The Osprey Flights

I don't have any sort of plan for how I am going to recount stories from my trip - they aren't gonna be in order... I'm just going to tell you the stories as they come to mind - as if we were sitting together and I were talking to you in my living room. (Which currently has no furniture... so I guess we'd be sitting Indian Style...) Tonight, I shall recount: The Osprey Flight

Karen is the lady in charge, the one who puts together these tours: from me and Safety Suit to Young Joc to Sugarland to the Globe Trotters to Hinder - she's just about seen it all. She has YEARS of experience working with Navy Entertainment, and there is very little you could do to shock her. :)

So when KAREN hadn't even ridden on an Osprey yet... we were all REALLY excited!!!

The Wikipedia definition:
A V-22 Osprey is an American multi-mission, military, tiltrotor aircraft with both a vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL), and short takeoff and landing (STOL) capability. It is designed to combine the functionality of a conventional helicopter with the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop aircraft.

The Natalie definition:
FREAKIN AWESOME.




The Ship we played on - the USS Nassau - is an Amphibious Ship... not quite as big as an aircraft carrier, but still large enough to have vertical and short take offs and landings. So that is why we were cool enough to get to fly in on the Ospreys. 1 was flying us in, and the other was flying 2 large pallets of our gear/sound equipment.

The helmet, isolation head phones, goggles, vest, and oxygen thingy we had to put on was intense. It was all tattered and I could tell it had been worn by lots of sweaty men before me :)



We get off our buses in the nice 126º heat that morning...put on our gear and are immediately lead onto the Osprey, which already has it's propellers going. I was one of the first on, and I feel a guy pulling my arm and motioning for me to go upfront. I'm looking around and thinking "UM... I don't see anywhere to sit" but the pilot is motioning me forward, so of course I go on. I feel the door slam behind me and a seat falls down right underneath me.

So, I sit.

They then hand me a whole NEW set of gear to switch into - new helmet and headphones and mic so that I can communicate with both pilots. :) I was SOOO excited to sit upfront. No one asked or talked about it, and I felt bad that the option wasn't presented to everyone. But it was one of those times where it was pretty awesome to be the only girl. Lucked out on that one. :)

I could barely see over the instrument panel. The flight time to the ship was only about 20 minutes. And I was surprised at how much the pilots were talking to me and asking me questions. Flying that thing looks pretty intimidating to me... but they switch some buttons, talk to radio control, ask me a few more questions, switch some more buttons and then keep talking to me. It was pretty surreal!

We had quite a few REALLY sick guys at that point, so the pilots had been asked to take it easy. :) Ha ha ha. I think saying "take it easy" is like trying to tell me not to "show off" on the fiddle in front of a bunch of Sailors. They didn't go too crazy, but they gave a couple of really sharp, hard turns and nose dives where it looked like you were going straight into the ocean. I was LOVING it.

Poor Glen... our sound guy. His sickliness was NOT loving it. But they couldn't find any sick bags... so he grabbed the first bag he saw, which was thankfully the fruit bag! He puked ALLL over the fruit, which at least was no one's clothes! :)

My favorite part though, was getting to be on headset for that. The soldier in the back of the plane with everyone else was saying, "...We've got a puker. Why do I Always get the pukers?!?! And I can't find any bags? Always the pukers and no bags! COME ON!"

The flight back to base thankfully had NO pukers. I got to sit in the back for that one. :) They leave the back of the Osprey open... so you can see everything going on outside. And the guy in the very back has a strap which holds him down... but he seriously stands right at the edge of the plane while it's dipping and curving and going all over the place... he acts like it's nothing.


Ari and James :) How did Ari score the tinted shades?


Some of the guys


We also had 4 Marines on the flight with us... one of the images forever burned into my brain will be of the Marine who was tired and just, you know, sleeping on his gun...



There and back. We made it. Not a bad looking group, eh?


Peace. Love. Fiddle.
~natalie