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Random Griz Aviation Musings

ChuckMK23

ChuckMK23

FERS and TSP contributor!
pilot
AllAmerican75 said:
Are all of the CAP planes G1000 equipped these days? I remember when they were just rolling those out and only the cool senior squadrons that did a LOT of SAR got them. Also, I'm glad they haven't ditched the electronic direction finding equipment yet. Good times.
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90% are G1000 - The USAF is buying CAP 15+ new airframes per year from Cessna - older aircraft get sold at auction.
 
Gatordev

Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
I didn't even know there was AVGAS at Florala. Is it supposed to be contract gas for you guys?
 
IKE

IKE

Nerd Whirler
pilot
wink said:
Anyone still around Pax River? December 17th the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation will have two AH-1 Cobras at NTPS for training purposes. This is the second time at Pax and looks like it will be a regular thing for each class. Two of the pilots are from the SW Chapter. Both are great guys. Mark is a Vietnam Cobra vet, Boeing Helicopters Chief and Experimental Test Pilot and NTPS grad. Ended up spending years on the Apache. He LOVED flying with the students last time he was there. Other guy I know is Tom. He was also a Vietnam Cobra guy and Huey as well. He was briefly an Eastern Airlines pilot before that evaporated decades ago. He is now a FAA Operations Inspector who is currently working as a simulator certification guy on transport category aircraft advanced sims. He is essentially a simulator test pilot. Tell them Wink said hey. I think they both know the call sign. If not, I am the only Navy guy in the SW Chapter. I hope an AW dude gets to fly with them. Lot of respect from them from the performances of the last class.
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We call these flights qualitative evaluations (qual evals). Studs get 3-4 of them throughout the 48-week course, and they are a brief but welcome respite in the curriculum. We still have to provide a verbal report of our "findings", but the events are mostly a good deal and chance to increase the breadth of our T/M/S experience so we don't evaluate everything with Seawhawk blinders on.

IIRC, my qual evals included
  • AH-64 Apache (great tail power, weird taxiing)
  • MD520N NOTAR (No thank you, but neat)
  • MD500F with twin Dillon Aero Gatling guns and cyclic trigger (yes, please)
  • S-55 long line (75-ft) work. This was very interesting and way outside my comfort zone initially
If I get time to stop by and ogle their birds, I'll pass on the greeting.
 
Griz882

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
IKE said:
IIRC, my qual evals included
  • AH-64 Apache (great tail power, weird taxiing)
  • MD520N NOTAR (No thank you, but neat)
  • MD500F with twin Dillon Aero Gatling guns and cyclic trigger (yes, please)
  • S-55 long line (75-ft) work. This was very interesting and way outside my comfort zone initially
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I admit it…I’m jealous.

33990
 
ChuckMK23

ChuckMK23

FERS and TSP contributor!
pilot
Well I am "course complete" at Maxwell AFB - and am officially an IP in the eyes of the AF - joining a good handful of other Civil Service GS12/13 IP's in a variety of airframe and missions in the AF, Guard and Reserve.

While a little bit exhausting for an older guy - 6 days in a row prep, study, brief, fly and debrief (average sortie was 2.5) - most of the AF IP's I flew with actually had come through the Navy VT's or did IP tours at VT-3 or VT-31 and that was actually cool for me. I'm definitely a better stick wiggler for the experience!

I am officially "blued" in doing non sensical things because an AF reg says so - example doing RAIM checks in a WAAS equipped airplane - lol.

My evaluator (EP) on my checkride was a recently retired O-6 Strike Eagle dude who, while demanding, made the checkride fun. He played the personae of "Major Nucklehead" recently transferred KC-135 dude who never touched a high performance turbo charged GA piston airplane (and felt he could fly anything with wings on it with no instruction) - and my job was to demonstrate I could keep him from killing us, while teaching fundementals to proficiency. Example pulling the mixture out while on final, etc. Fun times. Teardrop returns power off from sim engine fail at 800' AGL - no problem. FITU complete!

Happy however to put the cultural mecca of central Alabama in the rear view mirror. I did have some great trips to Dreamland though!
 
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