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Helo Dunker

HeyJoe

Fly Navy! ...or USMC
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
You'll see this first at Pcola, but won't be last time...

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090428-N-7689P-002 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (April 28, 2009) The new 9D6 Modular Egress Training System at Aviation Survival Training Center Jacksonville simulates an aircraft ditching in a body of water and sinking upside down. (U.S. Navy photo by Clark Pierce/Released)

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090428-N-7689P-001 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (April 28, 2009) Capt. Jack Scorby Jr., left, commanding officer of Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Hospital Corpsman 1st Class Grayson Taylor, an instructor at the Aviation Survival Training Center and Cmdr. Susan Jay, director of the Aviation Survival Training Center cut the ribbon on the new 9D6 dunker. (U.S. Navy photo by Clark Pierce/Released)
 

squorch2

he will die without safety brief
pilot
I guess it's now "panic in a box" for dunker training at Jax. For younger dudes, the 9D6's predecessor (9D5, "panic in a can") was basically a large metal cylinder with holes cut out for egress. It wasn't very modular and only rotated one way. The 9D6 can have -60 or -53 style windows for the pilots, although up at Norfolk they just keep the -53 style on the left and the -60 style on the right, rotates either way, and can sink in the water surprisingly quickly.
 

MasterBates

Well-Known Member
What I hate more, is the making you put your feet on the edge of the pool and lean back. No way to keep the water out of your nose.

Every time I do the pool, I feel like shit for 2-3 weeks after and usually get some nasty sinus/upper respiratory infection.

I forget how many times I did the dunker last time, but I hate the "oh you are a combo qual, you need 5 more rides, and more rides in the SWET with the other belt configuration"

On the plus side, from a pool standpoint, I am legal to fly anything in the USN/USMC inventory.
 

Uncle Fester

Robot Pimp
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
That motherfucker is Satan's own jungle gym, forged in some obscure pit of hell for the sole purpose of torture and general nastiness. I sometimes think the real purpose of flight pay is to bribe us into going back to requal.
 

Bevo16

Registered User
pilot
I hate the dunker as well.

I have had 2 bad experiences in the water due to idiot instructors. It only takes one near drowning to put you off going in the water for the rest of your life, trust me. If there is water involved, I want to be sitting in a tube tied to another tube with an ice chest full of beer.

With that said, the dunker and pool at Mirimar is the best one that I have been to. They have switched to a salt water filtration system, so there are virtually no chemicals in the water. It is like swimming in a pool of tears, you can open your eyes under water without the sting, and it is not near as annoying when your sinuses fill with water when hanging off the edge of the pool. It is still not something that I want to do more often that requried, but it's not as shitty of an experience as it used to be.
 

Schnugg

It's gettin' a bit dramatic 'round here...
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Damnnn...those windows are small on that thing. I hated the dunker...every 4 years.
 

bunk22

Super *********
pilot
Super Moderator
The last few times I've gone was at Miramar. They were easy rides and each time, things had changed. One year, it was 4 rides but only two were upside down, one was upright and one was half-way underwater upright. Thought that was a P-3 thing but I got to do it. Last time it was 4 but we used HEEDS on 3 of em. This one looks a bit meaner.
 

DocT

Dean of Students
pilot
I recently did the dunker and SWET with HEEDS and it is so much better as to not be comparable.
 

feddoc

Really old guy
Contributor
Damnnn...those windows are small on that thing. I hated the dunker...every 4 years.


Buncha sissies. :D


Last time I went through training, I complained about the sinus infections I always got. No nose plugs allowed. Anyway, one of the divers held my nostrils shut during exits. Ha ha.

They also tied a sea anchor to my vest during the swim.
 

Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
On my requal a couple of months ago I had to ride it 6 times blindfolded, I kept popping my head out of the big open space in front of the chair and would get all disoriented and surface. Lesson, feel for the guide bars on the bottom of the cage, not the middle.

One of my numerous complaints w/ that thing. It's bad, unrealistic training. Your reference points change when they flip you. I also always end up outside the thing when I'm blindfolded (unlike an aircraft).

Did I mention I hate the thing?
 
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