Fun time spring camping at the Air Force Academy

[JohnnyEgo]

Went to the Air Force Academy this last weekend with the Scouts. First night was in the low 20s, and we picked up a little bit of snow. After my last camping disaster in open space at Carter Lake last month, I decided I wanted a tent that could handle a much stronger wind load and had solid sides that powdered snow could not blow through, so I went nuclear and bought an arctic expedition tent, the MSR Trango 3, from REI. This was it's shakedown cruise, and it handled the wind and snow like it was nothing. Not a flap or rustle of fabric the whole night. Condensation management was excellent, and we slept very warm and very dry.




The Air Force Academy cadets were very gracious hosts. Ours were the captains of the parachute demonstration team and the parachute competition team, respectively. They let the boys strap on the virtual sky diving simulator goggles, which was fun to watch from the outside. I had to decline; I am easily subject to motion sickness with VR.


They also let us pester the cadets in the parachute packing and pre-jump rooms. I was a bit trepidatious about this, but they assured me that distraction training is part of the curriculum, and there is no greater distraction than a herd of scouts. We got to see them pack the parachutes, do the pre-flight brief, board the plane, and jump out.




Our hosts took the boys to the static training room and taught them the basic operations of the parachute harness.







An amusing moment was when they had them pull the reserve chute cord; the harness frame abruptly dropped about a foot, and that was the point we discovered every scout who knew the 'f' word.

After the parachute trainer, they let us fiddle with their fleet of $400K gliders, which was way more stressful for the adults than the kids.






I must admit that I had previously thought of the Air Force as full of golf-playing pansies... and that has not really changed; they have a really large golf course on the academy and it seemed like it was required learning for all the cadets we encountered. But they were very gracious hosts, generous with their time and equipment and very patient with the boys. A good time was had by all until Saturday night, when it turned a lot colder and windier. Then everyone was a fast moving early riser to pack up our muddy gear and go home.

[Rucker61]

Went to the Air Force Academy this last weekend with the Scouts. First night was in the low 20s, and we picked up a little bit of snow. After my last camping disaster in open space at Carter Lake last month, I decided I wanted a tent that could handle a much stronger wind load and had solid sides that powdered snow could not blow through, so I went nuclear and bought an arctic expedition tent, the MSR Trango 3, from REI. This was it's shakedown cruise, and it handled the wind and snow like it was nothing. Not a flap or rustle of fabric the whole night. Condensation management was excellent, and we slept very warm and very dry.




The Air Force Academy cadets were very gracious hosts. Ours were the captains of the parachute demonstration team and the parachute competition team, respectively. They let the boys strap on the virtual sky diving simulator goggles, which was fun to watch from the outside. I had to decline; I am easily subject to motion sickness with VR.


They also let us pester the cadets in the parachute packing and pre-jump rooms. I was a bit trepidatious about this, but they assured me that distraction training is part of the curriculum, and there is no greater distraction than a herd of scouts. We got to see them pack the parachutes, do the pre-flight brief, board the plane, and jump out.




Our hosts took the boys to the static training room and taught them the basic operations of the parachute harness.







An amusing moment was when they had them pull the reserve chute cord; the harness frame abruptly dropped about a foot, and that was the point we discovered every scout who knew the 'f' word.


I must admit that I had previously thought of the Air Force as full of golf-playing pansies... and that has not really changed; they have a really large golf course on the academy and it seemed like it was required learning for all the cadets we encountered. But they were very gracious hosts, generous with their time and equipment and very patient with the boys. A good time was had by all until Saturday night, when it turned a lot colder and windier. Then everyone was a fast moving early riser to pack up our muddy gear and go home.

Good old suspended agony.

[def90]

Looks fun!.. well, everything but the sleeping out in the snow thing, been there, done that.

[.455_Hunter]

Outstanding!

I spent some time "camping" at the USAFA, but it was directly sponsored by Uncle Sam and Army Cadet Command.

[rondog]

Nice! Looks like a good time! I used to skydive 40+ years ago, no way I'd do it now. But jumping out the bomb bay of a B-17 would be the coolest I could imagine! These are USAF demo jumpers, maybe from the Acadamy, who knows. It was in Colorado Springs at the Pikes Peak Regional Airshow last year.

[StagLefty]

Great memories !!! I did quite a few trips to the Academy,Buckley,and my favorite was the Olympic Shooting Training Center in the Springs.

[BladesNBarrels]

Now, that is what I call a great Scouting experience!
Good on you for being able to arrange this.
I doubt anyone will forget their time at the Academy.

[RblDiver]

I remember sleeping in the snow on the AFA's grounds as a scout nearly 30 years ago. Nice to see they're still doing it! I didn't get any of that other cool stuff (I don't really remember what else we did, just a tour iirc).

[JohnnyEgo]

I consider myself somewhat of a connoisseur of the service academies at this point. I am third gen Navy, and my father taught at (and graduated from) the Naval Academy when I was a kid, so to some extent it was my old stomping grounds. In fact, the coldest I've ever felt while camping was on a Naval Academy practice field in February, though I have camped in far colder weather since, with better gear. My brother-in-law teaches at West Point, where they have an active scouting program as well. Based on my experience at all three, I would say that the Naval Academy has the best pools, West Point has the best COPE courses, and the Air Force Academy has the best golf course, as fitting of each of their respective areas of expertise.

All kidding aside, the Air Force Academy grounds are beautiful and huge, and vastly dwarf the Naval Academy, which is crammed into one of the swampiest corners of Annapolis. Their campsite for scouting was about perfect; excellent tree cover, level ground, and a relatively short distance from the parking lot. The only real challenge was that the Santa Fe tracks were maybe 100 yards away at best, and that is an annoyingly busy freight line at night. One of the other Dads who I like quite a bit was an Air Force pilot, since retired and teaching at a local high school. He's been able to arrange our use of the facilities with the base for the last couple of years now, and may have been why we got the extra special tour.

I was reminded of how crazy young everyone there is, and conversely how old I have become. One of the guys who had just graduated, and I guess commissioned, took us on the tour of the sail plane hangar. Very bright young man, hanging out for some sort of pilot school training or the other. He was telling us how he graduated at the top of his class, and hoping he would have his choice of duty station so he could be assigned to the same base as his girlfriend. Both me and Air Force Dad immediately said 'Yeah, maybe don't do that' at the same time. I also added the life lesson they provided us at boot for good measure, which was 'Don't marry a stripper'.

[Great-Kazoo]

I consider myself somewhat of a connoisseur of the service academies at this point. I am third gen Navy, and my father taught at (and graduated from) the Naval Academy when I was a kid, so to some extent it was my old stomping grounds. In fact, the coldest I've ever felt while camping was on a Naval Academy practice field in February, though I have camped in far colder weather since, with better gear. My brother-in-law teaches at West Point, where they have an active scouting program as well. Based on my experience at all three, I would say that the Naval Academy has the best pools, West Point has the best COPE courses, and the Air Force Academy has the best golf course, as fitting of each of their respective areas of expertise.

All kidding aside, the Air Force Academy grounds are beautiful and huge, and vastly dwarf the Naval Academy, which is crammed into one of the swampiest corners of Annapolis. Their campsite for scouting was about perfect; excellent tree cover, level ground, and a relatively short distance from the parking lot. The only real challenge was that the Santa Fe tracks were maybe 100 yards away at best, and that is an annoyingly busy freight line at night. One of the other Dads who I like quite a bit was an Air Force pilot, since retired and teaching at a local high school. He's been able to arrange our use of the facilities with the base for the last couple of years now, and may have been why we got the extra special tour.

I was reminded of how crazy young everyone there is, and conversely how old I have become. One of the guys who had just graduated, and I guess commissioned, took us on the tour of the sail plane hangar. Very bright young man, hanging out for some sort of pilot school training or the other. He was telling us how he graduated at the top of his class, and hoping he would have his choice of duty station so he could be assigned to the same base as his girlfriend. Both me and Air Force Dad immediately said 'Yeah, maybe don't do that' at the same time. I also added the life lesson they provided us at boot for good measure, which was 'Don't marry a stripper'.

Or have her move in, right before you ship out.


Promise me you'll take care of my car, while i'm gone.