Special Ops: The Evolution Part 1: Becoming a 427 Squadron Special Operations Aviator – Chris Bray

I was...

Let me see.

Yeah, in, like, when September 11th happened, I was 15, and so basically as I was entering my late teens, like, that stuff was all heating up, and as I was starting to think about going into the military, uh, that was on my mind, too.

And I definitely had some similar thought processes, like, you know, even to the extent of thinking about combat arms or I did my OJT in Attack Hell Squadron.

I think personally, as I've gotten older, I've learned that I probably wouldn't have been cut out for that world.

[laughs] We all have our, our strengths and what we're suited to.

But, uh, uh, the other cool thing that you mentioned that I have definitely learned from doing this show and talking to so many helicopter pilots is the, you talk about, like, the freedom of, of how you approach different problems, and it's just interesting to me the way, like, in a fixed-wing plane, you've, you've got the prevailing winds, you've got the favorable runway, and that's where you're landing, and you're gonna do a circuit basically to get there or an IFR approach, and that's that.

The helicopter world, I'm sure that there are obviously fairly regimented approaches and things, but you know, if there's an LZ, a landing zone that you guys need to get to, you know, you need to figure out a plan.

You need to figure out the way to get in there, and the obstacles, and all those different things.

Like, everything is unique and different, it seems.

Yeah.

And, um, you know, kind of fast-forwarding ahead here, that's exactly it.

So that's a lot of the considerations that we have, you know, in SOF aviation.

But, you know, rotary wing in general is those considerations because you can't always control those obstacles, poles, wires, and sometimes you have to deal with the hand that you're given in terms of how you approach, uh, a landing or an insert.

But you gotta get that job done, so, uh, you try to mitigate some of those variables.

But it surely gives you, you know, uh, more flexibility in terms of where you can land and go, but it also puts other variables into the equation that you have to consider as well and, uh, risk manage.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And, and it seems like those are common skills across the world of flying helicopters in the Forces.

Like, I talk to a lot of SAR pilots, and they obviously have to stay really flexible in their thinking, and planning, and replanning as things change.

Um, even if you're talking about maritime helo, just like, okay, sometimes you go back, and, like, the ship's not where you thought it would be, or, you know, the weather changes massively between you and the ship, or where the ship is, or, or whatever.

Um, it just seems like that's kind of inherent to helicopter operations.

Yeah.

And SOF aviation is very similar.

And we, we're kind of a, a hybrid of all those environments because we operate, you know, high, hot, heavy, uh, domestically, you know, arctic conditions, uh, and maritime as well.