Green TIme

Today, the entire area around us became a no-fly zone so because of an excersize that the Kuwaiti's were holding. So we went flew up to another base to hang out in case a call came down while the airspace was shut down. It was very very hot while we were up there. Since the pad we were at wasn't considered secure, I volunteered to stay out by the aircraft with one of the crewmen while everyone else went inside. It actually turned out to be pretty cool. The firefighters from the base we were at came by. These are civilian firemen from the U.S. who come out here as civilian contractors because they make a lot more here than they do out there (they actually make quite a bit more than I do). They're out here for years at a time and go home for 2 weeks every four months.

Anyway, we were able to give them a little tour of the helicopter and explain how they can get to the occupants in case of an emergency. It was a little like being a static display at an airshow. Except that the firefighters didn't try to walk off with everything that wasn't bolted to the airframe. There was also a British EH-101 that pulled onto the pad shortly after we arrived. I won't get too technical, but it's basically the coolest helicopter out there. It can do everything my beloved Knighthawk can do but much, much better. They proved it when they took off by performing a maneuver that, were we to try to duplicate in our bird we would fall out of the sky like a rock. It also proved to me that pilots the world over are the same. We can't help but show off our new toys. I now want to follow my time in Guam with a joint tour in the UK.

Now I am back at Happyland and should have a couple of days off. It will be nice because this was a pretty busy week. I don't know if I'll get away from Happyland to try and enjoy Kuwait City or not during my time off, but if I do I will let you know.