Winter Sports Holiday

I can't in good faith report any news as a Standardization Instructor Pilot from Sweden due to the fact that we are in the weaning days of a national treasure called Winter Sports Holiday.

As it turns out, winter in Sweden can be harsh.  This causes everyone to be locked in doors and inadvertently sharing in may things such as germs.  This is the time of year that kids were historically getting very sick and passing their little nasty germs onto their parents at home and further sharing into the work place.  This reality was the genesis of taking a week off each year in these indoor days, hence the excuse to have a Winter Holiday.  When in Sweden, do as the Swedes do, stay away from that nasty thing we call a J.O.B.

So the Hastings clan embarked on the tradition with an attempt to participate in some winter sports.  Our brand new cross country skis had been delivered around three weeks ago and we were well prepared to put them to their inaugural use.  The big problem is that the snow began an amazing disappearing act just in time for the Winter Sports week away from work and school.

We were shown a new past time to get us off the couch and into the outdoors of Sweden, this new activity to us is known as Geocaching.  Nerds across the world have hidden small "treasures" all around and with the aid of a GPS, they are logged into a website and published.  Nerds such as ourselves utilize GPS', or in our case, donate $10 bones to the App Gods of the iPhone world to search for these hidden trinkets.  It has been an absolute blast.  We have walked into areas around this country that we would have never seen and discovered locations that we will probably visit again during the summer months.  It has proven to be an excellent source of curing cabin fever and breaking the spell of the boob tube.  We spent Monday near a castle ruins and into the forest near Lake Roxen.  Here we found two of three caches we set out to uncover.

Tuesday we joined forces with our Landlord and new friend, Axel, along with his two young boys to a small ski hill.  Unbelievably, there was enough snow to allow Mia to put in her first day of skiing.  I am not sure if there are other parents out there that can remember the first time on skis with their child, not something I can call the best time of my life.  After all, kids, or for sure my kid, is much smarter than her parents and can't even imagine listening to coaching or advice from her parents.  This made for a few hours on a bunny hill that I wouldn't like to repeat.  Eventually, we got something past the goalie in her brain and some tips sunk into the ears and some actual skiing occurred.  Even a trip up a very "old timey" t-bar rope tow lift up a decent ski hill was shared by the three wayward adventurers.  At the end of the day a successful trip happened and we were happy.  Dinner and too many beers happened later that night with the McGettigan clan on a nearby farm.

Thursday we were invited to the farm of our Landlords brother and sister-in-law.  Whitney has made the trip several times to enjoy riding with new good friend Linda.  What an amazing farm and home!  We were escorted around this amazing property and were witness to some very different ways to farm.  They had all indoor beef cattle, like close to 300.  They were a Charlaise type breed.  The barns were huge and very amazing.  The farm is completely self sufficient in all ways.  Most notable to me was the heating system.  It was a huge hopper filled with wood chips from waste wood and trees across the property, fed into a huge furnace, heating water that was fed into around 15 buildings for heat and hot water.  Amazing.  My thoughts were of my buddy Zman, wishing he could be there to look around and discuss the differences in the cattle business.  We stayed for a "typical Swedish" dinner, Moose roast, potatoes, brown sauce and the ever present Lingonberry jelly for the meat.

Friday was spent back on the hunt for Geo treasure.  It was a rigorous hike to find all four caches that were on the list.  This time it was a reclaimed water fowl nature reserve.  The first site was easily found after a great hike in terrific surroundings.  The second was a serious event.  A direct course via iPhone GPS landed us at the bottom of a shear cliff completely coated in a lush moss.  The deep forest had a carpet of the lush green on downed logs, rocks, and the forest floor.  I made an attempt to scale the cliff, much easier going up than coming down.  A few skids to my near death later, we decided to depart the area as losers.  We scaled the map to a larger scale and decided to make a different approach.  Whitney is a serious competitor and was unwilling to give up on this particular cache.  Eventually, we made it to the top and discovered the treasure to discover the box contained a US quarter from our home state of Wyoming.  That was just too weird and a great reminder not to give up.  I can't imagine not finding that Wyo Quarter this far from home.

Things have begun to really come together for us here.  Still feeling pretty out of place but getting used to that feeling and navigating this country in a way that makes us feel like we know how to get things done.  I am positive we are doing it different, some may say wrong, but it is definitely the Hastings way to do things in Sweden.  I don't giving a crap if people think we are weird, take a number in get in line.

Getting Down to Business

Things remain to be pretty rocky here in Sweden for the Hastings Clan as it relates to immigration, finances, payment for rent, school mates for Mia, and communication back to friends and family in the US.  The one thing that has gone very well happens to be my work here at Malmen Air Base.

I am in my third week at the position of Sweden TAFT SP.  Our Swedish counterparts wasted no time in getting us into the aircraft and into the airspace above this frozen yet beautiful country.  Of course the process of getting into the aircraft and breaking the surly bonds of the ground were as well a foreign affair for me.

The most pointed difference was the lack of work prior to entering the cockpit.  The Swedes have a much different system than the US Army in this regard.  Most notebly was the small amount of planning that went into the flight.  It isn't that things weren't discussed or a plan wasn't hatched, just that we didn't spend a significant amount of time on discussing the plan.  The crew brief, well, it just doesn't really occur.  Their position is that all the crew members are current and qualified and we don't need to discuss what their role will be in the aircraft, or they shouldn't be on the schedule to fly.  The professionals in the back of the cabin that we all know and love to be the crew chief, comes in a much different flavor here in Sweden.  There really has never been two of them in the back since their previous helicopters either didn't have the station for two or just plain weren't utilized as the Black Hawk back seats stars are done in my world. 

The crew chief in Sweden first and foremost, is an officer.  That officer is either a technician (mechanic) or a mission specialist (sort of like our CE).  The technician formerly didn't fly and the mission specialist does not work on aircraft.  This means that prior to a flight, the technicians and the maintenance Kompany (yes with a K), owns the aircraft and prepares it for flight. They complete the required Daily inspection as well as a pre-flight, sign the logbook, and then brief the mission specialist of their work.  The aircraft now belongs to the flight crew.  Upon completion of the flight, the flight crew pretty much gathers their gear and walks away from the aircraft.  The technicians then take the aircraft for all post flight activities and maintenance required.

For me this has felt like pure rock star/Hollywood pilot status.  If a pilot or flight crew ever conducted themselves like this in the US Army, I would kick their head in.  The crew chiefs would black ball that pilot and sing derogatory songs about them while slamming needles into their voodoo doll of them.  Here it is the only way to fly, crazy, just plain different.  It also again shows me just how damn bad ass the US Army Black Hawk Crew Chief really is.  Not that I am not reminded by that over and over throughout my career, but it shines through very clearly while here in Sweden.  I am in no means saying that our system is any better or worse than another country or another branch of our armed services.  I just am committing to writing again that our crew chiefs are the hardest working, most knowledgeable, and bad ass members of Army Aviation. 

My position here has been to advise and demonstrate ways of doing things in the Black Hawk in order to prepare the Swedish unit to take this new aircraft into their system of conducting business.  My best advising comes with the tactical sense in mind.  In other words, I really have been in the business of training to take this machine to war and kicking the fuck out of the enemy.  After the training, actually take this machine to war and kick the fuck out of the enemy, which I have had the honor to do for three tours to Iraq and 42 months of combat deployment. 

My experience so far has been great.  The Swedish commanders and so far the small amount of available and qualified pilots have been absorbing my advise and techniques beyond my imagination.  Not all things are capable of doing the way I know how to do because of the copious amounts of Swedish Regulations.  I have had the honor of demonstrating the technique I have used with my unit deployed in combat for 27 months concerning dust landings.  We have been able to use snow in the replacement of dust.  It has proven to be a great challenge to me as the references in a snowy field are far more challenging/terrifying than the worst of dust environments.  No matter, the Chief Pilot is now a believer in the technique and wants to adopt as the preffered method.  I had the opportunity to conduct dozens of these landings along the east coast of Sweden.  For me this flight was a thrill.  Not for the landings but for the chance to fly along the rocky coast of the Baltic Sea.  We saw multiple moose as we flew just inland of the coast.  It was a notable day in my flying career.

Now my big block to further devolpment has come in the form of my inability to speak and understand Swedish.  Obviously, the preferred language in the aircraft is going to be Swedish, well because I am with the Swedish AirForce.  Since there is only three knuckleheads here that don't speak Swedish, I thought it would be the best if we just learned to speak Swedish in the aircraft.  How hard can that be?  Fuck is it hard.  It turns out that Swedish has been ranked the fifth hardest language to learn for an English speaker.  I can read the words, study what is to be said and what I should expect to hear, but saying these words has been a huge challenge.  The sounds are so foreign to our tongues that our attempts have been so far off that they have become the butt of many jokes.  All in good nature though.  I have been learning Swedish regulations for formation flight.  Pretty close in concept but different in application.  Again there are regulated "call outs" that are in Swedish.  I have a list of those and can practice, but the words are so damn hard to say.  I think the decision was made today that when the stupid Americans are in the flight, English will be used.  This makes me as an American very embarrassed that we only know one damn language.  Of course when I was in high school, Swedish wasn't on the menu of classes that could be taken, or in college for that matter.  Yet we still as a majority only speak English.  This is so far behind other countries in the world.  So I am going to get off my ass and this computer, go find someone that wants to laugh at my attempts to speak this language and practice until I am close enought to be understood.  Bye for now!