Aviation Challenge, the ultimate aviation experience

Aviation Challenge is a camp held over one week at the U.S Space and Rocket Centre in Huntsville Alabama. The camp is designed to teach school aged students about military aviation, air combat and survival. The camp encourages team work and discipline via a military style training program. Participants are taught land and water survival techniques, aviation history, and air combat maneuvers. All aircraft training is completed in simulators in either T38 or FA18 aircraft. The program is a great way for students to gain new skills, while having a great deal of fun. For one week every year the program is held for visually impaired students only giving those who can not see, the opportunity to get a hands on look at aviation.
I recently completed Aviation Challenge Mac II in September 2000 and I would like to share a day in the life of an Aviation Challenge participant with you.

As I was jerked from an exhausted sleep in to reality by the screaming wail of an air-raid siren, confusion filled my head. It was a number of seconds before I realized that, no I hadn't just materialized in the middle of a battle field, it was simply 6.30 A.M at the beginning of a new day at Aviation Challenge. "Alright, everybody up! Get your racks made and be ready for breakfast in 30 minutes." Looks like we've got our marching orders. After the adrenalin rush of the instantaneous wake-up, prep for breakfast was completed in record time. The whole room was dressed, washed, with beds made before the 30 minute deadline, accept Jimmy who wasn't quite willing to face the day just yet. Most of those 30 minutes were taken up making the beds with a regulation 45 degree hospital corner and blankets pulled so tight you could bounce a quarter off them. Then we were herded on to the bus and up to breakfast.

The first activity for the day is a simulated helicopter crash in the Helidunker. We were taken into a helicopter suspended from a tower. Just as we are seated comfortably in the cabin, the helicopter is dropped into the water and before we know it we're up to our necks in water. We must escape from the craft via the windows with all personnel accounted for. Team work is required to safely evacuate everybody from the helicopter. With that successfully completed, it was off to the pre-brief for the TopGun competition in the Sims. The aim of the competition is to use all the Air combat Maneuvers that we were taught during the week to fly against and shoot down our opponents. The team was divided into pairs (pilot and co-pilot) to form the crew for the aircraft. The competition is held in rounds and the winner at the end goes on to the TopGun competition against the other team.

Well, this is it, The culmination of all the skills we have learned during our training. This is what we have been trained for. I was designated pilot and as I climbed into the Sim I was gripped with the excitement of the mission. After a nice easy take-off and run out to the west I turned and headed back towards my opponent. We performed a neutral pass and the battle was on. I immediately pulled the f18 into an emmolmen maneuver which took me into a half loop and gave me a 5000 feet height advantage. It also brought me on to the tail of my opponent. "Tallyho friends, here we go!" As I requested permission to fire, he performed a split S taking him down 5000 feet. I dove after him and locked on again, but again he broke the lock and we circled around in a tight formation called a toilet bowl. Neither of us could break the maneuver in fear of being locked by the other. My opponent got a couple of locks on me while in this maneuver, but I managed to break them successfully. This gave him a slight points advantage however and after the adrenalin pumping ordeal I found that I had lost by 2 points. Well, it was a great fight.

The night time activity was Escape and Evasion. This consisted of the following scenario: We had just broken out of a POW camp and were attempting to escape from the enemy in the dark with enemy fire exploding all around us. We had to cover an 80 meter course through thick undergrowth which required us to drag ourselves through mud and over logs to evade the patrolling enemy soldiers. Each painful move was taken at the risk of being noticed and captured. Our orders were to complete the course in either the high or the low crawl. The high crawl was on elbows and knees and the low crawl was dragging ourselves through the mud by our hands. With open ground on either side of the course our only option was to slither through the filth that lay before us. In the commanding officers words, "if you are not muddy, you're wrong!" As our slow but steady progress took us closer to the end of the course, it soon became clear that this wasn't going to be easy. Soldiers with M16 machine guns were all around us and we couldn't stretch our aching muscles in fear of being shot. After roughly 2 hours, we made it to the safety of the friendly camp. We had won this battle, but what would we face tomorrow. Only the scheming minds of the Aviation Challenge councilors could know the answer to that one. Only one thing is certain, we'll have a whole lot of fun doing it.

That was the second last day of the camp, the day before graduation. All of our team graduated successfully and were all grateful for the experience. The friendships that were forged through the week were many and varied and will last for a long time to come. I would thoroughly recommend this wonderful experience to anybody who is interested in aircraft or those who just want to have fun while gaining skills in team work and leadership.

URL: http://www4.tpg.com.au/users/chrisba/avichal.htm