Student Review: Night Observation Device Firing (NODF) 20 June: Lowdown3

On his site HERE.

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Here is a review of their new “Night Optical Device Firing” NODF class.

I took this class the Friday before CRCD in conjunction with the TC3 medical class and the RMP rifle class

It was like the training trip that just kept on giving! Max emailed me a few weeks before the class date saying he had added a Night Optics class that Friday night. Heck yeah I’m in!

Being that I sell Night Vision and Thermal, I was no stranger to the equipment, the usage, etc. Still, you don’t know what you don’t know right? Any training is beneficial and this is no different.
Experience levels in students seem to range from semi-seasoned users down to “hey the night vision box just arrived, can you help me put it together!” But that’s what this class is for.
Most students seemed to use a PVS14 or a close variant, although one student did sport a pair of PVS7’s. The main advantage of the 14 over the 7 being that the 7 requires both eyes to use, drawing both eyes into the green glow. Whereas with a PVS14 you normally mount it over the non dominant eye via helmet or head mount and still have one eye “normal.” This reduces eye fatigue from long hours in NV and I think it helps maintain a “brain contact.” All students went with a weapons mounted Infrared Laser for their aiming point, most using a DBAL-I2.

Weapons were zeroed via a neat glow tape target deal. In previous things I’ve done, we used lightsticks cause I’m cheap  Max didn’t spare any expense with these targets and evidently has better plans for next go around also!

The light conditions were very poor which actually is a good thing from a training standpoint. You can take a PVS14 outside on a full moon night and it practically hurts your eyes how much you can see with the gain almost off (these new Pinnacle autogated tubes are SOOO bright!). However when it’s raining, completely overcast and you are in the deepest, darkest jungles of West Virginia…. then the lighting conditions are drastically different. Night vision works off of light amplification. It gathers every scrap of light it can from any and all sources and greatly greatly amplifies it. Therefore when there is practially nothing as far as ambient light due to the fact that absolutely no clouds can be seen, it gets progressively harder to fully utilize NV. That sounds like worst case scenario right? Well yeah, that’s what we are preparing for right?? If we can learn to work and be effective in bad conditions, it only stands to reason we will be better in good conditions.

A short patrol was done and since all but one of the NODF students had been at the training site going since 0630 and were unmistakably worn out, it was decided to move right into the final part of the class that involved a night ambush utilizing the NV and infrared lasers. KEWL!!!

If your new to Night vision use, you need to get to this class. I’m going to recommend it to all my night vision customers!
Robert H.

MV: Coincidentally we just ran the second NODF class on Saturday night. After a few stutters on the first class, I feel justified to say that we nailed it this time around. We rapidly zeroed the student IR lasers, moved onto ready up and walking engagements on the square range, then did a simple familiarization patrol/night move in the ranger/simple night ambush. Bearing in mind these students had only done TC3/RMP at that point, they have now completed CRCD today, and are  now moving on to the Combat Patrol class tomorrow – the idea was to keep it simple, controlled and safe.

However, it was joyous to behold, as an instructor, how awesome the class was and how much the students got out of it. I don’t think anyone else is providing training like this. We are all stoked about this class.