This must have been in the past few years. The Coast Guard guys (we flew C-130s, Falcon business jets or helicopters) still had to go through this God-awful torture chamber sort of measuring device. You sit there, they strap all sorts of measuring devices to your extremities, and a tape spits out the other end.
The Pettty Officer who read my numbers said, "Sir, I suggest you don't go jets -- at your height you will amputate your legs if you have to eject." I told him I was a Coast Guard officer and he relaxed a bit. At that time, and up to 2010, the Coast Guard has nothing with ejection seats. (We all wore the same color flight suits, and he'd have to looked closely at my name tag to see USCG.) When I was in flight training (1981) there was no such thing as reaction time. It was all based on flying ability. If you could fly up to standards, could meet the physical requirements, and completed all of the hops, you got your wings. The "completed the hops" was the difficult part. Now, if your reaction time wasn't sufficient for something -- landing where you were supposed to land, aerobatics, formation flying, etc. -- then you might wash out. They gave us, during ground school, what I now recognize as a psychological evaluation. And I remember only one question. "If you had to chose between purposely slamming your thumb in a car door or throwing up in a crowded elevator, which would you do?" ... Never quite grasped what that had to do with becoming a Naval Aviator, but I am sure some Ph.D. convinced someone that such information was important. I am pretty sure what the Marines in my class answered: BOTH, PLEASE, SIR. Navy might have changed a whole lot in the last almost 30 years, though. On Sun, Apr 18, 2010 at 7:09 AM, LWB250 <lwb...@yahoo.com> wrote: > A close friend has a daughter who went through the Naval Academy and wanted > to go to flight school. She barely cleared the physical requirements > (height and arm length, believe it or not) but ended up in Pensacola to be > trained to fly something prop-based. -- When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers. -- Oscar Wilde _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com For new and used parts go to www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
