WATER SURVIVAL: “Ditch, Twist, Drag!”
October 23rd, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Erik Hildebrandt
Separate from the swim and drown-proofing portion, the pool is set up with multiple device stations designed to simulate various scenarios of forced water landing, ejections and crashes. During this phase of the training, the overhead lights are shut off and a theatrical smoke machine is used to create a fairly dense layer of fog. Each candidate has a small red beacon velcro’ed on their helmet and the class is divided into groups. The images below show the “ejection/bail out” tower and lower dragging station. From the top of the ejection tower, you hook into the parachute risers that are suspended on a zip line that runs to the far end of the pool. When commanded, you must drop from the tower and ride the zip line until your toes touch the water, at which time you must trigger the quick-release Koch fitting that connect you to the parachute. Immediately after releasing from the risers, two instructors jump in the pool on either side of you with a parachute canopy to simulate being covered by your own chute in the water. This is when you have to get yourself untangled from the many lines that wrap around your arms and legs while trying to catch a breath of air underneath the suffocating parachute trying to drag you under.
Over on the shorter “drag platform”, the drill again is to hook into the Koch fitting on the parachute risers that are connected to a pulley system at the other end of the pool. This device is designed to simulate another bailout scenario of having to disconnect from your parachute in high-wind conditions. When the instructor rings a bell, you must jump from the platform into the pool facing the direction of travel. Once in the water, the risers will yank you face-forward through the darkness. If you follow the training procedure of kicking your legs and twisting the risers over your head to try and reverse your position so you can breath, you are then supposed to release the Koch fittings and swim free. Like many of these scenarios, it sounds a lot easier than it really is, and many candidates end up being dragged all the way down and back before they are able to finally get free of the parachute risers.
The flash on my camera makes the environment seem much more bright than it actually is when you are going through the class… plus, there are occasional strobe lights
going off to simulate lightning, a loud storm sound-track of thunder claps and rain with a helicopter hovering over head. There are also multiple fire-hoses set up along the edge of the pool and on the ceiling that cause a curtain of monsoon rain to add to the realism. All in all, it is amazing test of concentration and situational awareness.
EROK
WATER SURVIVAL-”Sinkers and Floaters”
October 22nd, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Erik Hildebrandt
As it turns out, the pool does not care if you’re a fast-track Captain or a newly minted Petty Officer. Once you’re in the water, there are only two kinds of people; sinkers and floaters. Luckily, like a lot of people, I was born a water-baby. Since the first time I was required to complete this training, it has been a little like running the obstacle course in gym. However, there is a portion of this training that will challenge even the strongest of swimmers and push you to the brink of panic: Drown Proofing.
Back in the day, drown proofing was a sort of filter exercise that would weed-out weaker swimmers. The modern approach to this exercise is to familiarize air crew members with the techniques and equipment that they will need to stay alive. Even without the extended 15 minutes of “drown-proofing” after swimming 3 lengths of the pool, there is still plenty of stamina required to complete this event.
After suiting up in a complete complement of flight gear, including steel toed boots and full torso harness with survival vest, candidates are required to swim 2 lengths of the pool single file. The course follows several floating balls and winds up in the deep-well of the pool where you then need to demonstrate a technique for prolonged dorwn-proofing. This is essentially a dead-man’s float where only the top of your head should be visible on the surface as you hold your breath and minimize movement. Don’t forget, you are already out of breath from the swimming, and staying on the surface is a lot harder than it sounds. With all of your gear, even floaters are dragged toward the bottom. And sinkers are very close to panic.
IF you are able to demonstrate this technique with some measure of control, you are cleared by the instructors to manually inflate your “horse-collar” life preserver. For some, the vicious cycle of gasping for air, then trying to calmly stay near the surface catches up to them and eventually they are no longer able to stay on the surface. Obviously, there are safety swimmers in the pool at all times, and as you will see in these photos, more than a few candidates are given assistance to the side of the pool. The sinkers are allowed to continue with the rest of the training, but are required to reattempt this portion at the end of the day. Virtually all are eventually successful since the idea is to train them in the techniques of water survival, not screen them for a certain level of performance.
After all, the best fighter pilot in the Navy may not be a natural floater.
EROK
GREAT NAVY TRAINING (The Dreaded DUNKER)
October 21st, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Erik Hildebrandt
If you are going to be a Naval Aviator or aircrew personnel, everyone must go through water survival and flight physiology every four years. In preparing for this project, my own qualifications were about to expire, so last April, I returned to NAS Norfolk for my fourth re-qual evolution. It was not realistic for me to photograph the class as I went through, so instead, I actually went back to the pool a few weeks later and followed several classes through the various stages of device training. As you will see in the still images, and soon to be posted, unprecedented dramatic underwater video clips, this is the most realistic and effective survival training in the world. From the “Night Storm” scenario that starts with an over water bail-out , and ends with a helicopter hoist in pitch dark with hurricane rain and rescue soundtrack, to the multiple runs through the helo dunker, by the time you leave the pool, you have “lived” through your own personal mishap survival experience.
This post is the first in a series that will showcase the world-class survival training beginning with the Helo Dunker. Sound off if you have ever been through this training and we’ll start a conversation about the specific details that make this device so diabolical, yet realistic.
EROK
Blue Angels Over San Francisco Fleet Week
October 12th, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Erik Hildebrandt
It is by far one of the most dramatic venues to see the Blue Angels perform. Fleet Week in San Francisco has long been on my list of places to shoot the Blues, so when I knew we would need to capture new material for this CoNA project, I started laying the groundwork with the Team back in the spring. It was just last Monday that I finally got word there would be a backseat open for me in the #2 position flying with Lieutenant Commander Paul Brantuas, callsign:DINO. DINO flew F-14s with VF-31 before being selected to the Team and having flow with VF-31 myself back when I was creating ANYTIME BABY!, it was a little like getting fly along with a cousin.
In addition, Blue Angel #4, Lieutenant Mark Swinger, callsign “GOPHER” also flew with VF-31 when I was covering the final TOMCAT deployment in the Arabian Sea. On this Thursday practice demo over San Francisco Bay, the Team was flying both of their #7 two-seat Hornets, one with me in the #2 position, and the other with “Gopher” in the SLOT. In his backseat was another legacy FELIX Tomcatter from VF-31, LT Blake “SOBBY” Coleman who appears in a lot of the images from that flight. He is wearing a khaki flight suit and is hard to miss. The images I am posting today are just a teaser for the high-energy slideshow and video from this flight. Using the look-back camera footage that rolls on every backseater lucky enough to get a ride, I also shot some of my own hand-held video.
In a the near future, this video will be posted here and you will get to follow the action from inside the cockpit as the demo rolls over San Francisco and crushes me with multiple 7.3Gs maneuvers shaking the entire jet and sending “vapes” over the wings and canopy.
So check back soon and until then, enjoy these shots!
SMOKE ON!
EROK
Welcome Aboard! Your window to history in the making.
October 3rd, 2009 | Navy Gold Photography | Posted by Erik Hildebrandt
Over the next 12 months, I will be putting together an epic picture book commemorating 100 years of Naval Aviation. In order to capture the pinnacle achievements that demonstrate how far the Navy has come in a century, I will be traveling around the world to chronicle all systems serving in naval aviation with still images and video. I am proud of this partnership with MilitaryTimes.com who has graciously offered to host this BLOG so I may share with you, the incredible travels and amazing people I have already started experienced on this project.
The results of this effort will culminate in a grand, coffee-table style book that will be released in January 2011 at the official US Navy Centennial observance ceremonies in San Diego. With sections on each of the current aviation communities in the Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard, this book is certain to be the ultimate collection of modern and historic aircraft imagery ever assembled.
Some of you may already be familiar with some of my previous titles including ANYTIME,BABY! : Hail and Farewell to the US Navy F-14 Tomcat. or BLUE WATER OPS: On the Frontline of US Navy Carrier Aviation.
PREVIEW ONLINE: http://www.vulturesrow.com
For those of you who are, you can expect even more of the same insider access and impossible photographs from both inside the cockpit and aboard ship. If you are new to this sort of thing, I hope you will find these postings interesting and informative. My goal has always been to bring back the curious details of carrier life and the rigorous demands of operating tactical aircraft. This BLOG is a two-way radio, so if you want to know about something I have not yet covered, feel free to chime in and help drive the direction of this book over the next year.
Thanks for checking in, and get ready to launch! This BLOG is now LIVE!
Erik Hildebrandt
US Navy Legacy Flight program
October 1st, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Erik Hildebrandt
Officially know as the US NAVY LEGACY FLIGHT program, this image shows a “section” of two F/A-18F Super Hornets or “Rhinos” as they are called in the Fleet. The Rhinos are from VFA-122 based at NAS Lemoore and they were part of this dedicated photo mission with a WWII Corsair flown by Chuck Wentworth based in Paso Robles, CA. The flight was conducted in support of my latest book, FRONT ROW CENTER4: Inside the Great American Airshow in which the Navy Legacy Flight program is featured. Similar to the USAF Heritage Flight program, the idea behind these flights is to raise public awareness around the country by executing these formation flights as part of the official air show demo routines. They are incredibly popular with air show crowds, so both the Navy and Air Force support the effort as part of their ongoing recruiting campaigns. The photo was taken from the open cargo ramp of a C-130J operated by the 143rd Airlift WIng of the Rhode Island Air National Guard based at Quonset Point. With a standard flight helmet and oxygen mask to cut down on thew wind noise of the open ramp, I am able to communicate directly with the pilots of all the aircraft including the C-130 over a hand-held aviation radio. This flight started out as a “division” or 4-ship formation of Rhinos that we dragged up from the Salinas air show all the way past the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco Bay. We ended up just off the coast west of Monterrey where Chuck joined the two demo Rhinos and the other section flew over the hills back to NAS Lemoore. Total flight time was almost 2 hours and as always, ended with an open trunk and a styrofoam cooler of road-sodas to ease the neck-cramps from flying formation for so long.
NAS Fallon Nevada
October 1st, 2009 | Photography | Posted by Erik Hildebrandt
Shot just as the sun was setting behind the mountains west of NAS Fallon Nevada, this F/A-18C pilot initiates the start sequence.