Little of everything

It’s been an interesting week around here. Last Sat N headed to LA to do some training and he was there until Tues. He used a simulator for the first time and said it was really cool training. He got home Tues night and on Wed got to fly the actual aircraft for the first time. On Thurs he learned how to do more paperwork and run the GPS system (there was weather issues so they didn’t fly) and then on Fri he took his check ride with the IP and when that was done he flew with his boss and did some Local Area Orientation (LAO) and told N that he was going to let him fly by himself the next day on shift! That’s less that 1 week of training on that aircraft and he was in the air on Sat single pilot taking a guy having a heart attack to the hospital. Let me put how fast that is into perspective…. in the Army if Nicholas wanted to transition to another aircraft, say instead of flying the Kiowa he wanted to go fly the Apache, he would have to go through FOUR months of training. Four months. Now granted there are a few more things to learn in the Apache than the Bell 206 but it doesn’t really take 4 months to learn it when you are already familiar with flying. We call it “big boy rules” the Army does NOT play by them but the civilian side sure does!

Here are a few pictures that I took when we went out to the base last week. This is the Children’s aircraft because they didn’t have the other LifeSaver aircraft there that day. They are set up the same just different paint jobs.

Nicholas with his boss, 2 of the flight nurse/medics, and a nurse from one of the hospitals in town.

His cool new helmet, much nicer than his old Army one.

We are really loving Birmingham so far, we really didn’t know what to expect after moving here and I’m impressed. We are finding new cool stuff all the time and Nicholas loves his job. All the people there are absolutely fantastic and he is excited to go to work in the morning for the first time in years. It’s a nice change for both of us.

I have plenty more to put on here, I need to get better about keeping this thing updated but this is long enough and it’s bed time!