Current flight helmets

[101CH47]

I am beginning to think I am the oldest one in this discussion, I had an SPH4 before the rubber tubes. We had the little velcro straps back in early 80's. The rubber tubes were a big step up from that.

 

Nighthawk should never have been done away we taught techniques that the younger guys could have really used later. They thought some of us were crazy when we talked about the old days of flying night formation without NVG's. I was a Combat Skills IP from 1981-1984 at Rucker.

[hawkdriver]

You have me beat, cycled through Rucker in 89. As for the boom, the TF is wearing them, go figure. If you know where to look, you can order them on an impact card from Gentex. We got them in just as we were leaving and our BNCO got nervous about "stealing from the Army" and made us leave them all behind, all 150 of them! I do have an Oregon Aero liner, but it took almost eight months for that coveted letter from USAARL or however the hell you spell it. They gave me a letter saying that "....this helmet has been modified by USAARL and only USAARL can work on this helmet in it's current configuration" the funny thing is that they never specified what that modification was, so anything I do to my helmet is authorized! You should look into the comfort fit TPLs, they turned the bubble wrap material outward, put a layer of the foam from the oregon aero inside, they are actually quite nice. We ordered 150 of them as well, but they were also left behind so that it wouldn't look like we were stealing GWOT money.

[Spathologist]

I am beginning to think I am the oldest one in this discussion, I had an SPH4 before the rubber tubes...I was a Combat Skills IP from 1981-1984 at Rucker.

 

Oh, ya. I'm a babe in swaddling compared to you! Maroon Marauders, 87-19...

[101CH47]

You have me beat, cycled through Rucker in 89.

 

Only by about ten years. I retired in 2006 after 27 years of flying those darn things.

[101CH47]

Oh, ya. I'm a babe in swaddling compared to you! Maroon Marauders, 87-19...

 

Won't be long before you will be one of the few that remember the colored hats.

 

The powers that be sure screwed up a good system. Back then when you started they gave you a graduation date and if you didn't get set back you would graduate on that day. Now it seems you start and never really know when you will graduate.

[Spathologist]

You have me beat, cycled through Rucker in 89. As for the boom, the TF is wearing them, go figure. If you know where to look, you can order them on an impact card from Gentex. We got them in just as we were leaving and our BNCO got nervous about "stealing from the Army" and made us leave them all behind, all 150 of them! I do have an Oregon Aero liner, but it took almost eight months for that coveted letter from USAARL or however the hell you spell it. They gave me a letter saying that "....this helmet has been modified by USAARL and only USAARL can work on this helmet in it's current configuration" the funny thing is that they never specified what that modification was, so anything I do to my helmet is authorized! You should look into the comfort fit TPLs, they turned the bubble wrap material outward, put a layer of the foam from the oregon aero inside, they are actually quite nice. We ordered 150 of them as well, but they were also left behind so that it wouldn't look like we were stealing GWOT money.

 

I just thought that mic boom looked interesting. And more sturdy.

 

I ride with a regular TPL. I was one of the guys that USAARL tested the TPL on, I still have the waiver letter somewhere. I have a head shaped like a wedge of cheese and the old suspension wasn't cutting it for me.

 

I have seen a TPL-type liner, but with gel instead of bubble wrap or foam, that I really would like to have.

[Spathologist]

The powers that be sure screwed up a good system. Back then when you started they gave you a graduation date and if you didn't get set back you would graduate on that day. Now it seems you start and never really know when you will graduate.

 

But you're guaranteed to graduate eventually, no more of the "look to the left, look to the right, one of you three will not graduate" speeches.

 

The philosophy of "everyone is trainable" combined with the pressure of manning needs has churned out some real turds....

[101CH47]

But you're guaranteed to graduate eventually, no more of the "look to the left, look to the right, one of you three will not graduate" speeches.

 

The philosophy of "everyone is trainable" combined with the pressure of manning needs has churned out some real turds....

 

That look to the left and look to right thing was a great modivator in its day. Toward the end of my time at Rucker we had started recycled some so many times that they knew every instructor in the building by their first name. I had the opportunity to fly with one I tried to flunk out several years later in a unit, That guy could still not fly worth a crap and could not navigate well enough to find his way home. Even his unit wanted to get rid of him, they finally had an FIB to do just that.

 

"everyone is trainable" for something that is true but not trainable for everything. I always operated on the principle that not every one was cut out to be a brain surgeon and by the same token not everyone was cut out to be a helicopter pilot.

[swag]

I am old enough to remember the colored hats, Orange Hats class 99-something-or-another. We did have one guy in our class who got terminated but it took a DUI on his part to make it happen. There was a gal in my WOC class that got hurt in the first week of school (JAN 99). She struggled through WOC and finally graduated. About a year or so later, just as I was graduating, she finally started Primary. I returned to Rucker about 3 years later for the ALSE course and low-n-behold who did I run into. Thats right, the same gal. I asked her what class she was back for and I was blown away with her answer...she was still in flight school!! Granted she was in the process of getting chaptered out but it took about 4 years for the army to realize that not everyone is trainable. I don't think she ever made it past Instruments.

 

I don't know if I'd like to do night unaided formation flight. I've peeked under my goggles while following a 47 on our night flights; full moon, 100% illum no problem but on zero illum overcast nights forget it. And I'm glad for I swapped out the TPL. 4+ hours of goggles with a TPL, helmet brow right at eye level, classic waffel pattern on the forehead and a throbbing head makes for a loooong night.

[hawkdriver]

Nothing Rip-it can't cure!

There was a Saudi in my OBC that took the two and a half degree completion flight class! "It matters not, my country pays, gift to me" Now, go eat a goat.

 

On a different note, I think I am going to start a new thread under Uniforms for OIF Flight Gear, that way, we aren't hijacking others threads. A place for us filthy Army Aviators to swap lies.

[Jim McCauley]

Gold Flight! 89-04!

 

22 years for pay this past April. Four years active, the rest reserve and guard. Started flying November 1988. The fourth UH-1 primary class. Twenty years flying this year. Closing in on 10,000 hours and still loving it!

 

"Above the Best" (That still makes me laugh! )

 

Jim

[101CH47]

I am old enough to remember the colored hats, Orange Hats class 99-something-or-another. We did have one guy in our class who got terminated but it took a DUI on his part to make it happen. There was a gal in my WOC class that got hurt in the first week of school (JAN 99). She struggled through WOC and finally graduated. About a year or so later, just as I was graduating, she finally started Primary. I returned to Rucker about 3 years later for the ALSE course and low-n-behold who did I run into. Thats right, the same gal. I asked her what class she was back for and I was blown away with her answer...she was still in flight school!! Granted she was in the process of getting chaptered out but it took about 4 years for the army to realize that not everyone is trainable. I don't think she ever made it past Instruments.

 

I don't know if I'd like to do night unaided formation flight. I've peeked under my goggles while following a 47 on our night flights; full moon, 100% illum no problem but on zero illum overcast nights forget it. And I'm glad for I swapped out the TPL. 4+ hours of goggles with a TPL, helmet brow right at eye level, classic waffel pattern on the forehead and a throbbing head makes for a loooong night.

 

That was tax payer money well spent. I always thought the best thing to do with folks like that was to end the agony and give someone else a chance at attending flight school. There is no sense tying up the system with dead weight.

 

The night formation I was thinking about was with UH1's. We used to orient off the exhaust glow as one technique.

[101CH47]

Removed duplicate post.

[101CH47]

Nothing Rip-it can't cure!

There was a Saudi in my OBC that took the two and a half degree completion flight class! "It matters not, my country pays, gift to me" Now, go eat a goat.

 

On a different note, I think I am going to start a new thread under Uniforms for OIF Flight Gear, that way, we aren't hijacking others threads. A place for us filthy Army Aviators to swap lies.

 

 

Back in my days at Rucker when a Saudi student showed up on the class roster it was always a fight to make an IP take the guy. No one wanted to fly with those guys, they were some of the worst students to deal with.

[hawkdriver]

Gold Flight! 89-04!

 

22 years for pay this past April. Four years active, the rest reserve and guard. Started flying November 1988. The fourth UH-1 primary class. Twenty years flying this year. Closing in on 10,000 hours and still loving it!

 

(That still makes me laugh! )

 

Jim

 

10,000 hours??? You were almost a year behind me and you have 10,000. What do you do?

[Jim McCauley]

10,000 hours??? You were almost a year behind me and you have 10,000. What do you do?

 

Fly a helicopter.

 

I actually fly for the Army and have been flying civilian and law enforcement since 1993. About 7000 hours of my flight time has been in Sikorsky products.

 

I've had several years where I was flying over 800 hours a year. That was for the guard and my civilian job.

 

Regards.

 

Jim