Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
The Pilot Project Podcast is an aviation podcast that aims to help new pilots learn what it takes to succeed in the world of flight, to help people in the flight training system learn what they may want to fly, and to give Canadians and the world a peek into life on the flight deck in the RCAF. We want to help pilots succeed and thrive! We interview real RCAF pilots for their exciting stories as well as the lessons they've learned along the way. We'll learn their tips to develop resilience and the tools it takes to make it in flight training.
This podcast is presented by Skies Magazine. If you're interested in the Canadian aviation industry, Skies is your go to multimedia resource for the latest news, in-depth features, stunning photography, and insightful video coverage. Whether you're an aviation professional or enthusiast, Sky's is dedicated to keeping you informed and bringing your passion for aviation to life. Visit skysmag.com to learn more and subscribe to stay updated on all things Canadian aviation.
Bryan:Alright. We're ready for departure here at the pilot project podcast, the best source for stories and advice from RCAF and mission aviation pilots brought to you by Sky's Magazine. I'm your host, Brian Morrison, and here with me again today for part two of our Christmas special on Operation Christmas Drop is captain Anthony Elma Melwen, a c one thirty j Hercules pilot from four three six Transport Squadron in Trenton, Ontario. Tony, welcome once again to the show, and thank you again for taking the time to chat today as you prepare to leave this week for Operation Christmas Drop.
Tony:Happy to be back.
Bryan:Listeners can check out part one of our chat to hear about Tony's early career and his journey through RCAF flight training. Today for part two, we're going to get into his operational time at four three six squadron, including deployments, becoming an aircraft commander, and, of course, his experiences with operation Christmas drop during the Christmas season. So when we left off, we were talking about a medical emergency that you faced. Let's talk about coming back after being grounded from that. Being grounded for almost a year, is career shaking for any pilot?
Bryan:And how did you mentally work through that period?
Tony:Yeah. It was pretty rough. A lot of uncertainty. I would say, I feel like I keep repeating what I said from the last episode that being active was a big one because it helps so much physically and mentally and staying in the books as well. And luckily I was able to still do simulator flights to keep me somewhat current.
Tony:So that helped a lot and forced me to stay in the books as well.
Bryan:Did you find that like your squadron mates kind of rallied around you and helped keep you motivated?
Tony:Yeah, they were very helpful. Whenever I was chatting with everybody, everybody was always asking like news, any news, like when are you coming back flying with us? Everybody was excited for me to come and fly with them. Like it was good. They were very supportive.
Bryan:Yeah, yeah. That's great. So what you were actually dealing with is an autoimmune condition called IgA nephropathy. What is that and how does it affect you?
Tony:So IgA nephropathy is a, yeah, it's a autoimmune disease like you mentioned. It's basically your, the simplest way to explain it is your immune system thinks there's something wrong with your kidneys and he's trying to protect your kidneys by producing a bunch of protein, IgA, into your kidneys, but your kidneys are the ones that are processing your protein, in your blood flow, which creates a big strain on all of those tiny filters in your kidneys. So that damages your kidneys and then your kidneys not being able to filter your blood properly increases your blood pressure, which by increasing your blood pressure, you put more flow through your kidneys, which damage them even more and it's just this vicious cycle that your autoimmune system is creating, by itself. No one really knows how you get IgA nephropathy, it affects I believe one in every one hundred thousand people so just, yeah, I picked the wrong straw I guess but it doesn't, that's the thing like it doesn't really affect me like they say high blood pressure is the silent killer and it is like, you don't really know you have it until you check it But all I got to do is I got to watch my salt intake to make sure my blood pressure stays low.
Tony:I got to watch my protein intake so that I'm not demanding too much from my kidneys. I just need to take, meds as well to keep my blood pressure low but otherwise like it doesn't affect me. Can work out, I can function totally normally. It's just like my blood work is fine. It's just that those those metrics that measure the how your kidneys are filtering your blood are just pretty low, that's all.
Bryan:Okay. Obviously, you're able to fly now with this condition, right?
Tony:Yeah, absolutely. And it's, I'm pretty fortunate to being able to keep flying. I'm pretty sure I'm the only one in the calf with that so that's a that's a I'm a very specific case. Yeah.
Bryan:Yeah. And it's huge that they were able to let you keep flying with an autoimmune condition. Like, that's I would imagine that's quite rare.
Tony:I I would imagine as well. Yeah.
Bryan:Yeah. So you we mentioned in part one, you got ungrounded on your birthday. What was that day like?
Tony:Honestly, it was probably the best birthday gift I've ever had. I remember the I was at my buddy's place in Montreal and I get a call from the base and like immediately my heart sank, I'm like, what is this? And then the nurse just calls me, she's super pumped and she's like, yeah, you get to fly again. Like, yes. So it was such a relief, such a weight off my shoulders and I was ecstatic.
Tony:I was on cloud nine the whole day.
Bryan:That's awesome. You must have been pretty surprised when it went from like a feeling of dread to, you know, being being pumped that this this thing was over.
Tony:Yeah. Very, very much so.
Bryan:When you returned to flying in 2024, did it feel like starting over or just picking up where you left off?
Tony:I'd say a little bit of both on certain things. The The hands and feet were a little bit rough for sure because I haven't touched the plane in so long. I think when I finally reset it to my takeoff and landings, takeoff approach and landings, I was close to five hundred days. Oh, wow. Or four hundred days since I've done it.
Tony:So definitely some rust there that I had to shake off. But like I mentioned earlier, like staying in the books and chair flying when I was grounded helped a lot with remembering the procedures and how to do it. It's just there's difference between remembering the procedures and actually doing it. So, I just had to get back on the saddle and do it.
Bryan:So did they have you do another like mini OTU or anything like that or did they just get you back into a retraining program with standards and go from there?
Tony:No. I didn't have to do a whole OTU. All I had to do was, there's like a standard training plan that we do for people that are gone for, for a bit of time and it's, I think
Bryan:Like for people who go on parental or something like that?
Tony:Yeah. Exactly. So it's like two two sims. One of them is your IRT instrument rating test. Then you do your two Davis form, day visual formation and two night visual formation.
Tony:Wow. And that's that's your training plan.
Bryan:Yeah. So you go right into the hard stuff?
Tony:Oh, right away. Yeah.
Bryan:So once you got all that done, we jumped into 2024, which was a huge year for you. You went into six major exercises in 2024. What did that tempo feel like after the long grounding?
Tony:So it was a lot of time, but mostly manageable. I remember from Storm Flag to Red Flag, I had like maybe two weeks in between them and yeah, so that was pretty busy, maybe like a week and a half. But I honestly, I enjoyed it a lot. I never said no to any trips and I tried to go on as many trips as I could because I really felt like I had to catch up on the experience because I missed out a whole year of flying.
Bryan:Yeah. So you weren't, you didn't feel like overwhelmed by this pace, like this was something that you welcomed?
Tony:Absolutely.
Bryan:Yeah. For people who don't know, what is Battalion Mass Tactical Week or BMTW and what makes mass tactical air drops so demanding?
Tony:So Battalion Mass Tactical Week is a joint exercise at Pope Army Airfield in North Carolina, where the air force and the army works together to simulate the massive airborne assault on an enemy position. It's a great way to work for interoperability between the army and the air force and between us and the Americans as well. It's great training for us, the pilots and the load masters as well, because we'll air drop or air land some complex loads sometimes or large amount of paratroopers. And honestly, most of the week we're just dropping dudes on the gigantic drop zone. Like I'm talking like thousands of guys over the course of a week.
Tony:A, it's very, it's a lot, it's very impressive to see from the air and from the ground. Like you'll be, you'll be flying on NVGs looking at like five Herbs ahead of you with like 60 jumpers jumping out of each Herbs and you see all of the parachutes blooming and you know behind you there's probably like three C-17s that will jump like over a 100 paratroopers each. It's a crazy exercise. And we started doing that just last year, yeah, 2024 and I went on the first three of them. It's a, yeah, we have a major at the squadron that did an exchange with the USF, the US Air Force and he, when he was there, he used to do BMCW, Battalion Mass Tactical Week every quarter he said, so he thought it would be a good idea for us to join it and then we just, we do all of them now.
Tony:So that's really good and I think Mass Tactical Air Drop is demanding for two things. One is the planning that goes with it. So you'll be flying with about four to five American C-130Js and another probably three C-17s from the Americans and everybody has different rules, procedures and you all have to go over everything to make sure that the mission will work. So like the C17, the C130s will accelerate and slow down at different rate. So you need to make to take that into account when you build your spacing between everyone for pre drop and post drop and when everybody will start accelerating, which route will take.
Tony:And the other thing when flying is any little mistakes or deviation that the people in front of you, you'll feel it a lot more as you move further down the formation. Because for us, the Canadians, can't really fly in formation with the Americans so we find ways to make it work by just staying a certain distance behind them, but still like any mistakes that the lead aircraft will make will affect everybody else in the formation because they have to correct and like the corrections just add on to every airplane. So yeah, you can get yourself in some spicy situation, let's say when you're at, because for the airdrop you're at low airspeed, so you don't have a lot of maneuverability of the plane because there's not a lot of airflow going over your wings. So you'll feel the turbulence of the planes ahead of you a lot more and sometimes like your aileron will be at full deflection and the plane is not turning. So like you need to find ways to get out of the turbulence, which is you just add on power and then you'll get on top of it, but you don't want to stack too much from the plane in front of you because if everybody starts stacking, well, the last guy is going to have to be so high that like they might be too high for the drop.
Tony:Like it's just a lot to consider. There's a lot going on but it's great practice for everybody.
Bryan:Yeah, I mean these are those things like you think, hear about this and you think, okay, cool. Like a bunch of planes dropping out paratroopers. But then you have to think about, like, all the planning that goes into this to make it happen, to make the deconfliction happen. And that you realize, like, very quickly that this gets super complex, but you have to make this you have to do it over and over and over again because you can't be doing this for the first time in anger. Like, you can't be dropping parachutists, you know, over hostile territory and that's the first time you're figuring all this stuff out.
Tony:Oh, you need yeah. You need you need to practice it for sure. And it's a it's it's a great exercise for that.
Bryan:I wonder this is kind of a crazy question, but like the first time you're flying at night on NVGs and you know there's like paratroopers everywhere in the sky, is it a little scary, like, making sure like, how big is the pucker factor as you try to make sure that you're completely properly deconflicted from all these, you know, human beings hanging from parachutes in the sky?
Tony:Yeah. So I would say it's it's both scary and mesmerizing. It's scary because you don't wanna mess anything up because there's like it's personal's life that are relying on you to make sure you didn't mess up any of your procedures, but it's also very mesmerizing and impressive to see all of the jumpers jumping away and you hear them from the cockpit, you hear them in the back like piping each other up and it's pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah.
Bryan:That must be really cool. You participated as both a mission mission planning cell planner and as a pilot. How different are those worlds?
Tony:It's two different words. So when I did it as a mission planner, it was the first time our squadron was doing it. So we didn't really know how we didn't really know what we were getting into in terms of mission planning, I believe. They are really long days of planning and making maps and objective area charts, assessing the maps, looking for tower, different air spaces classes. So it was also my first time doing a mission planning sale.
Tony:So it was kind of a trial by fire and it was me and another guy planning for the Canadians for the first couple of days. It was very busy, like I'm talking like twelve, fourteen hour day easily.
Bryan:Oh wow.
Tony:Then a third guy joined us, which alleviate a lot of the work towards the end of the exercise. But basically as an NPC, what you're doing is you're providing the flyers with their mission package, kind of like containing their route maps and all the stuff they'll need to do the mission just a couple hours before their departure time, then they review it and they review it and off they go. And I personally much prefer being a flyer, especially as an FO for an LP 13 candidate because you just show up to work, you get the mission package, you review it and then you're on your way to fly. And, yes, sorry, the LP 13 of the squadron is like a big exercise for us or a big tactical mission that the enacting AC will do with an Fo2. So it was a, I really liked doing those trips.
Tony:I think those were my favorite trips as an Fo2.
Bryan:So just to clarify, when you say LP 13, LP is lesson plan, right?
Tony:Yeah.
Bryan:And you're saying that basically you're the FO, you're the first officer and there's another FO who's the acting aircraft commander. And so they're on like a checkride type thing and and you're assisting as the first officer? Affirm.
Tony:Yep. Yeah. And there's a there's an IT on the on the third seat. Yeah.
Bryan:Which is a instructor pilot? Yeah. Yep. And and and those are fun trips, but you also have to, like, really be switched on and at your best. Right?
Bryan:Because this is somebody else's upgrade that's happening.
Tony:Yeah. Totally. You don't wanna mess things up.
Bryan:Yeah. Sometimes those ground positions we're we're talking about when you were in the mission planning cell, they can feel less exciting to aircrew. What did you learn from being in the mission planning cell that helped develop you as a pilot?
Tony:So I feel like you learn a lot from the other units and how they're doing things and gives you a good perspective on how things are done differently somewhere else. And you're also able to pay more attention to details when making the products and giving better products than you would at home. Since the mission planning time is longer when you do an exercise than it is when we do it at home for J trainers. Because for J trainers, we call them J trainers, it's just local flyers we do with the C-130Js at 04:36. Yeah, we allow ourselves like two hours of mission planning and then for like a three hour, four hour mission, once you're on exercise, you allow yourself like a whole day of planning for the same amount of time of mission.
Tony:So you're really able to to provide good products to, to the flyers.
Bryan:Yeah. Well, I mean, when you're at home, it's more routine. Right? And, you know, like you don't need as much time to prepare compared to when you're on a complex exercise, maybe flying in a new area and there's like other you're deconflicting with other nation's aircraft and all this all this stuff. Right?
Tony:Yeah. Exactly. There's a there's a lot more to think about when you're away from MOB, main operating base.
Bryan:Yeah. So you had briefly mentioned an exercise called Storm Flag. What is that exercise all about and what stands out from that experience?
Tony:So this one as well is, this one is more the air force providing support to the army, at least when I did it. So we're delivering stuff via airdrop or airland 20 fourseven to the army on a base like forty five minutes away from where we were in Louisiana. We'll also simulate aero medical evac, we'll bring like artillery guns. Oh wow. Anything the army would want or need.
Tony:Yeah. It was a good exercise. It was a good exercise on paper but the thing is that the time we did it, there was a lot of issues with migratory birds. Oh. Yeah, the exercise was planned during, I think it was peak migratory season in the area.
Tony:So we hit a lot of birds and we ingested a lot of birds in our engine. So that required like special maintenance procedures and we needed to get the engine checked with like borescopes to make sure there was nothing wrong with them. Overall, I think, I thought it was a pretty cool exercise. It was my first flying exercise as a first officer, so I really appreciate it. And it was also the first time I did an assault landing on NVG on a dirt strip in the middle of nowhere, with like minimum lighting.
Tony:So that was a, that was pretty cool. Like you're, you're just looking through like toilet tubes and you're able to land the plane in like a 500 foot long box on a dirt strip in the middle of a forest with like zero lighting beside the four corner of the box and another light at the end of the runway. It's it's pretty cool to do.
Bryan:That's crazy. What does that feel like doing that for the first time? Like, is it scary?
Tony:No. I was pretty pumped and ready to finally do it. I was very excited and I don't know. I just love a lot of the things we do at the Herc so I just I just felt ready and wanted to do it.
Bryan:Yeah. That's super cool. So Red Flag is another exercise you mentioned. You did this one as both mission planning cell staff as well as a first officer, and that must have been pretty intense. What is red flag all about and how was taking part in that exercise?
Tony:So for that exercise, I only did one mission flying over there.
Bryan:Okay.
Tony:But 90% of the time I was the NPC. So Red Flag is a multinational exercise focused on advanced aerial combat training and radar threats. There's a lot of jets involved, lot of tankers, there's an AWACS, which is the big plane with the big dome on top of it, the big radar dome to check on everybody on the ground and in the air. There's air mobility involved with C-17s and C-one 130. So over there you basically just get a task to do to drop something somewhere or airline something somewhere else and you try to do it without getting shut down by ground based radar threats or jets.
Tony:So we'll send guys on those kinds of exercise, like, yeah, those kinds of exercise. So they get their advanced tactics qualification. Like I said, when I was there, I was NPC 90% of the time. And one of our mission was basically a strat mission without really like any threats going on. So they let me do it, which I really appreciated.
Tony:But I was still able to see how busy the radios were on that kind of exercises with that many players involved. So that was a really good exposure for that. I I really appreciate it.
Bryan:Yeah. It's eye opening the first time you fly in like a really congested area with when the radio traffic is congested. Like when you're in a tactical area, like for me, the first time I did anti submarine, like ASW, anti submarine warfare, and you can hear, like, someone there's a a channel they're talking to the ships. There's a channel they're talking to the subs. You're talking to the helicopters that are flying below you.
Bryan:You're talking to the other aircraft that you've just relieved from station. Like there's so many and not to mention the fact that there's at least two intercom stations you're listening to on the plane you're on. Like it gets really busy. It's a whole new skill just to learn what you need to listen to.
Tony:Oh yeah. And at that time I was still, I was still in FO1. So most of the time, like I was the pilot flying and not really the pilot monitoring. So I wasn't really on the on the comms. So it was another trial by fire was pretty good.
Tony:And well, English is my second language. So I like, I'll be honest, comms is a, it's one of my weaknesses. So really good exposure on that trip.
Bryan:Would you say that that's probably the thing the biggest thing you learned there that made you a better Herc pilot would be like the the exposure to the comms?
Tony:Yeah. And just like trying to the AC that I was with was really adamant on like being sharp on the comms. So we worked a lot on that and like find the right time to get your message through. So yeah, totally.
Bryan:Which is a challenge for not just people who, you know, have English as a second language. Like some of that is a challenge that every pilot will face Learning to, you know, when to talk and when not to talk and, like, to concisely say what you need to say and just do it quickly. Yeah. Versus, like, just blah blah blah blah blah blah, like, on the radio for way too long when other people have stuff to say. Or just like
Tony:humming, like it's a it's a push to push to talk, not a push to think button. Yes. I heard that I heard that a couple times.
Bryan:So you ended up doing multiple BMTWs as a first officer. At what point did you start feeling like you're really settling into this airplane and mission set?
Tony:So my first BMTW as a flyer was literally my first acting AC trip as an FO2, like we mentioned earlier, being the FO for another FO. So, you know, still a little bit, a little bit junior, but I feel like on my second BMTW, I felt way more confident. I had a lot more hours under my belt and I was more familiar with the aerospace as well because I've been there as a mission planner and a flyer and I knew how the exercise worked, which I hope helped, I'm sure it helped the the the candidate being assessed at that time.
Bryan:Did those exercises start to feel repetitive or did you find there was different curveballs every time?
Tony:So Storm Flag was getting a little bit repetitive because we would always use the same route to go to the same landing zone or drop zone but they were able to throw a couple of curves at us like, today you're going to do Macia, the CDS drop with the with the Americans or today you're just gonna do it at night. Like it was kind of nice to have this mix. BMTW was repetitive a little bit for me towards the end because it's just, I mean, it's a super busy tempo, while you fly but the routes were a little bit caged and there's not a lot of leeway when you fly over there. So you can't really play with the route and you have such a massive formation as well that like this there's no room of margin.
Bryan:Yeah, that makes sense. So not after a while, maybe not the most exciting thing because you can't like flight planning is getting repetitive but you still have to be precise.
Tony:Exactly. But we're pretty lucky at the squadron. Have a, yeah, like I mentioned, we have a major with good connections in the state. He was able to, when I was there to find us other things to do unrelated to the exercise. So that was extra training for us and extra stuff to do for the acting AC candidate being assessed.
Bryan:Nice. So let's talk now about Operation Christmas Drop. For people who don't know, what is it and why is it special?
Tony:Yes. So Christmas Drop is a it's the longest humanitarian airdrop mission for the Americans. We're air dropping supply, food and gifts to remote islands in the Indo Pak region. This year will be the seventy fourth edition of the operation and it all started in 1951 during Christmas time. There's a B-twenty nine crew that they were just conducting some low level flying South Of Guam and they saw some islander waving at them and they decided to put some stuff together in a little container, put a parachute and just drop it to them.
Tony:And it just was just the beginning of a tradition since I don't really know what they dropped, but now we're dropping a lot of food, a lot of toys, basic medicine, tools. Last year we had a lot of snorkeling kit that we would just give to the people living on those islands and the tolls. It's very helpful for us Canadians because we might have to do those drops eventually on other operations and obviously super helpful for the people living in that area because they, it's extremely remote and like they don't have next day Amazon Prime over there, know. The RCF started doing it in 2023, so this year will be our third year going and how we got there, we basically just got invited by the Americans. I think we love working with them and I believe it's mutual.
Bryan:Yeah. Because at this point, it's it's a big multinational effort. Right? Like, I was watching some videos about it online and I think there was, like, New Zealand, Japan, the Americans, of course, us, and and a bunch of other countries.
Tony:Yeah. Last year, there was a Korea, Japan, Australia, Us, and the Americans. And this year, there will be, like, observers from, I believe, like, 10 other countries.
Bryan:Wow. Yeah. So you've said it was one of your favorite trips you've ever done. What made it so meaningful?
Tony:The location is it's kind of an unreal. Guam is a is a great place to be. It's such a beautiful island. We did a hike in the jungle basically when we were there, which was very nice. It's obviously a very rewarding exercise to execute because you're really like providing some needed supply to people living in remote areas.
Tony:And we also had a great group of people with a lot of inside jokes among us.
Bryan:That always happens when you go on those trips and they're a lot of fun.
Tony:Oh, yeah.
Bryan:So describe the moment when you rolled in low level over one of those islands. What were you feeling at that time?
Tony:I was very excited and thrilled. We could see the people. We we were solo, like, fly at 250, 350 GL. We could see people waving at us on the beach and you could see the kids jumping. It was it was it was a great sight.
Bryan:Yeah. Like, that must be huge for them. So I imagine it's really exciting. How do you make sure that the like, if with all these kids running around and stuff, like, do you make sure that the drop is clear?
Tony:Before you drop, you'll do a a fly pass of the area of where you're going to drop and you'll have yourself looking and you'll have your load masters in the back observing as well where the drop will happen and making sure no one is there. But you're trying to, the water is very shallow over there, so you're just trying to drop it on like, on the water so they can still walk towards the drop, but you're not dropping them directly on the beach because that's where they're going to be. And the islands are so small, like you don't want to risk dropping it on any of their houses or buildings or whatever.
Bryan:So you're actually dropping it, like, in the shallow water?
Tony:Exactly. Yeah.
Bryan:Okay. How does the Hurt community treat Operation Christmas Drop? We've said it's a special mission, it's also pretty close to the holidays. So is it seen as a privilege to go?
Tony:I would say I would say totally. It's a it's kind of a it's kind of a reward trip. It's a very fortunate to be able to go two years in a row and I would say, totally it's seen as a privilege. It's a great exercise in a great location doing meaningful airdrops.
Bryan:Yeah. Do you guys get much downtime while you're there?
Tony:Yes. So we get, yeah, we get a bit of downtime because we have, a this year we'll have two full crews. So when one crew is flying, the other will mission plan for their mission the next day and then once they're done mission planning, they can explore the the island or hit the gym or whatever.
Bryan:That's awesome. Yep. And that's good too for just for rest and everything too. Right? Like, I don't know.
Bryan:I don't want anyone listening to to think like, oh, what? They're only working every other day or they're on vacation, like, half the time or something. Like, you need that time to rest in between flights, but also you're going in, like you said, you're doing mission planning and stuff. So it's not like, you know, it's not vacation time.
Tony:No. What
Bryan:was the Christmas season like for your crew last year taking part in this operation? Were there any moments that stick with you?
Tony:Yeah, would say the box building day was a good day. It's so the they'll have all of those boxes in the hangar with all of the donations in and they'll just ask people from the community and the crews and people from every countries to come and decorate all of the boxes. So we all gathered around and we had, I believe two or three boxes and we just started to draw some Canadian and Christmas related stuff to stay in the spirit of the holidays. I drew a map of Canada and a beaver with a Christmas hat.
Bryan:Awesome. Yeah. So two weeks after Christmas drop last year, you deployed again on Opry Assurance. How did your partner handle the sudden turnaround?
Tony:She was a bit disappointed with the busyness of my schedule, but she she understood that I I needed the hours and the experience before I started my AC upgrade as soon as I got back. So she was very understanding of that and obviously super helpful throughout it. It's always nice when you're on the road and you know that someone's back home and holding the fort, it's very important and super meaningful.
Bryan:Yeah. I mean, you said you met her in Moose Jaw. Right?
Tony:Yes. Yep.
Bryan:Yeah. So she was there when you were going through pilot training. She has seen what's required of this job. And I guess by now she probably realizes that it's definitely a team sport being in a relationship with a military pilot.
Tony:Yeah. It is. And I try to I was trying to do my part when I'm at home so that it's it's helping when I'm away.
Bryan:Yeah, I mean, it's super important. Everybody manages it differently. How do you manage that time away and balancing that with the time you're at home?
Tony:So we have this kind of deal that before I go on long trips, I'll just try to do as much as I can to tidy up the house and make sure like, I don't know, we're meal prep and there's like all of those little chores are done so that, cause she's going to have to take care of our super busy dog on her own and go work as a teacher, which is not an easy job either and then come back from a super busy job and having to do everything on their own. So I just try to set the house nicely before leaving. So that way like it's, it's a lesser load on her before I, I leave.
Bryan:Yeah. Yeah. That's huge. And it's really important to have some kind of routine, whatever that is for each each group and however that works. I know a lot of people who who do things like that to, like, make sure all of the like, if there's, like, work that needs to be done around the house, big chores that have been waiting, know, like the shower needs to be fixed or something like that.
Bryan:They try to get all that kind of stuff done before they hit the road.
Tony:Yeah. Like making sure the AC is there or removed, like there for the summer, removed when you go for the winter, like little things like that that I just take on.
Bryan:Yeah. So we went over this in episode one, so we'll just keep this really brief, but can you just quickly again recap what is Op Reassurance and what your role is in it as a crew? Because this turnaround was for OpReassurance.
Tony:Yes. So OpReassurance is for us, we're working from the eight Air Task Force Pressweek and we support mostly three operations to reassurance, impact and presence, but mostly for reassurance and it's providing supply and support to Ukraine through neighboring countries of Ukraine.
Bryan:Okay. During all this time away, your crew formed a group known as the Road Dogs. Who were they and what made that chemistry special?
Tony:Oh, yeah. The Road Dogs. So it was our AC cam. TCM was, Alex, the TCM is a tech crew man and our load master was, was Kyle. So we just flew so much, while we were there and we were always on the road.
Tony:At the same time, there was this video of a trucker on YouTube and he get asked, what do you have to say to people that doesn't want to drive over 500 miles a day? And goes, they got soft hands brother. And then, I don't know, it just stuck with us the whole time and we just call ourselves the road dogs because we were always on the road, never complaining, asking for every flights we could do. So we just embraced the being on the road mentality and we flew our butts off. When you're on the road, get to spend a lot of time with the same people over the course of two months for our deployments.
Tony:So it's great to have a nice chemistry being built and to have some good inside jokes. So shoot out to my road dogs.
Bryan:This goes out to the road dogs. So as part of this, you flew a hundred and eighty seven hours in two months, which is absolutely crazy. For listeners who who who aren't sure, you know, is that a lot? Is that a little? That's a lot of flying.
Bryan:What does that tempo do to you physically, mentally, and emotionally?
Tony:So I find physically sometimes, flying is a lot, especially with, flying at high altitude. Something about the pressurization, I just get tired after a long day of flying sometimes. But mentally, was and emotionally, was ready to fly as much as I can and honestly it was great and we were, yeah, we were flying a lot and we even got benched for a full week working ups because we were about to bust the one hundred and twenty hours max, one hundred and twenty max hours in thirty days for the FUM, the flight operations manual. So we had to sit down for a week and not fly. So that's a yeah.
Tony:It's it's a lot of flying in a short amount of time. I loved it.
Bryan:Wow. Is there a moment from that deployment that you still think about?
Tony:Yeah, this one is, it's not really gonna come as a it's not really a flying thing but we sometimes like plane will break and you'll end up in nice location or not so nice location but we were lucky enough to break in Stockholm once. Oh wow. Yeah. So we decided to make the most of our time in Stockholm. So we visited the old town, we walked around everywhere and we went to that, the Vasa Museum.
Tony:That's like a, it's a museum that displays a gigantic warship from the seventeenth century, like almost perfectly preserved. Yeah, so we got to see that. It was a nice change of tempo to be there in Stockholm. The food was great. Sometimes you'll break in nice places and you just have to make the most out of it.
Bryan:Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, that sounds amazing to have a chance to, you know, check out Stockholm, Sweden. Like, how cool is that? Pretty cool.
Bryan:So after some post deployment leave, you started pushing towards your aircraft commander or AC upgrade. What is the process for this at 436?
Tony:So at 436, you're it's divided, your FO upgrade is or AC upgraded, it's divided in three blocks. So you'll be in FO one, you'll do your LP one, two, three, four, which is a Davis formation, Kapski formation, which is just like a formation on instrument with like a station keeping equipment, and your NVG flight, and then a round robin somewhere. So once you've done those four, you become an FO2 and when you're in FO2, can do acting AC trips for another FO and then you have your own trips as well. So basically the same first three others, same your LP5 is another Davis form, which is higher level, same with KAPSKI and then same with Night Trainer, then your LP8 is a mountain trip with, yeah, so you just fly over the mountain, it's different procedures for us. It's very fun flying those.
Tony:Then you do an AC course to, and once you're done your AC course, you become an FO3. And in FO3, you're going to do all of your acting AC trips. So you're going to do your LP9, which is Davis form again, but as an acting AC, LP10 where you'll fly in the Arctic, LP11 where you'll fly over the, the ocean, LP12 where you'll be assessed to do air drop either high altitude or not. LP 13 is the big tactical exercise that you'll you'll do. Yeah.
Tony:This this this this one is the is the hardest one of all of them because you need high levels for it. Then your 14 is your pre tap check and then you do your tactical check and then your strategic check and then you're in EC. Wow.
Bryan:So that's a lot of lesson plans and check rides. What does that experience feel like from the inside?
Tony:It's a lot of work and every flight I've done post deployment this year were being assessed. So it's a lot of stress, it was manageable of course, but it was just a lot of stress. You know, you want to do good, you want to perform and I was also, other thing is I was on the timeline because I was grounded for a full year. I had to meet the three years timeline as per the phone before I upgrade.
Bryan:And for the listeners, Tony reached out with a small correction. The time limit for upgrade according to the FOM or flight operations manual is two years, not three.
Tony:So there was a lot of a lot of pressure there, like pedal to the metal, but made it work.
Bryan:Yeah. That's a lot with that year of grounding to still make the upgrade within the target time. That's impressive.
Tony:Yeah. It was a was a lot of work. Yeah.
Bryan:So you completed the upgrade in October 2025. What changed for you the moment you became an AC?
Tony:It's a it's a whole lot more of responsibilities now. You don't have your instructor pilot to be there if something goes wrong, you're in charge but it's really nice to finally stop being assessed and yeah, because every flight's basically in my career before that, was being assessed. If, like even just a normal trip, like the AC still has to assess you and do trip reports and stuff like that. So it's nice to just be done with that and finally do my job. I like it a lot.
Bryan:Yeah, yeah. It's nice to like, okay, wow. After, you know, years and years of training, you finally made it. Like, yeah, getting your wings is a big day. Getting qualified on the operational aircraft as an FO is a big day.
Bryan:But getting qualified as an AC when you're finally like you know, there will be more training. Right? Eventually, you'll become an IP or a standards pilot or whatever. But for now, you're able to just do the job.
Tony:Exactly.
Bryan:Yeah. What was your first flight as an AC?
Tony:So it was just a local J Trainer here. I was flying I was dash two, so the I was wingman for another guy doing one of his acting AC trip, one of my buddies. So it was pretty nice to be there, to be helpful as much as I can during the trip. So yeah, we did some, we did an airdrop at this point of a CDS. We hit the bullseye, so that was great.
Bryan:Nice.
Tony:Yeah. And CDS is a sorry, CDS is container delivery system. It's just a I don't know if you listeners know, it's just a one type of job that we can do with the with the Herc.
Bryan:Okay. And I guess, you know, you've only been in AC now for what, a month?
Tony:Yeah. I got my AC board, I think a month and a half ago, maybe maybe two. Yeah. But I've only done three trips so far.
Bryan:Wow. Yeah. Yeah. Because we're recording this in November leading up to Christmas and you did this in October, so that's pretty crazy. Is there any specific flight as a new AC where it really hit you that you were responsible for the aircraft, for everybody's safety, for mission success?
Bryan:Like, did you ever get that feeling really setting in?
Tony:Yeah, like I said, I've only done three so far, like I'm brand spanking new but the first trip for sure, like I have like a live load on the plane, like I can't I'm flying information, like responsible for my crew, my plane, it's yeah, just right away from the first trip.
Bryan:Yeah. So speaking of new perspectives as an AC, this year you're returning to Operation Christmas Drop, but now as an aircraft commander, how different does that feel?
Tony:Feels pretty great. Honestly, I'm really looking forward to it and just to relive the experience, but from the other seat, I'm I'm very excited for it.
Bryan:What did you take from last year's experience that you want to carry into this year's?
Tony:So from last year's experience, I would say the main thing is to keep a good lookout for the drops. Because like you mentioned earlier, how do you make sure that there's no one on the drop zone? Well, we do a good lookout first but sometimes we need to do two passes, to make sure all the loads are off the plane and the people are sometimes so excited to go see the drop as soon as it lands that they don't wait for the second one. So you can't drop right away, right? So just keep a great lookout for the people on the ground after the first drop because it happened last year that we had to call it no drop probably like two seconds before green light.
Tony:Oh wow. Because there was someone that was just like was behind one of the parachute and then the wind moved the parachute and the AC saw the person and was like, Pad no drop. And yeah. Wow. That was pretty nerve wracking but yeah, so this year I'll make sure I have a great lookout for people on the drop zone.
Bryan:Yeah, for sure. That's an eye opening experience. What do you do then? Like, come around again? Like, do a couple passes until they clear out and then then try it or do they just not drop?
Tony:So for this one, yeah, we did. We did the, we did a no drop, but then you make just sure you have a racetrack
Bryan:loaded on your The flight management system?
Tony:Yeah, the flight computer, yeah. And then, you just do your racetrack, you communicate it with, there's this guy, Brother Bruce, who you'll call on HF and he's able to talk with all of the people on the islands and he'll just make sure no one's on that easy and then you go again, making sure that there's no one of course and then you just do it.
Bryan:Right on. Awesome. Yeah. Are you most excited for this time?
Tony:Yeah. So I feel like I'll I'll I'll just repeat myself, but just returning to Guam, it's such a beautiful island and, just relive the experience all over again. I'm, I'm super excited for it.
Bryan:Yeah. Now that you're in AC, do you feel a sense of responsibility flying a mission that's tied so closely to Christmas for so many remote communities?
Tony:I do. Yeah. So we try real hard to make it happen. We train for it back home, to make sure everybody is understanding of the procedures. There'll be a lot of planning involved for us to go there and I don't want see the people on those islands and the tolls rely on us but they greatly appreciate these drops and I know will make a difference for them.
Tony:I remember seeing videos from last year from some of the islands and hearing all of the excitement and the yelling and the screaming of the people when they saw the herd flying by, it's pretty cool.
Bryan:It must be pretty amazing.
Tony:Yeah.
Bryan:So as we wrap up this episode, there's a few things I'd like to reflect on. When you look at your journey, delays, setbacks, grounding, medical challenges, deployments, what do you think the lesson of your story is?
Tony:I would say, keep your head up, stay positive, stay in the books and just keep pressing. My mother always told me nothing happens for nothing. So I remind myself of that sometimes. I had a lot of bumps along my career, but hey, I made it as an AC of the CC one thirty J. So I think it all worked out in the end and I'm pretty proud of it.
Bryan:Yeah. You should be. What would you want young RCAF trainees, especially those struggling in training to hear from your experience?
Tony:Yeah. I don't wanna repeat myself, but yeah. So just just be patient. You might have some delays, but it is what it is. Stay in a book if you do like, I I can't remember the amount of times in MUSHA I went over those CBTs to talk about the AOIs of the Harvard, like it's
Bryan:Which is, sorry, computer based training and aircraft operating instructions.
Tony:Yeah, I reviewed them so many times. It's yeah, just stay in the books, it'll all pay off eventually. Keep chair flying, it's a super important skill to maintain. Stay positive, stay active, make sure you sleep well. Sleep is, I believe the best performance enhancing drug there is.
Bryan:A 100%.
Tony:There's also a lot of resources available for you. The RCF is spending a lot of money on the pilot training every year and they want people to succeed. So make sure you book that sim on the weekend, go see the mental coach, hit the gym. There's a free gym on every single basis in the caf. There's a lot to help you.
Bryan:Yeah. Yeah. And I think that point about staying physically active is is such a big one. I remember at Moose Jaw, it's so easy to put, like, all of your time into studying and, you know, you're so tired because they're long days and it's really, really easy to neglect your physical health, but it's a really important time to stay active for stress relief and just to stay healthy.
Tony:So many benefits. Yeah.
Bryan:Christmas drop is built entirely on generosity and community. What does the season mean to you personally now that you've been part of it?
Tony:I would say it's a good reminder of how lucky we are in North America to have access to all of the resources in the world at just the touch of your finger. OCD gives you a pretty good perspective on your life and how fortunate we are. It's a great chance to give back and it's a great chance to see people coming together and help other and people that they'll probably never see in their lives. It's just, I don't know, it's it's super meaningful. I I love the Christmas job.
Bryan:Wow. I'm really happy for you that you get to take part in it because it sounds like an amazing experience.
Tony:It is. So
Bryan:finally, what is your Christmas message for listeners this year?
Tony:I would say the holidays are a great time to take a step back, relax, reflect on your year and get yourself set up to tackle the next one. So make sure you take some time to relax for yourself, but more importantly, family. I've been in a cafe for eight years and I've spent a lot of time away from them. So yeah, cherish that time together.
Bryan:Tony, wraps up this amazing two part interview. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us and fly safe as you head out on Operation Christmas Drop twenty twenty five. Thanks a lot, Brian. And Merry Christmas.
Tony:Yeah. Merry Christmas to you too.
Bryan:Alright. That wraps up part two of our chat with Tony about his operational time on the c one thirty j Hercules as well as all the time he spent on operation Christmas drop. We'll be taking a break next week for the holidays, but we'll be back on January 6 with lots of new content for the New Year. So with that, from everybody here at the Pilot Project Podcast, we'd like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Do you have any questions or comments about anything you've heard in this show?
Bryan:Would you or someone you know make a great guest, or do you have a great idea for a show? You can reach out to us at the pilotprojectpodcast@Gmail.com or on all social media at at pod pilot project. And be sure to check out that social media for lots of great videos of our RCAF and mission aviation aircraft. As always, we'd like to thank you for tuning in and ask for your help with the big three. That's like and follow us on social media, share with your friends, and follow and rate us five stars wherever you get your podcasts.
Bryan:That's all for now. Thanks for listening. Keep the blue side up. See you. Engineer, shut down all four.
Bryan:Shutting down all four engines.