What do you Aviators and Flight Officers take in the cockpit with you?

[PropStop]

grenades, lots of 'em.

Always flew with a ton of water (i'd piss 5 times in a 10hr flight, no dehydration for me!). Sometimes flew with a griddle, pancake mix, johnsonville breakfast links, maple syrup (the real stuff), pre-mixed scrambled eggs (onion, cheese, peppers, ham), few jugs of OJ...

Now my desk is well stocked with survival gear...

 

[UMichfly]

Always flew with a ton of water (i'd piss 5 times in a 10hr flight, no dehydration for me!). Sometimes flew with a griddle, pancake mix, johnsonville breakfast links, maple syrup (the real stuff), pre-mixed scrambled eggs (onion, cheese, peppers, ham), few jugs of OJ...

Do you dudes do any work up there or are you just airborne Martha Stewart/Team Mom's?

 

[PerDiem]

grenades, lots of 'em.

Always flew with a ton of water (i'd piss 5 times in a 10hr flight, no dehydration for me!). Sometimes flew with a griddle, pancake mix, johnsonville breakfast links, maple syrup (the real stuff), pre-mixed scrambled eggs (onion, cheese, peppers, ham), few jugs of OJ...

Now my desk is well stocked with survival gear...

I bet whoever had to empty out the pisser on your crew was a huge fan of yours.

 

[BACONATOR]

PCMCIA Cards, Comm/COD, box lunch and a passion for VERTREP and embarassing HS..

 

[insanebikerboy]

...a passion for VERTREP and embarassing HS..

Really? This from the infamous Bogey? I'm laughing too hard to even respond otherwise.

 

[SynixMan]

Do you dudes do any work up there or are you just airborne Martha Stewart/Team Mom's?

Someone's jealous...

 

[CommodoreMid]

Always flew with a ton of water (i'd piss 5 times in a 10hr flight, no dehydration for me!). Sometimes flew with a griddle, pancake mix, johnsonville breakfast links, maple syrup (the real stuff), pre-mixed scrambled eggs (onion, cheese, peppers, ham), few jugs of OJ...

Do you dudes do any work up there or are you just airborne Martha Stewart/Team Mom's?[/QUOTE]

3P bringing good food is a main element in making my Nav day happier.

 

[scoolbubba]

Do you dudes do any work up there or are you just airborne Martha Stewart/Team Mom's?

That's giving us a lot of credit, already. Team Moms can usually get the van to the game. We're pretty awesome at sitting in the driveway for hours, then getting the kids to the game 8 hours late.

 

[PropStop]

Always flew with a ton of water (i'd piss 5 times in a 10hr flight, no dehydration for me!). Sometimes flew with a griddle, pancake mix, johnsonville breakfast links, maple syrup (the real stuff), pre-mixed scrambled eggs (onion, cheese, peppers, ham), few jugs of OJ...

Do you dudes do any work up there or are you just airborne Martha Stewart/Team Mom's?[/QUOTE]

hmm...not really no!

And i prefer to be compared to Emeril Lagasse, thank you very much!

@PerDiem - i think their full bellies offset any irritation they may have felt. Or at least nobody dared to bring up the issue with me, less they get a wood spoon across their knuckles!

 

[Kaman]

Obviously, the required items....And, if flying "wet" I'd have all my swim gear. My extra 5lbs. of optional equipment included, "chem-lites" (including IR), steel wool (the BEST fire tinder you can have), A fishing kit ( About the size of a cigarette pack), extra pair of water bottles...Now, I can't forget the "bag nasty" if we were flying thru chow... The menu included, but not limited to: "rainbow ham and dry American cheese on equally dry bread sandwich....( ONE sandwich with ONE slice of ham and cheese...), "Frito's" ( expired date on bag ), orange or apple...Oh, last, but not least...a nondescript can of grapefruit juice! As you can see the inflight fare aboard CV-** during this particular deployment was worse than a depression era Alabama chain-gangs lunch We finally wised up and got a hold of the ship's box lunch instruction and respectfully presented it to our Div O and fortunately, the XO of the squadron was flying on a "meal" hop one day, and he asked me if this was the S*** you guys have been eating? "Yes, sir" was my reply and he said he was going to speak with the XO of the ship. He was sympathetic and after doing a little information gathering found out that indeed, our ship had the worst "bag nasties" in the fleet. So, we did see a measurable improvement in the quality of our inflight cuisine.

 

[illinijoe05]

Funny you should mention that... My first deployment - a day into the translant home. Wake up (late, thanks raging hangover from Rota), walk downstairs to the hangar and... WTF?!? That MH-53 wasn't here last night... Go back upstairs, too early for lunch - so into wardroom lounge. Two Navy MH-53 pilots there.

"Is that your shitter downstairs?"
"Yup."
"What are you guys doing here?"
"We were doing a PMC hit to a carrier pretty far offshore from Norfolk. Had an emergency, and our CO wouldn't let us one shot it back home. We rode the carrier over, and have been hanging out waiting for a ship headed west."
"No shit, that must have sucked."
"No, what sucked was the ODO calling our wives telling them we wouldn't be home tonight - more like 3-4 weeks."

The dudes didn't have a toothbrush, change of clothes, cash, split pay, etc... Apparently the air wing embarked on the carrier passed the hat so the crew could buy underwear and toiletries in the ship's store.

Needless to say - the MOMENT we were within range of Norfolk for them - they were gone.

The best/worst part of this story IIRC is that when they realized they would have to stay on the boat and ride it across the HAC got aboard dash 2 and left the PQM and 1 or 2 crewmen to babysit the bird. And yes none of them packed a go bag. I believe the PQM didnt even have his wallet. Also I think they spent very little time in Rota, most of the 3-4 weeks was spent on the translants.

 

[BACONATOR]

The Pakteen was what we used. It clips nicely on to the vest; I had mine under the armpit and it was fairly comfy.

CamelBak used to make one called the Profile or something like, that lacked the pouches and straps and whatnot and was designed to fit under vests and such. I had one in the VT's and wore it under the SV-2 comfortably. For added value, freeze it overnight and let it cool you down during preflight and startup in a Pensacola August; by the time you're really thristy, it's melted.

The iPod switch was the most gougiest piece of gear to fly with, especially on the loooooooong boring-ass OEF flights or cross-countries to Fallon. You can do it with about $5 of parts from Radio Shack. New Guy gets DJ'ing responsibilites. Old Eddie Murphy routines make the time fly.

For helo bubbas, if youre technically savvy, or buy an AE/AT/PR some beer, get an Ipod 1/4" jack to ICS jack cord made... same deal, just plug it into the extra ICS station in back and crank the VOX. VERY useful in starboard D, waiting for a small boy to give you a bloody green deck, or during a 60-hr.

 

[KCOTT]

Dude, water bottle in the map case. It's a good excuse for the IP to take a pass in the pattern so you can drink and decompress. If you haven't started instruments yet, I can't imagine that big ass bladder on your stomach is going to make charts and plates easier to deal with. I still havent figured out how to get more water into the T45.

Ha, I used to do that just so I could take a break every now and then. Wasn't actually overly thirsty on most occasions I went for a drink, more so to get my hands off the controls once in a while. Making water more easily accessible than having it in a water bottle in the map case would be the least of my desires.

 

[busdriver]

I guess I'm more fatalistic than you guys:

M-4 + 5 mags
M-9 + 3 mags
Standard bunch of survival gear (radio, batteries, GPS, assorted signaling devices, compass, etc)
Ditched the standard first aid kit for my own (3x CAT tourniquet, 2x combat gauze, 4x kerlex, 14ga needle catheter, 2x chest seal, combat pill pack, Israeli bandage)
water purifier (miox)
fold up plastic bag type water holder (holds about a gallon)
nalgene water bottle for survival only (full)
tether to secure myself to the outside of a helo (wear a riggers belt)
couple of power bars
compact binoculars
watch cap
nomex fleece outer shell under the seat if it's not super cold (wear it if it's cold)
couple extra IR chem lights

Granted that's only combat, and there's some extra crap on the helo depending on the situation. Home station? Snacks and a cell phone!

 

[Gatordev]

I guess I'm more fatalistic than you guys:

M-4 + 5 mags
M-9 + 3 mags
Standard bunch of survival gear (radio, batteries, GPS, assorted signaling devices, compass, etc)
Ditched the standard first aid kit for my own (3x CAT tourniquet, 2x combat gauze, 4x kerlex, 14ga needle catheter, 2x chest seal, combat pill pack, Israeli bandage)
water purifier (miox)
fold up plastic bag type water holder (holds about a gallon)
nalgene water bottle for survival only (full)
tether to secure myself to the outside of a helo (wear a riggers belt)
couple of power bars
compact binoculars
watch cap
nomex fleece outer shell under the seat if it's not super cold (wear it if it's cold)
couple extra IR chem lights

Granted that's only combat, and there's some extra crap on the helo depending on the situation. Home station? Snacks and a cell phone!

I'm thinking you probably operate regularly (while operational) in a much less hospitble environment than the majority of Navy helo guys. Marines? Sure, on par. But no matter what the various Navy helo Weapon Schools may claim, MOST (yes, there are exceptions) Navy helos are in a pretty low threat environment.