PAX River

Last weekend, my former supervisor (Murray Anderson) came out to DC to present at a conference. It was good to see him and hear about what some of the old gang are up to. Since we both love airplanes, we decided to go see the new Air & Space museum out at Dulles airport. It was amazing- hundreds of full sized aircraft, engines, and weapons. I didn't know that they had a shuttle inside, and that alone was work the price for parking. Also included were the B-29 Enola Gay- which, I was reminded by Murray, dropped the A bomb on Hiroshima- a Concorde, and many, many more.

The real story this week for me was our adventure at PAX river Navy aviation/dive lab. We left very early on Thursday morning to head a couple hours southeast for the training that they require all personnel to complete before they are qualified even to ride in a high performance aircraft or start aircrew training. It included several presentations as well as a trip to 25,000 feet in an altitude chamber and some water crash egress training. A couple hours into the day we donned our flight helmets and masks, plugged into respirators and started the trip up. Once “at altitude” we took our masks off (and lost the 100% Oxygen we were breathing) and attempted to do some coordination drills (Patty cake with our neighbor). Long story short within 3 minutes at that altitude we were all getting hypoxic enough to make patty cake seem complex- and very funny. Before we all got too deprived, we put our masks back on and watched some comrades take their turn. It was an incredible experience. They brief you very well on how to clear your ears during descent, and we had ample opportunity to do so during the rapid fall back to sea level. I have a whole new appreciation for high altitude physiology.
For the next hour we remained under observation to make sure that no one got an acute case of “the Bends”- which is very rare but a necessary precaution. During that time, we took turns strapping into a fighter jet seat, getting the appropriate ejection posture and –Eject! Eject! Eject!- pulling the ring that would normally immediately subject us to about 55 G’s while it literally blasts the occupant 250 feet up from the cockpit. Even without that 55 G acceleration, it was a cool simulation. We also learned how to separate from the seat, what to pull when, how to use a parachute landing fall, then activate the beacons, life rafts, and flares.
An hour after lunch we went swimming… first in swim trunks, practicing the modified strokes that we would use when in full flight gear. (The balance, drag and buoyancy changes require some slight changes to normal swimming strokes.) After we proved we could swim 25 meters- breaststroke, tread water for 2 minutes and swim 25 meters underwater we got dressed. We put everything: flight suit, boots, helmet, gloves, harness, and tactical flight vests (with built in life preservers) and repeated the process. Although far slower and more cumbersome, we all made it. Our next training was the under water egress training. In shoulder depth water, we strapped into a seat belt on the end of a 15 foot steel pole. At the other end of the pole were 5 door levers (representing all those in use on non-experimental aircraft) and an escape hatch. The drill was the instructor would say “prepare to crash…Crash! Crash! Crash!” and push you down into the water. During the “prepare to crash” command, with our feet we would find the pole (our reference point), after we were in the water, we would grab the pole with our left hand, and undo the seatbelt with our right. Once the seat belt was off, we would pull ourselves (not kicking) to the escape hatch, operate the five different types of levers, push the hatch open and pull ourselves through- never releasing the reference point with our left hand until we were grasping the edge of the open hatch with right. The second time we did the drill, we had black-out goggles on- and zero visibility; simulating a night or murky water landing. Finally, we practiced inflating our life vests, and then using the blow valves to inflate them manually while treading water.
What a memorable day! Anyhow, now I’m signed off to ride back seat in a screamer (high performance aircraft). The rest of the week was full of classes, meetings, and social occasions. We had a big CMA meeting this week where we talked about our vision for the coming year and it was exciting to see everyone there to share it. Jill and I were on opposite schedules the last part of the week, but we’re planning to take some time tonight and tomorrow to catch up. This week’s schedule looks dense with academic work and with our biggest physiology exam a week from this Monday, we’ll all be trying to prepare. Jill works the afternoon or evening shift all week, so maybe by the weekend I will have had enough time to prepare that we’ll be able to spend most of it together. Next Saturday we’re running the “Germantown 5-miler”, a local race put on to benefit local charities. We’re excited about that as well.