And it was AWESOME!!!!! I was at the controls for over twenty minutes during the 30 minute flight. It was easily the coolest thing I have ever done, and I've done a lot of cool things in my day....well..I thought they were cool, anyways. But, now I'm hooked. It was WAAAAAAY tougher then I thought it would be, but it was SOOOOO cool. I'm totally going for my privat helicopter lisence, then moving on to intruments, instructor, and comercial lisence. It's gonna happen.
During my career, I've flown in them dozens of times. I'm a qualified director for when they are flying to or from the ship, I've run under them to hook up load pendants...but none of that compares to flying them. Granted, it was no where near as big as the helo's I worked on, but it was awesome, anyways. The only thing holding me back right now is my deployment schedule. But once I'm back on shore duty, watch the sky's, because I'll be there!!