MV-22 Osprey

[mkloby]

most of the guys involved in the program are pretty gung ho about it. The vast majority of the guys I've met that oppose the program have nothing to do with it. Still - it's a good point that's worth investigating, Chris, as everyone knows the dangers of groupthink mentality. What about the crewchiefs - do they get special pay too???

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Crewchiefs get Flight Pay as well. It is not as much as a Pilot (that is a given, the crew chief is not flying the aircraft). I was payed about 200 dollars extra a month as long as I flew a min of 4 hours each month. Which was easy because 4 hours was the average mission and I flew about 20 or more a month.

 

[mkloby]

Crewchiefs get Flight Pay as well. It is not as much as a Pilot (that is a given, the crew chief is not flying the aircraft). I was payed about 200 dollars extra a month as long as I flew a min of 4 hours each month. Which was easy because 4 hours was the average mission and I flew about 20 or more a month.

Yeah, I know - they're part of the crew, so they sure as hell deserve it. I just met an awesome navy 53E crew chief last week. Our squadron runs a Pilot For a Day program where they take a terminally ill child and run them around base showing them different aircraft - flew some jets in from NAS Kingsville, in addition to our C-12B, T-34C, T-44, CH-53E, coast guard falcons and H-65 Dolphins, and flying some of our simulators.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Thats cool. We did stuff like that as well. One of the most memorable was when we were in Kosovo. In Kosovo women were percieved to do nothing but house work. Well we flew out to an all girls school ages 7 to 16 aprox to show them that women where we are from can do whatever they want and it should be the same for them. Anyhow my pilot was a Female and the other crewchief was a female as well.

You should have seen the look on the young girls faces when the pilot took off her flight helmet in front of them and let her long blond hair fall down.

It was a lot of fun, we played relay games with them and frisby and made a BBQ lunch for them with American food. I really enjoyed it.

We would do stuff like that all the time even back at our home base in Germany. We would sponser sick children or school classes and stuff. I really enjoyed going to the airshows and letting the kids sit in the aircraft and pretend to fly.

The smiles on there faces really made it worthwile and that is the stuff that I will allways remember from my time in the service.

 

[MacArther]

The smiles on there faces really made it worthwile and that is the stuff that I will allways remember from my time in the service.

I would just like to thank Der and the people you served with, for being good stewards of humanity, and showing the good that resides in all people.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

1

 

[Nonskimmer]

Who's the tall geeky looking kid in the middle?

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Ummm I dont know did you say geeky? He must be in the Canadian Navy and play with submarines.

 

[Nonskimmer]

If he plays with submarines, he's got talent. I just work in the damn things, myself.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

 

[mkloby]

Yeah - there's nothing like seeing the look on a 10 year old boy's face when he climbs into a jet or helicopter, moving around the controls and pretending that he's flying They even rig up special children's size flight suits for them - which you just know they love 8)

 

[Matt308]

They give those away?!

 

[mkloby]

They give those away?!

For this outreach program - they sure do. The kids love them. Sad thing is that they're all terminally ill children, majority have cancer. Some of them get buried in the little flight suit that we give them...

 

[Matt308]

Oh. In that case nevermind. Lord I hate it when kids get the short stick.

 

[DerAdlerIstGelandet]

Yeah - there's nothing like seeing the look on a 10 year old boy's face when he climbs into a jet or helicopter, moving around the controls and pretending that he's flying They even rig up special children's size flight suits for them - which you just know they love 8)

Thats how I got into flying. Instead of going to the pool during school break when I was a little kid, I would go with my dad to work and he would put me up in the Huey and I would wear his flight helmet and pretend I was flying all damn day.

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

there're few opertunities for anything like that down here- although our knock about in cricket today was nicely interrupted by a Hawk and Tornado doing some manouvers low overhead, unfortunately within the next few balls i was so distracted i gave away my wicket- nothing annoys an Englishman as much as loosing his wicket........

 

[Gnomey]

I had a similar thing when I was skiing over the weekend. The Tornado's were flying below the level of the hill top (so below me) before rolling onto their side and out of the valley (literally everyone stopped and stared)...

 

[the lancaster kicks ass]

well being Scrotish i wouldn't expect you to understand how annoying the loss of a wicket because of it is... oh my, how did that c get there

 

[Gnomey]

Having played (and sort of still playing) cricket I know perfectly well what you mean...

 

[mkloby]

You crazy Brits with your silly little games