I've been kicking myself ever since. We (I say we, but I only watched) were allowed to get in the lake and swim for a bit which was nice as it was a record hot day. The helio dunker was first. Once, as a practice run and then they had to get out and swim to the raft. At one point they had to get out of the dunker, get in the raft, row around the lake and use the hoist to get out. The counselors turned on the sound system and everything. Then the team got to do that with black-out goggles on and one sighted leader. Later, after the zip line, we broke into two groups and had a raft race across the lake and back. This was all new stuff they were doing to make the adult ASA program better and to make AC more attractive, because most people don't know about it.
In that vein, later in the day, we went back over to AC where last year we flew the Mach I sims for a couple of hours. This time, we were taken outside back in the woods. They told us all about the program and showed us a new section that has just been used twice so far this year. Those of you who have been to AC might know about the "Bridge Demolition" exercise, done at night. From what I could tell, trainees go scrambling through the woods in two groups looking for bomb parts to blow up the suspension bridge.
Now, there's a POW camp added to the mix. I won't say too much, so I don't spoil the surprise, but it's very cool, and I bet it's pretty freaky at night. They're understandably quite proud of it, and have video of a corporate team doing it as couple of weeks ago.
They told us all about AC and how once you're trained, you have to be ready in 5 min. to fly, no matter what you're doing. They played the siren for us, just a bit. So I'm pushing even harder for either an adult AC week-long program or an AC weekend that backs up to an ASA week. Hope we get it soon!
