I have to) and to make the time even more difficult we go by Zulu time so you have to subtract 4.5 hours to everything. It's the armys was of staying Hooah, It annoys me to death, I wish we went in local time. I know I'm going on a tangent but hear me out. I wake up at 0500 which is actually like 0130Z then to add even more suck I have to subtract another 8.5 hours to get the local time for East Coast. fun fun fun... What else, ummm. So far I've logged a little over 40 hours since I've been here which is a lot since I've only been flying now for a few weeks. The most I've ever flown in a month was about 65 hours, the guy I'm replacing has flown over 130's this month and it's not even over with. We are replacing a campbell, ky group that has taken us under their wing and really given all that they can. Okay, whelp, better be going to bed, it's 1930 Zulu, hehe... I may conform yet, but i'm taking a few people with me... lol Oh, I know I can't spell, I also know my grammer sucks!

This is the picture of the town by the FOB we dropped stuff off at.

Laundry

We turn in our dirty laundry to this place and pick it up three days later. Actually works pretty well and hardly ever come up with missing clothes.

Home Sweat Home

This is the outside of what they call here , "bee hut". Inside the building is laid out into a hallway down the middle with 4 rooms on each side measuring about 8 foot by 8 foot.

Arrived, Bagram Afghanistan

The C17, the pilot is waiting on me, soooooo cool. Almost as cool as a Chinook.

All these pictures are of my room as I found it for the first time. My Lovely bed, mop bucket, plywood, and 4X6's.

Dave and I on our flight on the C17, spatious lol

All the other happy riders

The top shelf of my bed, a vacuum that doesn't work, empty ammo can, empty water bottles and alot of trash...

Arrived in Manas, Kyrgyzstan...

This is a picture of me sitting in one of the million briefs to come... I'm so interested "Binkie Strong!"

My Lovely Hotel

200 beds and I count at least 5 nationalities

Disney Day 2

The best ride ever..... If your at Disney World, it's a must....

Hely Belly, didn't know I was taking a picture.

Nanna, Scarlett, and Helen waiting in the shade for our bus

Yes that's Helen at the feet. We were staying at the Toy Story Resort if you were guessing.

Halloween 09 Cont....

This is a picture of the house in the dark with my fancy camera Scarlett got me for christmas

My eyes I bought for Halloween for $19.99; everyone want's them but I won't tell where I got them.

Scarlett's decorations she put together for the front portch, nice....

Helen Celest Downey as "Bumble-Bee" Transformers!

Halloween 2009 Cont...

Helen "Senior", Helen "Junior", Amber, and Striders bootie...

Scarlett showing off

In memory of my best four dogs other than Strider ofcoarse...

This is our little grave yard that we put together thanks to "Martha Stewart"!

Halloween 2009

Well it's halloween 2009 and this is what is going on in our neck of the woods. Below is the newest addition of our halloween decor; "Joe" the zombie.

Scarlett, Helen, and Helen

Scarlett and Helen

Scarlett the cat.