Aviation Preflight Indoctrination (API) started for me in January 2007. It is a 6-week course where I studied aerodynamics, weather, navigation, and aircraft engines. We also did hands-on activities that included pressure chamber, lighting flares, the helo dunker, and redneck parasailing!
My class getting ready to jump in the icy Gulf to practice loading on life rafts!
The helo-dunker, an apparatus that simulates being in a downed helicopter in the water. We are strapped into seats with all of our flight gear on, including boots, and dark goggles. The point is to create reference points before submerging so as to find your way out upside-down under water. It's not a pleasant feeling.
The pressure chamber was a vault to simulate physiological symptoms in flight, such as rapid decompression and hypoxia. As you can see in the video, some symptoms of hypoxia include giddiness and the inability to do simple tasks. (Along with many others). In the video, we were tasked to touch our helmets, clap our hands, touch our partner's hands, clap again, and back to our helmets. It was a sight to see!
"Redneck parasailing" was an event to teach us how to properly land if we ever find ourselves in a parachute. A simple PLF (parachute landing fall) technique was demonstrated and practiced before attaching us to a chute, attached to a pickup truck that drove across a field in Alabama until we lifted off. (This is illegal in Florida!)
Graduation day. My class standing in front of the F/A-18 on base. We consisted of Air Force and Coast Guard (blue covers), Marine Corps (green covers), and Navy (khaki covers) pilots, back seaters, and flight docs!
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