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Night Vision Flying with night Vision

HOOFER

Sergeant
Supporter
Full Member
Minuteman
Mar 15, 2007
1,293
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lewistown, MT, Colorado
Me and the old man are heading to Texas this week for some pig eradication.

I had planned on carrying my NODs on with me. And checking lasers with rifles obviously.

Any issues? Any experience
 
Tsa website says it’s good to go. I also asked two tsa people I work with and it’s not a problem. I was also told if you end up with someone who wants to do something stupid like have you turn them on in a well lit room, ask for a supervisor.
 
I regularly fly with a PVS 14, 2124 and L3 LWTS in my carry-on, between Alaska and Hawaii over 20 times, and have never even been asked to remove them. I do have TSA PreCheck, though.
 
I flew with AN-PVS-4's 40 years ago on Low Level routes through the Northern Cordillera Mountains of Luzon. Still have recurring neck pain and flashbacks of logging cables and being unable to climb over obstacles...
 
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Yeah, I was thinking about crewchief duty flying in a Blackhawk all over the DMZ area of South Korea at night. Nobody ever bothered us, except the hawk missile guys who would light us up with target acquisition radar right after we buzzed their hilltop. Good times. Nvg's with a battery pack for counter balance was heavy, nobody ever does neck muscle exercises.

I was amazed to see the static electricity show the rotor blade tips would generate. Especially when in a dusty area. Looked like pixy dust or sparkles.

And the brakes on the helicopter would actually throw off sparks doing run-on landings. All normally not visible with the naked eye, but plainy and amazingly visible with nvg's. One of the Warrant Officers at that time had over 1,000 hours of flying time under nvg's alone, which I thought was a lot.
 
I do it all the time.

Pic of me flying with NODs:

99F13942-EF9C-423D-8EDB-C2B888CEBF74.png
 
Yeah, I was thinking about crewchief duty flying in a Blackhawk all over the DMZ area of South Korea at night. Nobody ever bothered us, except the hawk missile guys who would light us up with target acquisition radar right after we buzzed their hilltop. Good times. Nvg's with a battery pack for counter balance was heavy, nobody ever does neck muscle exercises.

I was amazed to see the static electricity show the rotor blade tips would generate. Especially when in a dusty area. Looked like pixy dust or sparkles.

And the brakes on the helicopter would actually throw off sparks doing run-on landings. All normally not visible with the naked eye, but plainy and amazingly visible with nvg's. One of the Warrant Officers at that time had over 1,000 hours of flying time under nvg's alone, which I thought was a lot.
Great and not so great memories, Mudburner! I was flying HC-130's Combat Rescue out of the 33rd ARRS at Kadena. We also had HH-53's and later. they were sent to become Pave Low modified and we got HH-3's. We had Detachments at Osan and Clark and kept busy flying long Low Level comm out air refueling missions. Korea was so dangerous to deconflict all the traffic and the ROK's who never complied with restrictions, we did most of our training at Clark. As soon as we got 20% moon, we went to Clark every month. I remember those Hawk batteries lighting us up and moving the erectors going into Alpha 306 and over to PY-Do. We used Chem Lights in our mouth so one guy could see the instruments, while the other flew outside. It was amazing we survived that tour, but we lost several HH-53's during that timeframe. We rigged up bungee cords on our HGU-56 helmets to clip onto the overhead panel to rest our necks. It didn't help. We had several Jolly Green guys experience bad "Flicker Vertigo" during air refueling as the static from our props and their rotors lit up their NOD's. It made several puke. Glad you made it through your tour. It was right after the Desert One fiasco and we were pushing all boundaries. A little Soju and some Grape Oscar to you!
 
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PEACH oscar, thank-you-very-much! I had forgotten about that, since it was 1985-1988. I never did puke, but I did come close a few times. Shooting the machineguns out of the helicopter in flight was some of the most fun I ever had in the army. I used to drop stuff out the window just for fun. Oranges, usually. I never got in any trouble for all the stupid stuff I did.
 
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Definitely no problems with a passenger with carry-on NV gear. I have done it several times in the past, and never an issue (and was only asked once, what they were). Even had a bump helmet strapped onto my pack...
 
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