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What do you Aviators and Flight Officers take in the cockpit with you?
- Thread starter Shiddy
- Start date
phrogpilot73
Well-Known Member
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.
That indeed blows hard and long.
However, worse than the ODO calling your wife is that single guy with a dog or something who thought he'd be back in a few hours. The married thing makes things harder sometimes, but at least you've got a -2 when needed.
A point that seems to get lost on the more "senior" people. Apparently us single folk don't need to go to the grocery store or do laundry...or mow the lawn.
Afrin.
Midol
So I read this story and the main point that sticks out to me....3-4 weeks in Rota? I know, that may be a bit too long but damn, they'd have to have orders, a.k.a. per diem, and the ability to do jack shit around the town of Rota and the surrounding area till a ride home floated by. I know I loved every minute I spent there.
Well, minus the 1-2 week carrier translant on the front end, instead more like two weeks' wear and tear on the liver.
For the married guys I guess that's a lot of calls home that go a lot like, "No honey, I miss you and we're really not enjoying anything at all while we're stuck over here." For the single guys that's a lot of, "I'm hungry. Can we go yet? How many times is that this week that you called?" Um, yeah. What you said. Miserable.
Do they take up a lot of room and mess with how you fit into the cockpit? I've always found Camelbaks to be a bit bulky.
I was kind of wondering that myself. I know I found them to be a pain in the ass while driving...I can't imagine it's much better in an aircraft.
Though, some of the newer MRAPs have cutouts in the seats for your Camelbak.
It's only a 55oz one, and I can barely shove it into my vest with 32oz of water in it. So it's smaller. But T-34 hops are 2 hrs max so it works for now. I'll re-evaluate when I get farther along if a larger one is a better idea.
It goes in the inside pocket of the vest that was designed for a map I believe. I wanted it on the outside but no joy with the PRs. It has the PALS webbing so it could, but for whatever reason it's a no go.
It depends on how much room your cockpit has. I've used a camelbak hawg as my combination water source and flight bag for several years. Hangs off the hook in the helo and no need for vest modifications.