Tag Archives: aerial spray

Chapter 95, Not So Well

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I’ve written before about how important it is for an organization to communicate effectively and accurately with the local community.  It can be a corporation, a government agency, a military unit, a non-profit, or a church.  It doesn’t matter.  It’s true for any organization but, at the core, it has to be all about transparency and honesty.  Let me give you an example.

Aerial spray, by its’ very nature, has a huge potential for causing massive public outcry.  Large aircraft flying very close to the ground spraying chemicals over populated areas, who would complain about that?  Amazingly, the answer is, very few people.  And the reason has everything to do with communication.  When spraying operations are going to be done there is always a campaign to inform the local population of the timing of the mission, the effects of the spraying and the direct benefits to the community.  There are interviews on radio and TV, newspaper articles, and online community bulletin board posts all aimed at reaching as many folks as possible.  Lots of legwork which pays huge dividends.  In fact, even the conspiracy theorists defend the spray operations.

I used to regularly surf the “Chemtrails” websites and blog posts looking for rumbles about aerial spray.  If you’re not familiar with the “Chemtrails” folks, they believe that the government is spraying chemicals from high altitude over the public to control the population and that many of the contrails you see in the sky are actually dangerous “Chemtrails”.  I’m not going to argue the merits of the claim, I just want to point out that, when a conspiracy theorist starts pointing a finger at the aerial spray mission on the internet, he is immediately shouted down by his fellow aluminum hat wearers.  They explain what the mission actually is and how it benefits everyone.  Effective PR has even educated the uneducatable.

So, what does this have to do with me telling today’s story.  Here goes.

The first public affairs guy I had a close working relationship was a guy named Jerry.  He was a soft-spoken, little LtCol who would give you the shirt off his back if you asked and he loved his job.  Back in the day we had a variety of orientation flights we would accomplish to educate the public on what we do in the reserves.  There were civic leader flights, spouse flights, Explorer Scout flights, and even clergy flights.  We would also occasionally do media flights.  These were designed to give the media a chance to experience the mission and potentially do a feature piece on the unit or at the very least get some “B” roll for future news stories.  I would be happy if they could just figure out the difference between a C-130 and a KC-135!  Just last month KDKA screwed it up again, but I digress.  All of that being said, on a sunny summer day, Jerry put together a media flight for all of the local stations.  And since the weather was so nice, and it was a slow news day, they all showed up.

Now you would think that a public affairs officer at an air force flying unit would probably love to fly, but you would be wrong.  Jerry was what one would call a “reluctant flyer”.  He flew when he had to but he didn’t really like it.  So when he showed up with reporters and cameramen in tow and told us he wasn’t really feeling well we weren’t surprised.  The aircraft commander, Dan Gabler, gave them the standard “dog and pony show” in the briefing room and then walked them out to the airplane.  The flight profile was what we considered our standard “show and tell” mission.  It consisted of flying out to the Laurel Highlands, circling Seven Springs a couple of time,  and then returning to downtown Pittsburgh for some low altitude photo passes over the city.  The media would talk with the crew in flight and take stills and videos in and out to the airplane.  Low risk mission, piece of cake.  At least that’s what we thought.

About 30 minutes after takeoff a call came in on the radio.  The aircraft was declaring an emergency, returning to the field, and was requesting an ambulance.  Great, just what you want on a flight with the media onboard, a readymade news story.  And probably not a positive one.  The crew was obviously busy so we didn’t press them for details.  All we could get out of them was that it was some sort of physiological incident which told us that it probably wasn’t an injury.  At least that was a little reassuring.

When the aircraft landed and the ambulance had responded I walked out to the airplane to assess the damage, both physically and PR.  I found Jerry, in a stretcher, unconscious, pale, and being wheeled out to the ambulance.  Dan was obviously concerned and after the ambulance sped off to the hospital he finally had the time to tell the sordid story.

Shortly after takeoff Jerry had started to exhibit signs of airsickness.  Vomiting ensued but then another symptom emerged which has nothing to do with airsickness, in fact it falls into the opposite end of the “spectrum” if you catch my drift.  Jerry quickly went catatonic but Dan was able to drag him back to the toilet, which in a Herc is out in the open in the back of the plane, get his pants down, and flop him on the toilet where he proceeded to explode from both ends, in a state of semi-consciousness, for the remainder of the flight.  It’s not really an approved seat for landing but, given the circumstances, it was the only prudent alternative.  I’m sure the media was impressed but, in an amazing display of restraint, they unanimously decided to not report the event on the 6:00 news.  They probably just couldn’t figure out how to report it in a FCC acceptable way.

Jerry spent the rest of the day in the hospital, on an IV, getting his fluid levels up and then stayed home a few more days getting over the flu.  Clearly airsickness and an intestinal flu are not a good combination.  We did present him with the first “Power Puking and Pooping Award” at the next UTA.  I’m sure he treasures it to this day.

Chapter 63, Spray

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I wasn’t sure how I would feel about not flying anymore but after 5 months of a new life paradigm I think I’m ok with it.  Actually, there were only two flying events that I really missed when I stopped doing them and those were B-52 aerial refueling and C-130 aerial spray.

What they both have in common is a high degree of stress and a higher degree of proficiency and skill required to maintain that proficiency.  Flying two large aircraft in close proximity to each other is an inherently dangerous activity but doing it well is, well, a blast.  On the other hand, flying a large aircraft in close proximity to the ground is also inherently dangerous but, in the case of aerial spray, extremely rewarding.

Most military flying is training in preparation of performing a wartime mission.  Practice bombing, aerial engagement, and airdrops are challenging and fun but the activity doesn’t really directly benefit the taxpayer or aid mankind.  I suppose the argument can be made that hauling cargo and passengers accomplishes both training and real world support but, in many ways, it’s not really the same thing as directly relieving human suffering.

Aerial spray is an incredibly unique mission.  It is both a direct military support mission and a homeland defense and protection mission.  The experiences of hurricane Katrina and the Gulf oil spill proved that aerial spray can not only provide a critical barrier to protect our coastline from environmental disaster but can directly and efficiently reduce the spread of insect borne diseases and subsequent injuries and death.  It’s the kind of mission I enjoy because it requires an incredible amount of skill and provides an equal amount of satisfaction.  However, the biggest challenge is to find ways to train for the mission.  Maintaining the high level proficiency required to fly 150 feet over densely populated urban areas avoiding cell towers, powerlines, bridges, noise sensitive areas, birds, and other aircraft is a huge challenge.

You just can’t, like other military missions, find a sparsely populated area or a military training range and fly over it to maintain proficiency.  Sure, it works for oil dispersant and herbicide missions, both of those are accomplished in areas with very few people.   But spraying for mosquitoes is specifically tasked to prevent diseases in large populations affected by natural disasters and practicing by spraying deserts or extremely rural areas is actually negative training.  It can lull you into a false sense of security about the nature and abundance of threats.  And that’s why, for over 40 years, aerial spray has fostered relationships with communities across the country to both train in realistic environments and benefit communities that are regularly plagued with large outbreaks of vector borne disease (biting bugs carrying bad stuff).

No urban community would ever allow large aircraft to repeatedly fly over at extremely low altitude solely for the benefit of military training, but by partnering with cities, states, counties, and the media in communities adjacent to military facilities, Aerial spray has been able to provide the most realistic training possible to its crews.  They don’t just run exercises simulating working with the press and local agencies, they do it.  Amazingly, there are almost no noise complaints from the communities.  There have been rare attempts by citizens accusing the military of damaging the paint on their cars or killing their pets to sue the Air Force but, because of the extremely accurate tracking of the treated areas and the benign nature of the products used every case has been laughed out of court.  If we produced just half as many engineers as lawyers how much better off would we be?!

The results of this training synergy is a perfect safety record for military aerial spray and a fostering of long term relationships with communities who, due to their proximity to the threat, are most likely to be hit with future natural disasters.  I can think of no better scenario than training dollars spent that perfectly fit the training requirement and aid the public at no additional cost.

So I guess the answer is yes, I do miss some parts of flying but, more than the flying, I miss working with the dedicated folks that make it happen. I miss flying with crews that seem to effortlessly perform tasks that are almost impossibly complex while flying at 200 knots and 100 feet above the ground.  I miss people walking up to me on the street and thanking me for making their lives a little more bearable.

I remember, years ago, taking Gen Tanzi on an aerial spray orientation/training flight.  He had been a fighter pilot his whole career and I figured he would find aerial spray a little, well, boring.  After about ten minutes of spraying I noticed that he was being very quiet.  He has standing behind the flight engineer and he appeared to have a very firm grip on the seat.  I tapped his shoulder to ask him how he was doing and when he turned to look at me his eyes were as big as saucers.  All he could say was that this was the most terrifying flying he had ever been a part of.  By the end of the flight we had another convert!