Quick question from a guy who left a Navy cockpit back in 2002: Are NVGs used for night traps and/or around the boat these days? If not, any prognostication?
thx
Herbal
thx
Herbal
And NVD vertrep too!Helos are allowed to wear NVGs from takeoff to landing ashore and afloat.
I've had discussions with HSM peers of mine (now DH level) as to relative merits of NVDs on the boat. The HSM guys seemed to still be a mixed bag as to whether NVDs were here to stay or just some sort of fad. HS guys and LHD HC guys were all in for the big NVD win. HC USNS guys historically didn't have enough exposure and it was different from how they were used to operating (unaided) so therefore it was a change to be feared and resisted.It amazes me how long it took for us to fly from takeoff to landing on NVGs and the HC guys to accept vertrep'ing on NVGs. Am not sure if HSM gave up the DLQ unaided requirement but would throw that into the same category.
The HSM guys seemed to still be a mixed bag as to whether NVDs were here to stay or just some sort of fad.
quelle horreur!And NVD vertrep too!
The Navy Not-Invented-Here mentality with regards to NVG's (especially for rotary wing) is inexplicable. You would never see a US Military non US Navy helicopter flying unaided since about 1990. Take Coast Guard - fellow Naval Aviators - who think unaided around the boat is just insane and pathologically unsafe.
I can't explain it myself. Likely is somehow linked to how we train at undergraduate level (HT's) and lack of NVG there.
If you are a Navy O-5/O-6 Helo guy/girl in an active ops role you need to be slapped.
NODs? You get a nod for the throwback term. Shall we discuss how to don and doff them?I'm not really sure where you're getting this from. There is no "aided" or "unaided" anymore when it comes to night quals. Night time is night time. If you aren't putting goggles on, it's a specific crew's decision.
The HTs have had NVG training for just short of a decade. HSL had NVGs since the late '90's. HS had them since before that.
And again, at least on the HSM side, Navy O-5s and O-6s are all in on NODs, operationally. Historically, maybe not, but nowadays, all the rotary CDREs and below are fully behind them.
HSC maintained a requirement for aided and unaided until sometime around 08-09 until it went away and was only a night qual.