Primary Flight Training

Upon completion of Aeromed, the next stop for flight students is Primary, the first actual flying of IERW. After months of basic officer and preparatory courses, the flight training truly begins. The first few weeks of Primary are some of the busiest and most overwhelming of flight school. Instructors often talk about drinking out of a fire hose; they say that for a reason. The schedule involves either morning class followed by afternoon flightline or morning flightline followed by afternoon academics. Academics begin with  systems classes which start a few days before the first day at the flightline. This allows students to gain a basic knowledge of the TH-67 before they begin to fly. Once both academics and flightline are in full swing, things start coming hot and heavy. With morning flightline the day will begin with a bus ride to the airfield at 0500 and academics will end somewhere between 1400 and 1600. Afternoon flightline starts with academics at 0730 in the morning and ends around 1730. Evenings will be filled with lots of studying. A word of wisdom to the wise, get a 5&9 study guide as early as you can and start memorizing. Students must know all limitations from chapter 5 and all underlined steps from chapter 9 verbatim. The rest of the information in chapters 5, 8, and 9 does not need to be verbatim but the basic concepts need to be nearly memorized as well. Students who wait till they being flying to try to learn all of this will be swamped. By having it all memorized ahead of time, Primary will be much less hectic and a lot more fun. There are two checkrides during Primary, P1 and P2. The P1 is just to make sure students are progressing as they should. Some weak students get set back a class for more time, a very few get eliminated if they just can not fly. The P2 checkride is much more intense and is likely to be the hardest checkride of IERW. Upon completion of the P2, students move on to Instruments.

HOST - Swim Test and Dunker

As a weak swimmer, one of my greatest concerns prior to coming to BOLC was passing Helicopter Over-water Survival Training (HOST) or dunker training. I was unable to find much information online concerning what was required so hopefully I will be able to provide some here. Searching YouTube for HOST Dunker provides some videos of the training being conducted. Some are great for learning what to expect, others are not so helpful. At this time, the way the program is set up is as follows.  Students in-processing to Fort Rucker for flight school are encouraged to begin working on completing their swim test and dunker training prior to entering BOLC, however, new regulations require a flight physical before these blocks of training can be completed. If you have enough time to get the physical and still make it to the swim test and dunker you are golden. The swim test is required prior to dunker. It consists of swimming around the perimeter of the pool, treading water, doing a drown-proofing drill, and inflating a PFD while in the water. The instructors will work with students to make sure they are comfortable with the exercises and performing them correctly. Ironically, stronger swimmers often have more trouble with this as the dunker school uses proprietary strokes and will not permit the use of more traditional strokes students may already know. Those who fail to pass the swim test after a reasonable amount of coaching will be brought back on a future day to work one on one with an instructor to perfect their technique. Once the swim test is completed, students are authorized to return for the dunker portion of the training. The morning is spent in a classrooom to cover water survival techniques and learn the use of the emergency breathing device (EBD) carried on helicopters. The second portion of the day is devoted to the water portion of the dunker training. Students begin by learning to use a regulator, both while right side up and while upside down under water. If you have never used a regulator before get a snorkel and try it at a pool, it may save you from getting dropped from the class before it has even started. Also, it is highly important that you be comfortable having your nasal passages flooded with water. If you are uncomfortable in the water this is one of the key things you should probably work on. The next interation is conducted using a stationary device in the shallow end of the pool. Students are strapped to a chair and flipped upside down and then required a conduct a number of exercises including day and night exercises and breath hold and supplemental oxygen exercises. When everyone has completed this stage, the helicopter simulator is used to repeat the same exercises in the deep end of the pool Students are given three strikes in the shallow end and then have three chances in the deep end training. Failing to correctly complete any three events in either the shallow or deep water portion will result in remedial training and redoing dunker at a later date. If the remedial is taken more than 30 days from the time of the initial dunker training the entire classroom portion must be retaken as well. The dunker remedial training is conducted soley using the shallow water trainer. Students may come back as many times as necessary (other training permitting) to work on their comfort in the water and their technique. Students who know they are weak swimmers may also come in before they have had their dunker classroom exercises in order to complete comfortability training, though they will not be permitted to use the oxygen or conduct all the exercises that are required for dunker. A very small number of students do fail out of the aviation course because of the swim test and dunker, but the personnel at the HOST school will do everything in their power to make sure students become comfortable and are able to pass the training. Anyone with the dedication to keep trying will pass.

Senior (MS4) Year

The senior year doesn't count a lot toward your accessions process or your branch choice, however, you will be responsible for training your cadets for THEIR accessions process. Most of what you are doing for yourself is related to preparing for commissioning and heading off to BOLC followed by your branch training.You will find out, usually during the middle of the fall semester, what branch you received and whether you were selected for active or reserve duty. You generally won't get your orders till near graduation. Don't stop a job or anything like that till you have orders, but be prepared to leave within as little as a week of getting your orders. As soon as you get your orders go to the move.mil site and start getting your move to your new duty station scheduled. The Army moves like molasses and will take a MINIMUM of three weeks to get it processed. It stinks being at your new duty station without any of your stuff. Trust me, I speak from experience! Prior to commissioning you will need a new ASU outfit. The best placed to get it from is Marlow White. They have packages specially designed for new commissionees. Something else worth mentioning; you can get your CAC card while you are still back at your school or you can get it when you reach your first duty station which will be Fort Rucker. There are a lot of other nuances but trying to cover them exhaustively would be nearly impossible. The areas mentioned here will at least get you started on the right path and may keep you from some of the areas I had trouble with.