Circadian Rhythm and You!

 Last week, Sarge had a "fill-in" post in which he'd talked about going to work a couple of hours earlier than usual and the effect it had.  That post acted like a Back Hoe in my head and dredged out some long buried memories of a similar circumstance.

You know how this is going to begin now, Beans, doncha?

So....There I was*.....Stationed at Holloman AFB, early 80's.  Reagan had been in office long enough that the Flying Hour Budget, cut to smithereens by Jimmuh, was starting to have a favorable impact on my flying skills.  So much so that "the powers that be" deemed me qualified to actually instruct Fighter Pilot wannabe's in the difference between flying a jet and employing a Fighter. Having completed the transition to the AT-38 as well as the Instructor upgrade (downgrade?), it was time for me to be assigned an "Additional Duty".  While, flying and instructing was, indeed, my "job" in the Air Force, the reality was that your Additional Duty was what got you promoted.  Flying and instructing skills were a given.  If not, you weren't flying and instructing for long.

Student in the Front, IP in the Back. 

 Source

In any case, the Squadron Commander decided I needed to be the Squadron Scheduler.  Short of the Squadron Commander, the Operations Officer and , arguably, the Flight Commanders, the Scheduler was one of the more important positions in a flying Squadron.  The Commander could tell you what to do, the Ops Officer could suggest what you should do, but the rest could only humbly ask you to do something vis a vis the flying schedule.

I enjoyed the job, one had to coordinate jets needed and configurations with maintenance, airspace with the FAA, Student Pilots with IP's and a myriad of other things that could affect the flying schedule.  

The Wing's flying schedule also was a factor.  Each of the four squadrons had a 30 minute block for launching sorties in each "go". There were 4 "go"s per flying window and 3 windows per day. The 30 minute "Go" window would get your aircraft airborne and have a little time for a quick fix if something went wrong with the jet.  At the end of that window, the next squadron would launch.  At the end of the fourth window, the first squadron would have had time to fly the mission, recover, debrief, then brief the next mission and go again.  Rinse and repeat 2 or 3 times a day.

That's actually a Mini-Gun pod on the centerline. Yes, we taught strafing.  It was fun in the front seat,  scary as hell from the back. Source

As I said, Flying time in Ronnie's Regime was abundant.  I had about 500 hours after flying for 5 years prior to flying at Holloman.  (See what I mean about Jimmuh?)  At the completion of this 3 year tour I had almost 1800.  

Yes, Beans, it was a GREAT assignment, but the flying was hard work.  A lot of stress on the body, got to keep a close eye on the kid up front, as well as the kid that's trying to get close enough to you to simulate a gun shot (about 1000'.  Sounds like a lot, However, at 450K, it's not), keep an eye on the floor of the airspace (PK of the ground is 100%) and a host of other things to keep an eye on.  

Suffice it to say, I had no problem sleeping at night.

But, back to the flying schedule.  First brief was generally around 0530, with the last squadron starting at 0700.  This rotated every week.  My Squadron would rotate 0530, 0600, 0630, 0700.

And this is the point of the post.  Then we'd jump back to 0530.  

Which was a bear!  One had to rise about 0345 to get ready, eat, drive to work, then do all the pre-brief stuff to get ready for that 0530 Briefing.  The hour and a half less sleep available was, well, "difficult".

But, I thought if everybody could do it, so could I.  So I stuck it out.

Until I became scheduler.  At that point, I had to go to the Wing Scheduling meeting where all the horse trading and tit for tatting went on.  I very shortly noticed that the only Squadron going from earliest to latest, then enduring that large jump back to earliest, was us! Everybody else was getting up a half hour earlier each week then getting an hour and a half more sleep.

Yes, Sarge, it irked me.

Then, Vegas, came into the picture.  And my diabolical mind went into plotting mode.  As the Director of Operations, he had a lot of things on his plate, but he also had to be checked out in the AT-38 as an IP.  Which meant his flying window of opportunity was small and not only was I the Squadron Scheduler, I was his IP.

Therefore, I scheduled him for the first sortie of the day, every day.  We're walking back into the Squadron on the Friday of the first Late, Late Week to Early, Early Week transition.  We'd had the very first sortie of the day for 5 days straight, 0530 Brief. He happens to mention that his butt is dragging. I mentioned that once he was IP qualified, he could fly with any Squadron he wanted and since the other's had that more leisurely approach to the Early Early Week, he might consider flying with one of them.

Now, Vegas had several hundred hours of combat time and a few thousand of fighter time total.  He also was a Fighter Pilot, not a pilot of fighters.  He asked why my squadron flew this bass-ackward schedule.  I said I didn't know, but I'd check with the Wing Scheduler.

Turns out that  "Zis is Ze Vay Ve half alvays done it" was the reason.  I then sat down and looked at how we could change our schedule to be the same rotation plan as the rest of the wing without completely screwing over everyone's circadian rhythm.

Once I figured out the methodology, I presented it to Vegas.  

Yes, Beans, during debrief on Monday, first go, of an Early Early week.  

Turns out it was fairly easy.  When our squadron got back on the Early Early schedule, we stayed there for two weeks.  The Squadron that had been destined to move to Early/Early got to hold held their current schedule for two weeks. The other two squadrons followed their normal schedule progression.  After that, all the squadrons would progress in the 30 minute earlier schedule every succeeding week.

I think this must have been the Student's final ride in the AT-38.  Now he gets to go fly a "Real" fighter! Source

Perhaps not surprisingly, the "crankiness" factor in the IP force diminished by about 25%.  I didn't buy beer in the squadron bar for a couple of weeks (a sure sign that I had done well.) Shortly thereafter, Vegas invited me to be the Wing Scheduler, and an Eagle was in my future.

And, now you know, the REST of the story.

*All Fighter Pilot stories start with this

P.S. Apparently, the 479th TFTW has moved to another former assignment base of mine, Moody AFB in GA.

Source

That is the AT-38C an updated version of the AT-38B I flew millennia ago.