Field Trip to the Aviation Training Center!

On January 11, 2023, Our biomed class went and visited the Coast Guard Aviation Training Center! While on our field trip, we saw their medical center and even got the chance to fly airplanes and helicopters in their state of the art simulators.

We kicked off our trip with a tour of their medical facility, while walking through, we saw a number of medical personnel, such as PA's dentists, optometrists, as well as registered nurses. These caretakers even demonstrated examinations on us that would be apart of the physical that members of the Coast Guard are required to get annually, this is in order to have healthy men and women who can undergo the strenuous tasks that the Coast Guard places while also being safely able.

After this tour, we split into groups and got to go into the actaul training center and practice flying aircrafts on their simulators! Any member of the Coast guard must have extensive training before truly flying. These simulators are extremely helpful in teaching up and coming generations of Coast Guardsmen from learning up and down all the way to how to handle an emergency if one may occur while flying, with the simulators ability to mimic these disturbances. When I tried to fly the aircraft, the controls to make the nose of the plane go up and down were extremely sensitive and easy to cause error. After much trial and error however, I was able to successfully fly with a partner into a volcano and circle around the inside!

Following a break for lunch, we concluded our trip with a quick message and video from a Coast Guard recruiter and we got a lot of information about what it truly means to be apart of the Coast Guard and how rewarding of a career it can be. After the lecture, we walked outside and got to see the Coast Guard aircrafts that reside in our town. It was really interesting to see such an amazing thing that I never knew was just miles away from my house! This field trip was extremely fascinating and truly opened my eyes to all the roles that medicine can play even in a military branch!