31 July - Night flying

starts with learning how to use NVG's. Above is a picture of the same aircraft from yesterday's picture but through the use of our NVG's (Night Vision Goggles). As you can see the FOV, Field Of View, is much smaller than the 210 degrees of view you normally have with both of your eyes. The best way to simulate the 20 degree FOV that we experience while using NVG's is to close one eye and take an empty toilet paper roll and look through it with your other eye. The FOV you see out of the tube is about a 20 degrees FOV. Although our NVG's look like binoculars the total FOV is 20 degrees for both eyes. With that said you can imagine how much twisting, turning, and nodding of your head one must do to see the same amount of information you would normally see with an unobstructed 210 degree FOV. Now throw on top of that - we see everything in shades of green. So not only are we busy moving our heads but mentally we need to quickly and clearly interpret and distinguish one green object from another so as to make an accurate picture of our surrounding. This becomes especially challenging during landings and even more difficult in a dusty area.
So next time when you are sitting on the toilet and you realize the last person did not set you up with a new roll of toilet paper - in stead of getting upset conduct a little experiment. Try to restock the toilet paper while looking through the empty toilet paper roll. This might take some of coordination as you try to hold the the toilet paper roll to your eye as you balance it between your eyebrow and cheek. As you fumble with the new roll be careful as you try to insert the new toilet paper into the holder without having the "toilet paper holder 'pin'" spring apart before you can properly reseat the roll. Good Luck!
I hope this bit of info was worth the read. See ya.

28-30 July - Here is a pic

of my aircraft just after 7 pm but before the sunset; in Iraq the sun sets at about 7:20 PM during the summer months. I mention this because as a member of the night crew I arrive to work at 1730 (5:30 PM) to begin my day. By the time the sun sets we have eaten chow and conducted our flight brief. We gather our gear and walk to the aircraft to conduct the evenings mission. For our squadron I have found that we tend to fly fewer hours at night compared to the amount of hours we fly during the day. I do not really mind that because flying at night is definitely more challenging then day flying. I will explain in more detail in my next post. After our mission we debrief and wait for the 0600 breakfast run. After morning chow I depart the squadron at about 0630 or 0700 for bed. I sleep until 4 PM and then my day starts all over again. Its kind of like Ground hog day - except at night - same routine night after night. Have a good night.

23-27 July - External lift

Above is a pic of the Super Stallion conducting external operations. As mentioned the other day this aircraft can lift a lot of weight. We have both 'single point' and 'dual point' hooks to accomplish a variety of missions. When we lift heavy loads we use the dual points - when we lift light loads, like above, we will utilize the single point system. In no situation will we use the all three hooks at the same time. The heaviest load I have ever lifted was 19,850 lbs but that was several years ago back in California. One of the biggest factors we need to consider when conducting internal or external lifts is the temperature. Essentially, the hotter the temperature the less we can lift. People much smarter than me calculated that increased air temperature correlated to less power available from our engines and therefore, our lift capability is diminished. I will not get into the exact numbers but just know that we must conduct detailed planning before every mission to ensure we can carry the assigned passengers or cargo. Have a good day.

17-22 July - A few more

days and I will be halfway home. Thus far I have flown more hours in the last 2+ months than I have flown in the previous 8 months combined. Above is a picture of the inside of the mighty CH-53E named the Super Stallion. The 'E' indicates this helicopter is the 5th version of the H-53 model. We can carry up to 55 passengers or up to 36,000 lbs either internally or externally. In a few days I will be shifting to the night schedule so I can enjoy the cooler temperatures. We are scheduled to conduct external operations in the next few days so I will try to send a pic of our mission. Have a good day.

12-16 July - Life in a 'can'

This is my 'street' during my stay in Iraq. As you can see we moved out of tents and into row-housing or 'the cans' as we call it. Many of my neighbors purchased bicycles to commute to and from work, I on the other hand have chosen to walk the 8 minutes to work vice investing in pedal transportation. My room is the last one on the right under the second canopy - not that I ever expect anyone who is reading this to visit me on 'G-street' or 'G-block' as we call it because the 'cans' are surrounded by cement block walls.

5-11 July - The temperatrue

is holding at 115 degrees in the shade and the wind is still blowing strong. The on-going dust storms are a bit unusual for this time of the year. The dust twisters and its larger brother - the dust storm - are typically non existent by the end of June, yet this year we have seen some major storms well into the early/middle of July. Hopefully the dust will soon clear so we can get back to winning the war.

4 July - Happy 4th of

July to all. I spent the entire workday flying around the sands of Iraq. I hope everyone back in the States enjoyed some down time with family and friends. There were two reminders that today was the 4th of July. The first is seen above - Lady Liberty taxiing us into the fuel pits at the end of our flight. We could not help but smile and remember the freedoms and liberties that we experience as Americans. The other reminder was a freshly decorated 4th of July cake in the chow hall. Despite a long day of flying I was fortunate enough NOT to see any fireworks and to be honest it was nice to see a reminder of the Stature of Liberty, enjoy a dinner of meat and potatoes and finish the evening with a piece of cake.

1-3 July - Nothing new to

report from the big sandbox. We had some bad weather days the first couple days of July but the 3rd brought some relief. The winds finally moved East and the sand and dirt have returned to the surface allowing us to take to the skies. It's back to work as I return to my office and climb into my 'flying sauna' to earn my pay. Have a good day.

30 June - Two down...

and four more months to go. I am 33% complete with my second tour in Iraq - at least that is what it looks like assuming we keep our tour to about six months plus or minus a few days. About every two days equals 1% closer to seeing family and friends back in the States. I have shown a few pictures of the cockpit so here is one of the guys in the back. As you can see there are plenty of vacant seats on this leg of the flight but that is not always the case. Normally we carry more than two people but we are limited to 24 passengers per aircraft. As far as cargo we can carry up to 18 tons of stuff either internally in the cabin, pictured above, of the aircraft or externally using one or two hooks that attach to the bottom of the aircraft. I will try to post a few pics of our external operations next time we lift some heavy stuff. Until then - have a good week.