Familia

What a great weekend! I was originally just looking forward to it because we were going to have 2 days off without flying due to maintenance on the birds. It had been a really stressful week, actually just Thursday and Friday. On Thursday the aircraft I was on started having engine problems almost immediately after take-off. We were skimming about 50-100 feet right over the ground and buzzing houses as the engines alternately surged and rolled-off and the chopper shook violently back and forth as the pilots tried to compensate for what was happening. We made managed to make it the mile or so back to the base and the mechanics fixed whatever was wrong and off we went, a good 9 hour flight to hit all of the regular stops out west. And then on Friday, my buddy Larry was in one of the choppers and as he took off, the new co-pilot rolled off the throttle too much and they nearly crashed into the ground a couple hundred yards from the helipad. They were going forward far too fast to flare in time as they were only 10 or 15 feet off the ground, and as the pilot grabbed the controls and rolled-on power, the torque slammed the chopper hard over and then back again in the opposite direction as the pilots tried to counteract the crazy yawing action and the action of them fighting over the controls and being in a low-power situation. But the worst according to Larry was hearing the two pilots screaming at each other over the intercom in Russian, and then the 1.5 hours of absolute silence between them after they recovered.

Last August an identical type chopper taking off on the exact same pattern had the same problem but slammed into the ground killing 20-something people. Scary indeed!

All of that was weighing heavily on my mind but then on Friday I got a call from my brother letting me know that he was coming into town for a few days before heading up to take over a new site up north. It was great because we hadn’t been able to get together for over 2 years. For the last 4 months in 2007 he was in Bagram while I was closing down my shop here in Kandahar, then I was in Denver, then I was in Iraq for 18 months, and even here when I would fly up to his base all the time, we were always doing hot loads so I never had any time to get off and go find him.

But as always, being men, we can go for years and then hang out and it’s like it was just yesterday that we last saw each other. It was doubly cool that I had an extra bed in my room so he could stay with me and it seemed like everyone on base was barbecuing this weekend so when we weren’t stuffing our faces, we were passed out enjoying the glorious gift of air-conditioning in my hooch. We also spent more than a few hours chit-chatting about stuff and comparing our favorite stories about the idiots we’ve encountered since we saw each other last. All in all it was a great weekend. I helped him get a flight up north today and we have plans to get together with the rest of the family this September when I head back on R&R. But I hear the young Captain that he’s dating is pretty good looking so I’ve got to find a cutie in the meantime if I’m gonna compete lol

Life is good!