Photo By Staff Sgt. Pedro Tenorio | Airman 1st Class Jordan Turnbaugh, wearing helmet, 82nd Aerospace Medicine Squadron...... read more read more
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SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas –The sounds of twin turbine engines have caused many a fighting soldiers fear, but what may be scarier is the sound of those engines failing.
Pilots run the risk of bringing high fire power to the battle, but also run the risk of being the biggest target because of that. Thus pilots must be ready for the unfortunate event when they may be shot down and have to eject. Something no pilot would want to go through, but must be ready for.
On Aug. 17, 2018, pilots and aircrew were required to attend Water Survival Emergency Training at Sheppard AFB, Texas. The course is meant to improve awareness and get the pilots ready in case of an emergency situation.
“Every three years, we have to come out and go through this training to refresh on water survival,” said Lt. Col Matthew Manning, 80th Flying Training Wing chief of safety. “This makes sure that we’re current on the skills, should we need to use them.”
The pilots were subjected to three scenarios, which were likely to happen if bailing out over the ocean or other large bodies of water.
First was the water drag, a simulation of landing in water, but the chute is carried off by the wind. The pilot is dragged underwater and must release their harness or risk drowning.
The second scenario simulates the parachute landing on top of the pilot, trapping them. Although the parachute is designed to be breathed through, the pilots must develop methods of escaping before the parachute sinks along with them.
The final challenge was to get aboard the one-man life raft, which Manning said might sound easy, but when you have your life preserver and all your gear still, adding the fact they are wet, it is more physically demanding.
“The benefit of this training is to have those skills second hand should you need them,” Manning said. “It’s training you hope you’ll never have to use, but every time I do it, I gain more confidence. In the skills, in the techniques to get out of that. It is valuable training.”
Having to bail out and landing in the vast nothingness of the sea can fracture even the most stubborn of minds. That is why Manning and his team opened up the pool and ran simulations for as long as the pilots needed to make sure they are ready for anything.
“That’s the nice part about being out here, it’s really a failure-free environment, because a failure in the real world would probably mean death,” Manning said. “They want to get you comfortable and if you’re not comfortable with it they’ll let you go as many times as you want until you are comfortable.”
Being able to train and practice as many times is thanks to the aircrew flight equipment team at Sheppard, who host this training each of the past three years and run the simulations. Manning had a few words to thank the Aircrew Flight Equipment Team who hosted this year’s training.
“Usually, each base has its own type of training. Our aircrew flight equipment team has been great to set this up for us,” he said. “Team Sheppard has done a great job setting this up, and made it easy for us to get requalified.”
| Date Taken: | 08.21.2018 |
| Date Posted: | 08.30.2018 13:26 |
| Story ID: | 290967 |
| Location: | SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, TX, US |
| Web Views: | 36 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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