OASA Sharana Afghanistan

10 November 2011

A few days before I was scheduled to return home after completing my "1st rotation" as a Flight Operation Coordinator (FOC) for AAR Airlift, I was asked if I would consider extending for an additional 2 weeks in Afghanistan to assist a fellow FOC in Sharana.

My 1st rotation kept me at Bagram Airbase, home of AAR's "fixed wing" fleet (airplanes). The base in Sharana (ICAO = OASA) is one of several helicopter bases in the country.

With permission from Linda (thank you my love) I accepted the opportunity.

AAR has several S61 helicopters based across the country, further supplying our troops here with needed transportation of personnel and supplies.

The Sharana base, though almost the same size as Bagram, is in development and is more "rustic" (=muddy).
The housing is comfortable, food good (read "free" & "I don't have to prepare it or clean any dishes"), working conditions tight, but alright.

I had the opportunity to be near the perimeter of the base, so here I am at "the wire"
(yes, there are MANY guards nearby)

I go home in ~ 10 days.... Thanksgiving at my brother Pat's home in VA....
a week later, Linda and I will get married in the Catholic Church.
As I mentioned in my bio here, I'm a blessed man !!!

Later, gators

DeltaFox

MRE's

Thursday  20 October 2011

Greetings.

Sorry its been awhile that I've blogged ... life as a Flight Operations Coordinator on an active Airbase in a warzone can be a very interesting experience.
We have security drilled into our heads all the time, so I cant really elaborate on alot of things I see here.
Sorry. You'll have to wait till I'm in the rocker and tell my "when I was in Afghanistan" stories.


One thing I will comment on....  I daily watch and hear the dedication of our military people here at Bagram Airbase Afghanistan and it has given me a deep and thankful respect for the work that they do.
They walk the walls, they go outside of the wire, they prep, they practice, they're very kind and respectful when I talk with them at meals and ask them questions.
Their dedication to "Army Values" is beyond impressive. I am honored to be in their presence.

Daily, I walk into the Green Beans Coffee cafe here ("Honor First, Coffee Second") stand next to the line, wait until a Soldier/Sailor/Airman/Marine orders, and step up to the cashier and pay.
I tell the soldier I do this daily as a very small gesture of thanks for what they do.
Please .... no "gee Dan, how nice" thoughts ... it is nothing compared to what these very young people do every day.
The other day, the soldier I stepped up for was a 2 Star General.
When I went to pay, he told me that wasn't necessary.
I explained that I do this gesture daily in gratitude for what our soldiers do, and that I'd be equally honored if he accepted as would a pimply-faced very young private here.
He did, I thanked him, and disappeared.

My brother Pat, besides being a Captain in the USCG, is his Boy Scout Troops "Pop Corn Kernel".
Pat recently sent me a box full of popcorn, along with some TERRIFIC chocolate cookies that his wonderful wife Carlene packed into the box.
I had the honor to walk up to soldiers here and give away the popcorn. ((I ate the cookies !!!)

Due to the desert conditions of Afghanistan and the unforgiving terrain, our fleet of aircraft carry onboard  survival equipment (along with some other toys). In the survival equipment are Meals Ready to Eat, a self contained packing of food and snax, easily warmed up.

Those not in the acft are in storage. I asked for and got permission to try one.

I went for the Chicken and noodles.
The packaging is a heavy plastic, like a 6 ply bag. Easy open zip top.

Here's all the stuff in the MRE kit.
The Reeses pieces were gone within a minute.
Hey, this IS survival !!
((do you know thats NOT peanut butter in them !!!))
There's a spoon, crackers, coffee making kit and the meal itself.
I'm just going to make the meal .... I'm hungry.
The coffee ? I'm a Green Beans Cafe guy !!

 Nutritional facts ..... not bad !!

 Instructions for heating the meal ..... Reeses pieces ? 10...9...8...7...6...

Basically, you add a small amount of water to a heat generator that looks like a teabag.
The packaged food heats up inside of the bag ... takes ~15 minutes.

 Julia Childs, check this out !!!

Here's a test human actually eating the MRE ..... pretty good .... 7.6 on a 10 scale ,,,,
Guess what ..... it tastes like chicken.
Darn .... wish there were more Reeses Pieces !!!!!

Next ...... Lasagna !!!

Later gator !!

On an Observation Flight !!!!

Friday 30 September 2011

On an observation flight

I had the opportunity to do an observation flight today. The idea of such a flight is to give someone like myself the opportunity to “watch the show” as we do what we do thruout the country every day. Although I dispatch the aircraft and crews, I track them on monitors at our home base as they move about the country via tracking tools, monitoring how the flights are progressing.

Going on an observation flight enables me to see the fuelers fuel, something I task them to do, to see the “loggies” (logistics people) loading and unloading the aircraft, to see maintenance teams interacting with crews and other support personnel at their actual tasks. It’s a great eye-opening experience. My dispatch rating demands that I do x hours-per-year at such a task, and fortunately, AAR encourages me to do so. Of course, due to personnel scheduling, it’s done on your day off.

Oh yeah, and cool, I get to sit in the jumpseat with the crew and fly around for a day !!

The type of aircraft I had the chance to fly in today was a Casa 212. The Casa 212 is a twin engine, 2 pilot aircraft which AAR uses as a cargo aircraft. AAR flies a variety of cargo for its client’s thruout the region. When you mail a letter or a package to a soldier serving in Afghanistan, we deliver it.

We visited several “FOB’s” today ….. Forward out bases. We deliver cargo and transport either cargo, like an aircraft engine we did today, or soldiers returning stateside for some R&R. We remember to thank them for their service. I keep a bunch of $10 and €10 McDonalds cards in my pocket that I give to our soldiers returning home. It gives them taste America on their stopover on their way home and is a small, very small thank you for what they do!

This is a FOB …. Can’t tell you where though …. Security is the master key here.

For the most part, Afghanistan is a mountainous region. I’m told that 30+ years ago Afghanistan was an agriculture nation but the Soviet Union, trying to conquer, blew up the underground aquifers and canal system, allowing the desert to quickly reconquer the nation.
Flying overhead you can spot green in the river valleys, but little other green in the mountains

Flying overhead, you’re able to observe mud rectangular triangles which surround where the people live. Houses in Afghanistan are traditionally made out of mud, and have a series of rooms located around a private rectangular courtyard where women and children play, cook and socialize. Married sons share the same house as their parents, although they have separate quarters. Some Afghan houses contain a special room where men socialize with each other. 

Of course, being a Muslim nation, we saw several Mosques. Acft in the region are not allowed to fly over or near them.

The end of an 8 hour day bought us back to our home base in Bagram. A great day. Our crews and all support staff work hard 7 days a week fulfilling our mission of support to forces based here.
I’m proud to be working for AAR Airlift.

the doo.....

9/23/11 pm ... the aforementioned "once around with the #1" cut....
last time Linda was my barber, we borrowed Reuben's shaver (good boy ...miss you !!)

Yes....Steelers Nation is alive and well in Bagram !!

Pogs !!!!!

Fri 9/23/11
Today when I was at the PX buying something, I went thru the checkout and realized that I have completely bought into a weirdity of everyday life here at Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan ...although transactions happen in USA $'s, there are no coins.
Instead, we use cardboard pogs. Pogs of all different values, but cardboard none the less.
 

I went onto Wikipedia, that absolute source of all that is known, to look up Pogs. I remember my daughter Danalisa used to play and collect pogs growing up. sure enuf, Wiki tells how indeed pogs are used on military establishments as real coins weigh alot and to ship them would be expensive. The pogs claim to be "gift certificates" rather than currency .... I think I'll try to collect them all and give them to Danalisa !!

I had the day off today. I went an got a haircut ("#1 all around please") so i'm handsome once again. There's a shuttle bus that runs around the base, so I went on an explore to the east side of the base. I ate at a different DEFAC (dining facility) for lunch. Had a nice walk, read . I had the chance to go to Mass @ 1130. The priest officer here is an Air force officer. I enjoy his homilies.

There was a good wind today, kicking up alot of dust. Hopefully, that'll mean good visibility tomorrow, and I'll be able to snap some pictures of the nearby Hindu Kush mountain range.

I hope everyone is well.
Take good care of you.

~25% ....

9/21/2011

Greetings from Bagram … btw, those of you following along wanting to see the aviation weather here, you can look at the TAF’s and METARS for OAIX & KQSA. A "K" code all the way over here …. Crazy !

I’ve been in-country for about 2 ½ weeks now and I’m really starting to get a good feel for what’s going on here. Life on an active military base in a war zone does indeed have its interesting moments. Our living quarters are very close to the flight line, and some very loud planes fly 27/7 here !! Interesting how you easily get used to it. For me, having grown up right under the final approach for Newark Int’l, its just the same old thing all over again.

There are troops from several different nations here, all eating together, walking the same streets … I wasn’t aware that military from other countries salute officers from other nations. I sometimes am following officers and notice they have to salute back several times a minute !!! Seems like their arms must get weary. 

The weather here continues to be warm and sunny, temps in the high 80’s and low 90’s … constant clear skies. I’m told winter kicks in late November.

I stopped in to visit with the USCG based here. My brother Pat is a Captain in the USCG. Although a land locked nation, the USCG does container inspections and works with Customs officials here. Pretty impressive group.

My work rotation has us in country for 60 days and home 30. As a math head, I’m constantly doing %’s, so, being here 2 ½ weeks already, I’m more that 25% done of my 1^st rotation. The department I work in, Flight Operations, see’s people coming and going thru their rotations … people are always psyched to leave, but come back refreshed and ready to take on their tasks. The sense of mission is quite a positive thing here.

Food, good. Bed, comfy. Showers, could be warmer.

I have to note that Skype has to be one of the best inventions going !! I’ve been able to have video calls with Linda and our children ….

So, all is well here in Afghanistan.

Take good care of yourselves.

Deltafox ("Afghan-is-Dan")

 

H-O-T !!!!!

Friday 9/9/2011  2015 AFT (1145am East Coast time)

Greetings from Afghanistan.
Man, its hot here !!! and dry !!!  and dusty !!!!!!

Things are going well here for me.
I'm starting to settle into my job .... there are 3 shifts, each 10 hours with a 2 hr break midday.
We work 6 days a week.
There are some very interesting tasks that need to be completed .... the AAR Flight Ops office is a tight facility with alot of traffic and activity. These folks are a tight community and they go out of their way to intro themselves and ask about you. I know I'm going to enjoy working here. There are some pretty bright people here who really know their stuff.

I'm assigned to a "hooch", a large tent like structure with rooms built into it, air conditioned. The rooms are about 8x8. I'm not yet assigned my permanent room yet but will be within a few weeks.
I've been a tad sick since I got here .... the dust and the dryness tend to dry up your nasal passages and give you congestion like an upper respiratory infection. The solution is to nose-inhale saline a few times a day and drink alot and alot of water. I'm feeling alot better.

Life on the base is interesting. Of course, its loaded with soldiers, all carrying guns. There are big trucks everywhere. All places are off of a central street called Disney, named after the designer of the roadways here. The food is good. I've found the gym, and I'll start heading there once I can 100% breathe. I found the movie theater, free movies 24/7 with free popcorn!! I've found the chapel but not Catholic services. I've emailed the Archdiocese of the Military and asked them for info. Its and interesting, hot and very dusty place. I've taken to wearing a surgical mask walking around and its amazing how quickly it gets dirty.... dirt that would've gone down the ol' trachea.

I cant take pictures really in the event of compromising the "inside the wire" information. I think I've taken about 20 security courses since I began with AAR and they really drill into you the whole idea of "loose lips sink ships".

I'm based in Bagram, one of several bases in the country. It is a 34.9* N latitude, about the same as NC.
We are surrounded by mountains on the north and south.

The jet traffic is ever present .... they go all day and all night. My hooch is within 100 feet of the flight line, so I can hear the activity.



I hope everyone is well.
Later !!!

Greetings from Afghanistan

Wed Sept 7, 2011 : 0800 AFT ("Afghanistan time")
Hello:
I successfully made it to Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan. The good people of United flew me from Pittsburgh > Washington DC Dulles where I had a 7 hour layover. My USCG brother Captain Pat lives nearby and met me at IAD, took me to his home and fed me a delicious porkloin dinner... his thought was "you wont be having pork for awhile!!" Thank you Pat & Carlene & Patrick and you too Fred for your hospitality.
The 2nd portion of the flight would be from Dulles to Dubai UAE, time enroute 12.5 hrs. I had looked at the United route schedule and noted they had drawn their flight path across the Atlantic, across the Azores and across the African plains to Dubai. Instead, actual routing took us across the North Atlantic tracks (NAT tracks), across Ireland, where I waved to my daughter Danalisa and her family, across Europe, thru Turkey, then straight down the Iraq/near Iranian border and into the UAE. I was pretty surprised at this routing, considering the politics, but I guess the world moves on. I arrived ~ 8pm local and was scheduled to depart @ 0615 the next morning, so I didn't have time to explore fascinating Dubai, as did the "Sex in the City" ladies (or so Linda tells me !!). I will schedule myself in the future to overnight there a day or two to check it out.

Onto Afghanistan ..... Breakfast at Dubai Intl was at the Golden Arch Cafe'. Breakfast food isnt served, so I had the classic Big Mac. Due to ISO standardization  that Micky D's follows, I've had this Big Mac around the world, and you can always count on it to taste exactly the same. The only odd item on the menu was a Chicken Big Mac.

The flight from Dubai to Afghanistan took us down the Persian Gulf, hooking a left at the Straights of Hormuz, thru the Gulf of Oman and north on the Pakistan / near Iranian border and into Afghani airspace. I can imagine I was on many a US Air Force radar, so I felt perfectly safe.
Afghanistan is a geological fascinating country. High mountain and desert plains with zero habitation reminded me of pictures we receive from the Mars Orbiters. In some places, slim valleys of green appeared in the canyons. Evidence of dried up river flow was everywhere.

Of course, there was time for some meteorology enroute. Beautiful cloud formation formed by orographic lift as the winds blow across and up the mountains and form clouds

The flight took ~ 2 hours and we arrived at Bagram.

Bagram VOR, a radio navigation tool used by aircraft. "BAGRAM V-O-R..."

(you have to be a real nerd to take pictures of VOR's ..... I have several !!)

Once in Afghanistan, paper pushing took about an hour. I found my ride and reported to AAR Airlift HQ

I met several people, got a 20 minute quiktour of where to sleep/eat/pee, and was told to report in this am @ 0900 for my full day indoc. I took a quik stroll around last night, bought my reflective belt (a requirement to walk around at night ... no streetlights) I'll get my 511 Tactical boots today .... great ... the stones are killing my feet. Soon I learn what it is I'm supposed to do daily, where the gym is and the Chapel, so stay tuned.

Hurricane Irene ....

8/26/11 (Happy birthday to my beautiful wife Linda <3)
We have a BIG hurricane targeting the East Coast, expecting to cause alot of problems.
Hurricane Irene should be going past VA and the NYC area Sat/Sun....
My flight out of Washington Dulles IAD is set for Sunday, and United already has sent out "make other plans" notices !!  My deployment overseas is now a week later, 9/4. Cool. Gives me an extra week to do some organizing and hanging out .... 

Well, my bags are packed, I'm ready to go....

Mon 8/15/11 // Now that I have my "deployment date" (8/28/11), I need to get alot of stuff together to mail to myself to have while I'm "in country". AAR gave us a good size list of suggestions, everything from linens to toiletries to electronics to clothing ... Linda and I spent the afternoon AND ALOT OF MONEY at Target getting it all together. I honestly felt like I was going to summer camp !!! Once there, when I go home during my rotation, I'm able to store my stuff in a locker, so this load is a one-timer !!!!!

AAR Airlift

I have recently signed on for a Flight Dispatcher position with AAR Airlift and will begin my career there soon.
AAR Airlift, a 135 company, serves to supply our troops with needed supplies during their overseas deployment, such as food, water, mail etc.
AAR Corp is a terrific company, and I am honored to be working with AAR Airlift, supporting our brave soldiers in their mission.
I will be based at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan.
http://www.aarcorp.com/gov/airlift.htm

This opportunity allows me to serve our nation, and I am honored to be a part of it.

yeah, well, so .....

So, you're asking yourself ..... DID HE EVER GET A FLIGHT DISPATCHER JOB ?????

I'll update soon.

DeltaFox

The Denver Winds Aloft (or, “Going on a Geek fieldtrip”)

The Denver Winds Aloft (or, “Going on a Geek fieldtrip”)

It was about the 2^nd week of Dispatch class at Jeppesen when instructor Steve B took us thru the winds aloft section of our training. Winds aloft are gathered in several ways, primarily by weather balloons with their attached data collectors (radiosonde’s), launched 2x a day around the world, with the collected global data broadcasted at 00Z and 12Z.  Homework problems had us examining this collected data and determining what the wind direction, speed and temperature aloft would be on a flight from STL-MEM-MSY at FL330. This essential data would be a constant variable as we flight planned across the nation on our Boeing 737-800’s. Wind factors affect the fuel burn and time enroute on these flight plans. Get ‘em wrong, you get your plan wrong, you fail and life snowballs downward from that point on. They’re pretty important.

Being Meteorology major, I also studied these lofty gusts back in my Kean College (now Kean University) days. About 100 balloons are launched across the USA 2x per day, about 500 around the world, on the same schedule.

Today, with the ink still wet on my Temporary Airman Certificate, I found the launch site for the Denver NWS weather balloon launch site. It’s located on the grounds of the former Stapleton Airport in Denver, near the corner of Havana and Smith, on the grounds of the “Urban Farm”.

The building is easy to spot. It’s a one story garage type building with a large rollup door (tall enough to fit a 6’ balloon thru) and what appears to be a bathysphere on the roof. I knocked and introduced myself to Charles, the NWS guy at the helm there.

“I don’t get to many visitors here. Want to launch the balloon?”

“HECK YES I DO!!!”

After an explanation and examination of the balloon, the radiosonde and the radiosonde’s parachute, I was told to stand “about over there” and “just let ‘er go”. I guess I had the thought that I would “let ‘er go” on the command of the global balloon launch center (GBLC), but that didn’t exactly happen. After a few seconds, the balloon was already well on her way aloft. We retreated inside and watched as the radar unit, located on the roof in the bathysphere-type dome, tracked the balloon and displayed its data. Charles explained that the total reporting time of each balloon is about 100 minutes, at which point the balloon is at the 8mb level of the atmosphere. At this point, the balloon would pop and the radiosonde would parachute to earth. Mailing instructions are on the side of the radiosonde. I had always heard that if you mail a radiosonde back after filling in the attached card that you got $5., but Charles told me that didn’t happen.

Here are MY winds aloft !!!!

FDUW01 KWBC 010157
DATA BASED ON 010000Z   
VALID 010600Z   FOR USE 0500-0900Z. TEMPS NEG ABV 24000

FT   6000    9000    12000   18000    24000   30000   34000
DEN  2624+02 2732-03 2842-18 2629-28  264245  274155  265565

A very cool day (especially at altitude !!!)

Denver NWS Balloon launch building

Charles with the balloon. Note the orange radiosonde parachute

DF launching the weather balloon

within seconds, its aloft and away

Charles monitoring the data from the radiosonde

The radiosondes transmission data

A radiosonde 

I'm now a certified FAA Flight Dispatcher (ADX)

This morning I passed my final test and am now a certified FAA Flight Dispatcher.

I had my one-on-one test today with an FAA examiner. The test took about 5 hours. I was somewhat nervous about “the unknown”… what would he ask, would I know it….

This final test was open books, all 40+ pounds of them, so, having lived with these things glued to my eyes the past 6 weeks, the Q&A actually went smoother than I thought it would. I know what I know and I know what I need to know more about, so I guess that’s a lot like life itself. Part of the exam was constructing a flight plan from Denver to Las Vegas on our Boeing 737-800. They could have thrown a few curves into the game at this point but, having done these type of flight plans (manually...no computer program allowed) for the past several days, I knew the why, where, and what to watch out for, so it went ok. I "landed" in Vegas with fuel to spare !!

Mission accomplished.

Several months ago I was laid off from my position as the Manager of the Dispatch office for an aviation management company in Pittsburgh. As I career hunted, I found that most of the top of the line places wanted their Flight Ops people to have this FAA rating, even though it’s not required in the non-airline world that I work in. Companies are looking for their Dispatchers to have the ADX rating to enhance their Safety programs, now being able to report that their Dispatchers are as trained as an Airline Transport Pilot's (ATP) and know how all the pieces of the puzzle of a flight work together.

I learned a lot.

I’m glad I chose the school that I went to, as Jeppesen is a globally recognized power in the aviation industry. I met a lot of good people there too.

I can now sign my name “Daniel Flynn ADX”

Cool too is my son & daughter-in-law making me a congratulatory dinner of spaghetti and meatballs (my fav!!)

Thank you everyone who supported me thru this school. I appreciate all of the notes of support, the prayers, the good wishes etc.

More later …. time to not study for a while...

"T - 40 minutes, Jeppesen launch control ...."

Today was the last day of classes at the Jeppesen Academy in Denver for my Flight Dispatchers rating (ADX).

Funny…you’re with people for a short 6 weeks, but they were with you in the trenches, day in and day out, battling shifting weights on the aircraft and different fuel burns at altitude. I had some great people in my class, a very bright group. I had guys from United, some fresh out of college, a woman from Jeppesen, some former ATC people, some ex-military, pilots, a chap from the UK, and some people from Angola and Nigeria. I’m going to miss them. We all worked hard and yes, we also laughed hard too.

Our instructor for the last 2/3rds of the class, Katie, is off to teach soon-to-be flight dispatchers in the UAE. She's a bright lady.

Very cool was a visit from Brad Thomann, COO of Jeppesen. Mr Thomann is one of those done-it-all pilot guys. He came into the class and gave a great rally talk, and even met up with us and chatted with us during lunch … a very nice man. You could tell by how the Jeppesen people related to him that he was a good leader. Cool.

T-minus 40 hours until I take my Oral and Practical test with an FAA Examiner this Sunday afternoon. We’ve had a week of practice for the O&P, and I feel pretty good about it. The test is about 4 hours long.

I encourage anyone interested in getting their ADX Flight Dispatchers rating to consider the Jeppesen Academy. I was very impressed with the entire package.

Resumes are out there …..

Later

DeltaFox