GENERAL TOPICS > Adventure

Adventure: Heli Attack!

(1/3) > >>

Flyin6:
So, this adventure started off in a Jeep, but ended in quite a different form of transportation. The jeep did get another three hundred miles on the odometer, but this time didn't get dirty. I got some better information on it concerning highway driving and fuel mileage. During the morning drive down, I was being tossed around (windy conditions) and it turned in a disappointing 14.8 mpg. The drive back was somewhat better at 15.2. Both legs were driven at 69-70 mph.
It was quite frosty when we pulled out for the drive down to London Kentucky. This city is nearing central Kentucky and is surrounded by the massive Daniel Boone National Forest.

Flyin6:
We were driving there because one of my best friends that I served with in the Army was on temporary duty there operating this:

Flyin6:
Kat came along and was just fascinated by the experience which ended up lasting all day long. Mike who went through the US Army rotary-wing flight school in 1979-1980, in the same class I did has flown ever since! Kathy had never met him before, and his coming to London served as a rare opportunity. His home base is Bend Oregon, so he is quite a ways away from home!

Flyin6:
With our youngest son soon to enter a 4-year college and into their aviation program, mom is all about learning and experiencing aviation outside the Commercial airline world. She saw me fly in the Airlines but only witnessed dropping me off at the airport when I would fly off to Afghanistan or Iraq during those days when I was a contractor over there. We had met and married after I retired from the Army, so that world is a bit foreign to her.

Mike gave her a much better understanding of the brotherhood we military guys have. She even commented that the more of my old friends she meets the more she is impressed with how close we all are. She stated that the way we all are is just like a real family. Thinking about it, at times, honestly, that bond born from desperate and hard times in the military is stronger perhaps.

Anyway, she was having a great time!

Flyin6:
Mike is one of the unsung heroes of our nation, he really is. He started as a WO-1 Army Warrant Officer flying UH-1H Huey's in Gibelstadt, Germany right after flight school. I served with him in the very same unit for the next three years. We were "Ravens" assigned to A-company, 3rd Aviation Battalion, Combat of the 3rd Infantry Division. He went into the General Support platoon, and I was assigned to the Aero-Scout Platoon flying Jet Rangers.

Following that Mike went to Fort Rucker, the very home of Army Aviation where he taught incoming Army aviators how to fly the Huey. He was an instructor pilot, and later a higher-order, Standardization Instructor pilot. He did extremely well and even became an Instrument Examiner. I went through that school as a CW4 with 6,000 hours and it kicked my butt. Mike did it as a CW2!!!!!

Due to circumstances beyond his control, he left the active Army after 14 years and entered the National Guard where he departed as a CW3 pilot in command and instructor pilot some years later.

Like most of us, he played around with some additional college education and even started a construction company in Bend Oregon. You should see the 4300 sq ft home he built for his family.

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page