Hi, I'm Captain Mike Glaccum, and I'm currently a helicopter pilot in the Air Force. In my career in the Air Force, I've done several things that I'd like to tell you about - T-38 instructor pilot, search and rescue, launch support, and helicopter instructor. But first, I'd like to tell you how I became a pilot. You see, I never thought about flying when I was growing up...

I wanted to be a chef when I grew up. I took cooking lessons as part of a special program with a community college while in high school. I competed in local, state, and national contests and was the Minnesota state champion my senior year. I was offered a job at a big hotel after graduation, which I took because I wanted to buy a new car. I only had $500, and I needed at least $1000. One day after work I took a back route home. I passed a small airport that had a sign out for introductory flying lessons for $25 for the first lesson. I'm not sure why, but I put the brakes on and took the first lesson on the spot. After the lesson, I immediately signed up the rest of my $500 for more lessons. I LOVED IT! I got my private pilot's lesson and flew as a hobby.

I was still working at the hotel, and I was a volunteer firefighter. I was also working on an emergency medical technician's (EMT) ticket. I found myself thinking about some way to combine flying and the EMT. I went back to my high school counselor (I had graduated 2 years before) and asked him for suggestions. He told me I could go the civilian route and pay for it myself, or I could go to college on a ROTC (reserve officer training corps) scholarship and let the Air Force train me as a helicopter pilot. I applied and was accepted at the University of Minnesota for the fall of 1984. I also received an ROTC scholarship to help pay my way through school.

I majored in communications in college, and if I had one thing I could do over, I would have applied myself more in junior high and high school! I hadn't planned on going on to college, and so I was a poor student in high school. My parents were hands-off for school; it was not a big priority in our family. I had started cooking lessons at 15 and had planned to stay with that. My first couple of years in college were pretty shaky because I had to go back and retake a lot of the classes I should have taken in high school - algebra, chemistry, and physics, for example. But I hung on, and by my last couple of years, I was doing much better. I made the Dean's list 2-3 times in my last 2 years! I also learned something very important while I was in college - how to set goals to achieve the things I wanted to do. I learned that you should never sell yourself short to reach a goal, or set goals for something you're not interested in. I watched my college roommate take classes in business because he thought that was a good goal. But he really wanted to be an oceanographer, and he hated his business classes. I wanted to be a helicopter rescue pilot, and that motivated me through the 10 years it took to get there.

So, I graduated with my B. S. degree in 1988, was commissioned in the Air Force, and waited 10 months to go to undergraduate pilot training (UPT) at Laughlin Air Force Base (AFB) in Texas. After graduating with my pilot wings, I was assigned as a T-38 instructor pilot at Laughlin for 2 and a half years. I enjoyed instructing and the flying and was in Check Flight (meaning I was one of the pilots who gave the students their big 'tests' in the aircraft) when the opportunity to transfer to a helicopter came up!

I spent 3 months at Fort Rucker in Alabama learning to fly the UH-1N helicopter. It's a twin engine helicopter made by Bell Helicopter. It's fairly small and holds up to 15 people - 2 pilots and 13 others. Then I went to Kirtland AFB in Albuquerque, New Mexico, for rescue school - 3 months of training in rescue operations, mountain flying, the rescue hoist, night vision systems, and tactical low level formation flying. The last skill is combat-oriented for flying in and out of battle zones. Finally, I was assigned to Vandenburg AFB in California to the 76th Rescue Flight.

Actually, the search and rescue aspect of the job was not our primary function, although I got tremendous personal satisfaction from that part. Our primary mission was to provide support for space shuttle landings and missile launches at Edwards AFB and Vandenburg. We would fly over all of the space launch areas, both land and ocean, and clear people out of the hazard zones. Sometimes we carried security police to help secure the areas. We provided pad security for the launch pads up in the mountains, and we also would carry aerial photographers for the launch sequences. For space shuttle landings we would fly along the lakebed about 2 hours before the landing to help clear out the area. We'd land about 15 minutes before the landing, watch the orbiter touchdown, roll out, and stop, then take to the air again to provide aerial coverage after the landing. Part of the reason we were there was to provide search and rescue coverage in case of an emergency and astronaut bailout.

We usually had only 6 or so launches a year, and only a few shuttle landings, so the rest of our time was spent training or on alert for search and rescue or firefighting calls. Yes, I was back to where I started as a volunteer firefighter! Only this time, I was flying a helicopter carrying big buckets of water underneath it. We'd fly out and help fight the wildfires in the California hills. There were not many search and rescue units out where we were, so we were available for both military and civilian calls all up and down the west coast. Let me tell you how a typical day on alert was spent...

We'd report at 6:00 in the morning (0600 hours, military time) or 6:00 in the evening (1800 hours) when we stood on alert. The first order of business was to take care of the aircraft. We'd preflight the helicopter and check out all the rescue equipment on board. We'd check things like the hoist, the search light, the infrared camera (for seeing people in the dark by focusing on their body heat), and the basic medical supplies. When that was done, the flight crew would monitor the weather in the area. This crew typically consisted of the 2 pilots, a flight engineer, and often a loadmaster. A medical crew consisting of a doctor who was fully qualified for field medicine (quite often a flight surgeon) and a medical technician would also stand on alert.

When a call would come in, our typical response time to get airborne was usually 15-20 minutes, which is pretty remarkable for launching an aircraft. We would pick up the medical crew and any special equipment (based on the nature of the individual call) and head to the search area. Once a call came in, the ground crew would configure the aircraft for the type of emergency situation. If the search involved stretches of ocean, for example, the ground crew would include things like a life raft, exposure suits, scuba gear, and life preservers for the aircraft crewmembers. Twelve hours after we started, if we hadn't been called, we would stand down from alert and the next crew would take over. We stood alert fairly often since we only had a few crews, about 2-3 times a week.

I got a tremendous amount of satisfaction out of my work. I'm proud to say that there are civilians who are alive today because of me, my crew, and our helicopter. I always hope to be involved in emergency services while I'm in the Air Force, and if I get out of the military, I'll probably work with an air ambulance or civilian rescue unit somewhere. I worked at Vandenburg for over 3 years, and was recently transferred back to Kirtland AFB to become an instructor to teach students to fly the UH-1N helicopter and to train them in the rescue mission.

Here at Kirtland, the students follow a program of 3 months primary flight training and 3 months rescue operations. In the first half of the program, we teach them how to fly and how to stay alive. In the second half, we teach them how to fly in the mountains, where the air currents are very tricky as we fly close to the ground, how to fly while the hoist is in operation, and how to fly tactical flying, with low level and formation flights. I like to think of the second half as teaching them how to use the helicopter instead of just how to fly it! I like instructing, and I think I'm good at it. I've brought a lot of good experience from Vandenburg to impart to students as they come through. Unfortunately, I only get to fly a couple of times a week - the rest of the time I'm swamped with paperwork!

I plan to always be involved in rescue and emergency operations, whether in the Air Force or in the civilian world. Right now I fly the helicopter as my job, and I stay current in fixed wing aircraft by flying with the flying club at Kirtland. Maybe someday I'll fly for an air ambulance company full-time, or maybe I'll be an airline pilot who volunteers for search and rescue missions on my off time. Either way, I know I'll feel great about it!

Questions for Mike:

Do you have any aviation-related hobbies?
Yes, I have my private pilot's licence and actively fly with the Kirtland flying club.