hlg6016
A/C Wings Here
We wore the same goggles the grunts were using, The pilots had to sign for goggles for the whole crew under threat of death and dismemberment if they were lost or damaged. A lot of time was spent at the squadron level trying out filters and diffusers for the lighting, Only one pilot wore the goggles on approach so the other could take the controls in case of vertigo or wash out. I had to take them off to check on fluid levels because they made the site gauges appear empty. The scenario we were working up to was an emcon/lights out FARP mission. This had never been done in the KC130 world prior. Made for some long nights but was some interesting stuff for a wrench turner to be involved in.I guess I got into the game after a lot of this stuff was sorted. But, I do know that before they figured out how to make the cockpit NVG compatible, there were filters and tape to mitigate. Not ideal.
Your description of the NVG's being bulky and awkward is what, i think, explains how the NVG manual's TTPs remained stale, after everyone was using ANVIS-9's.
I'm curious to hear what your experience with those early generations of NVGs was like from your perspective, and from a crew perspective.
At the time FLIR was the GeeWhizz technology and I think the then newer Whiskey Cobras and AV8B's had been using aviation specific night vision devices for a couple of years.