After working as the courseware lead for the VH-71 (Presidential Replacement Helicopter) program for over a year, their funding was cut and I became the Lead Subject Matter Expert for the Republic of Singapore Air Force Basic Wings Course, I had previously helped develop the Rotary Wing flight syllabus for the RSAF. I am also assisting with LM's pursuit of the UK-SAR Helicopter program providing SME support.
Would enjoy getting together with former squadron/ship/class mates and former flight students.
Other Comments:
I remarried in 2006 to Pattie Higgins. I was medically retired (TDRL) from the Reserves in October 2006 for vertigo caused by Meniere's Disease which occured while I was mobilized as a helicopter flight instructor for HT-18 (in October 2003). I was permanently retired in October 2008. I am unable to fly these days, but stay active in aviation with my current position at Lockheed Martin. Pattie and I now live in the Orlando area.
Best Friends Greg Gallagher, Kevin Coyne, Dean Wojcik, Rob Kalin, and Anne Marie Looney
Best Moment When Mike Hollister tried to get me in trouble for landing by request under the control tower and the OIC said at that seastate it was no different than landing on the spot in flight school.
Flying with Rob from 50 ft to 12500 ft until his hands had a burning sensation and we iced up the windscreen on the way back down.
Dean running in the stateroom yelling, I've been in here the whole time. A few minutes later, the XO opened the stateroom door asking if we knew who had covered the flight deck with bubbles.
Rob and Dean playing Tetris on my notebook yelling, I need a straight piece
Worst Moment Not sure if it was the flight where Mike Hollister tried killing me multiple times on a single flight (Loss of SA prior to takeoff not knowing wind direction and arguing when I corrected him, Loss of Tail Rotor Effectiveness possible Overtorque takeoff (from still not understanding actual wind direction), and not lowering the gear on Final).
But probably the worst was doing a functional checkflight in rough seas with the aircraft spotted abeam the ship. The ship would not let us use our own deck crew. When they pulled the chocks and chains, they were slowly counting the chains as the aircraft started sliding backwards towards the edge of the deck. Thinking the parking brake was not set and since I had no brake pedals on my side, I called Brakes, Brakes, Brakes and Kevin stomped on the brakes. Well, apparently the brakes were set, and we started accelerating backwards towards the rapidly approaching deck edge. I shouted LIFT, LIFT, LIFT and Kevin got us off the deck with what our deck crew said was probably only one foot remaining until the tail wheel would have gone over the edge.
I've had lots of emergencies in aircraft, the only time I had the rubber legs of adrenaline was from rolling backwards off the flight deck. Then, we had to look forward to coming back to land with that same flight deck crew. We radioed our OIC and asked to have our deck crew recover us. The ship refused our request. When we landed, the flight deck crew tried installing all the chains on the wheel on my side of the aircraft. I was yelling and pointing directions for them to get it right. We pulled the engines to idle incase we had to quickly turn them off for a dynamic rollover situation. We finally got chains on both wheels and were able to breath again. This story is the closest thing to PTSD I have in my memory.
Chain of Command Greg Gallagher (OIC) Kevin Coyne (MO) Mike Hollister (AMO) Dave Diamond (OPS) Dean Wojcik (TRNG) Rob Kalin (ADMIN)
Other Memories The great pumpkin incident. The ship had a jack o lantern contest and used chemlights for candles. One of the losers tossed their entry overboard with the chem light still installed. As our helo returned from patrol they saw what appeared to be a human head in the water and asked to refuel to perform a rescue. The ship denied the response and said they would launch the motor whaleboat because it would be "quicker". A half hour later, the boat still wasn't in the water and half the department heads had been called to the bridge to have their heads ripped off. In the meantime, all of our detachment pilots were furious that there was someone in the water. After about an hour, the ship finally got to the survivor only to find it was a jack o lantern. We never did find out who tossed it overboard.
There was no AC to the Air Det staterooms. When we pulled into Puerto Rico, we bought a bunch of canned drinks and a big cooler. Every night we would make a raid on the wardroom ice machine and have cold drinks the rest of the day. Every morning the ship's officers would complain the ice machine was broken and we would say they really out to get it fixed.