23 March 2010

This is a picture of me sitting in the right seat. Mr. Safford was nice enough to let me fly the entire day. I don't know if he was naturally being nice or felt I was less likely to ask questions when I flew. Either way, I was a happy camper. One finds that when you become PC of an aircraft you tend to fly less and let the young guys wiggle the sticks more. Okay honey, you remember the rules, I send a picture you send a picture.


What is prettier than three chinooks? Four! Yesterday another Chinook arrived in our parking spot; I called our MTP (Maintenance Test Pilot) Mr. Koritko and asked him if he was tracking anything. He said, "rumors of getting another aircraft but nothing solid" I said well, "Solid just arrived and parked in our open spot!"
Mr. Safford the left seat pilot for the evening running the show...

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This is a picture of one our crewmembers, SSG Longo, belive me the makes over the face is an improvement. No really, SSG Longo is our SI (Standarization Instructor) he's in charge of all our crewmembers in the flight. Basically the same as an IP but for the crewmember side of the house.
The guys put together this little soapbox for the IP's (Instructor Pilots) The PI in the instructions stand for Pilots. There are two IP's here right now, myself and Mr.. Petty. IP's are technical and tactical experts for the standardization program. As such, we are expected to train our soldiers at every level within the command and also responsible for the mentoring and professional education of all unit crewmembers. We assist our comander and are expected to provide our expertise on unit, individual, crew, and collective training when asked. Basically, we make S@#$ happen....

This is what an LZ (Landing Zone) looks like from the pilots point of view. All the people you see on the bottom right side are waiting to get onboard.

1915

This is a very funny picture when you hear the story. Each month we have pilot classes, we get together and talk about different aircraft and lessons learned etc. Also each month it's a different airframe topics. A few months ago the Apaches got up and gave a little class on their aircraft and laid out ammo on the ground in front of their aircraft to brag. Well next month is our turn so the guys got out all the ammo from two of our chinooks (not much, so funny), laid it out on top of a 463L Pallet (we can fit three of those in our aircraft with 7,500 pounds worth of gear on each pad) and whatever else we could collect on short notice. The cooler and all the extra drinks I think is the best. We basically carry all that on board our aircraft when we fly minus half the ammo, ammo isn't that important to us. Have to have the goodies!

1900

Here are a few interesting pictures. This is the old style Humvv that we've been using for some time.
This is a picture of one of the new ones, think they call it the M.A.T.V. Pretty B.A.D.A.S.S. if you ask me.

This is what it looks like in the inside.... The Army could almost use this as a re-enlistment tool.

1852

1844

Here are a few of the new vehicles coming through our AO (Area of Operations) They've beafed up the armor and suspension, made them narrower to fit on smaller roads.

1837

14 March 2010

We have a lot of funny guys in our company and their isn't anything worse for them to have then ; spare time. A few came together to help the commander with his decision making process and made this little fella. Basically it's a little glass jar and on the jar reads the following instructions. I'll attach a few different ones also throughout the day.

Instructions:

When confronted with a deeply ponderous predicament. Shake viforously, open container, allow contents to spill onto the marching surface, read, and execute as indicated.

Update as of March 7, 2010

Hello all, hope this finds that all is well in your little part of the world. I've moved successfully to my new location in JAF and have seemed to fit in with the guys. If you haven't already figured it out I'm on days and am flying almost everyday which i don't mind. The days go by quickly and seem as if you wake up to just fall asleep again. The weather is starting to warm up and before we know it were going to be in the 120-140 from what I'm told. The missions here are more demanding on the pilots but also more satisfying once completed giving you the feeling of making a difference. I thank everyone for the continued support that has been given and as always if you have a question don't hesitate to ask. I really don't know what to say other then put pictures on here and talk about what seems to be interesting.

Here are a few pictures that we've taken throughout the week; enjoy

Tony


This guy can make the ramp gun look sooooo stressful huh.

This is a picture of me landing into a socker field to pick up some VIP's

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Oops...

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kinda close to the clouds

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Afghan helicopter

pax's and cargo....

more cargo....