F-15C Eagle pilots with the 144th Fighter Wing and the 173rd Fighter Wing used Cultus Lake in central Oregon on July 16 for some required water survival skills training.

During the training, pilots practiced releasing from a parachute while being dragged through the water, extracting themselves from under a water-logged chute, and entering and exiting a life raft.

“It’s a lot of work; we actually start planning about a year out,” said Master Sgt. Brian Vaughan, the flight chief for the Oregon Air National Guard’s 173rd FW aircrew Flight Equipment shop. “There are a lot of permits that we need to obtain from the Forest Service, coordination with the sheriff’s department to book the dive rescue team for safety purposes, then just getting the gear ready and transported to the training site can be a daunting task.”

The list of equipment is long: flight suits, helmets, life preservers, inflatable rafts, harnesses, survival kits, recovery devices, a parachute and anchor system, and the gear to simulate a parachute drag.

Someone also had to coordinate a Jet Ski rental for the parachute drag.

This amount of preparation limits the number of events available for pilots to attend, so the AFE shop extends the invitation to other F-15C units for the certification required every three years.

“It’s always a good refresher and it’s good to get some new perspectives,” said Lt. Col. Ryan McLain, an instructor pilot for the 173rd FW. “And some of these guys that came out have done different things than we have and they were able to teach us some new things.”