Tuesday, February 12, 2008

On the skids



Officially started crewchief training today. I'd always rather be downside doing the patient care stuff, but it's time to get out of my comfort zone.
Way outside my comfort zone. They're starting me off with the 'short haul' evolution, so instead of using the hoist it's a length of rope with a sandbag attached. You have to give the pilot commands to reference closure to the target, and judge the elevation of the sandbag off the ground, without causing any swing. It's really hard to look straight down a 200' rope and judge how far off the ground it is, especially when the ground isn't flat. At night. With night vision goggles. You still have to pay attention to the radios and look for other flying things in the area too. I really didn't impress anyone today. Even so, I made the effort to snap a pic for you

3 comments:

Tina said...

When I click the photo and blow it up, it looks like grasses down below? I would still have a hard time figuring out how far away the ground was though. The perspective is all off.

Good luck!

princess slea said...

i'm getting motion sickness just looking at the photo, no way I could do that job.

i'm still thinking about doing the food challenge. maybe i'll be inspired this week. hmmm, maybe mount rushmore mashed potatoes.

monkeybrigade said...

I guess it's about 15 feet off the ground. Damn, that's got to be a rough job. The more I see you do with it the more I'm thankful I live in Illinois where it's all flat.