What are you going to fly?

I get this question a lot. While I can't answer it yet (I won't know until I graduate in March), there are three possibilities. This post will simply highlight the three options. Future posts will dig deeper and show you a bit more about each airframe.

1. UH-1 "Huey"

- Missile support operations (Wyoming, Montana, & North Dakota)

- Top secret mission at Andrews AFB, MD

- Assist with survival school at Fairchild AFB, WA

- Hueys are more of a "9 to 5" assignment. They do not normally deploy. After a tour or two in Hueys, most pilots are eligible to transfer over to HH-60's.

2. HH-60 "Pavehawk"

- Combat search & rescue, medevac, special operations, personnel recovery

- You have to be pretty good to get into this aircraft

- This is the quintessential helicopter mission, but you are gone a lot

- Examples: Hurricane Katrina rescue support and rescuing troubled sailors off the coast

- Afghanistan, South America, the Middle East...you name it & Pavehawks have been there

- Operate primarily at night and air-refuel on most missions

3. CV-22 "Osprey"

- Infiltration & exfiltration of special operations forces

- Quieter than a helicopter with a longer range

- Brand new - still working on deploying first squadron

- Technically a "tilt-rotor" - not a helicopter

- Usually, only one of these is given out per class and the top-ranked student gets it...if they give one out at all!

Do You Have the Monkey Skills?

So my first phase of training, the "contact" phase, is officially complete. During this part of training, we basically develop and refine our "monkey skills." Simply put, you learn how to fly a helicopter without crashing. You do this in the simplest and most forgiving environment - on a long, wide, flat runway; in broad daylight with an experienced instructor.

Now that my hand and eye coordination are up to standards, I progress onto the next phase of training, the "remote" phase. Now we start to see what a helicopter can really do. Runways have no use during remotes. Essentially, we try to land the helicopter in a field (see picture below). Simple, right? Yeah, that's what I thought.

You have to consider a lot of factors before deciding to set your bird down in a field. All of these factors must be considered in the air on the fly. Although it's pretty cool to land in a remote area, the margin for error narrows considerably.

For instance, what looks like flat terrain from the air can actually turn out to be quite rugged once you set your bird down. Stumps can be hidden by long grass. Trees don't look nearly as large at 500 feet. All of these things are waiting to mess up your skids or roll your helicopter.

Despite these threats, landing in a field is going to be super cool. I can't wait! I'll tell you more about remotes as I progress.