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Ever travel by helicopter?
gunnut505
Member Posts: 10,290 ✭
A lot of folks have a fear of flying, many more are jaded jet fodder, but how many have made a chopper flight of notable duration?
I used to commute from the Survey campsite to the mining claims we were staking in a Bell Jet Ranger, when we worked in Nevada, Utah & Colorado.
We used a little Hughes a few times, Vets might remember the Loach as fondly as I recall getting back out of one.
Once, outside of Silverton, our Pilot Vern,floated us through the clouds into a High Power line against the bubble. Vern was a Nam Vet with a bazillion hours in rotary aircraft, and had a tic that would surface during times of stress; his head would shiver from side to side, while his eyes would blink VERY rapidly.
When the 6 of us saw the thick cables against the bubble, the pucker factor reached previously unknown levels.
Vern looked like an inmate in the electric chair, jerking & bobbing while struggling to back off the wires, keeping the blades above them.
When we finally set it down in the Burger King parking lot, we all leaped out for a refreshing mouthful of gravel!
No atheists that morning!
I used to commute from the Survey campsite to the mining claims we were staking in a Bell Jet Ranger, when we worked in Nevada, Utah & Colorado.
We used a little Hughes a few times, Vets might remember the Loach as fondly as I recall getting back out of one.
Once, outside of Silverton, our Pilot Vern,floated us through the clouds into a High Power line against the bubble. Vern was a Nam Vet with a bazillion hours in rotary aircraft, and had a tic that would surface during times of stress; his head would shiver from side to side, while his eyes would blink VERY rapidly.
When the 6 of us saw the thick cables against the bubble, the pucker factor reached previously unknown levels.
Vern looked like an inmate in the electric chair, jerking & bobbing while struggling to back off the wires, keeping the blades above them.
When we finally set it down in the Burger King parking lot, we all leaped out for a refreshing mouthful of gravel!
No atheists that morning!
Comments
The dive team trained with the Coast Guard. We boarded the helio at the San Diego Bay station. They dropped us off in the bay and then landed in the bay and picked us up.
Towards the end of my career the department got the Hughes 500. Power to burn and churn out of that little turbine.
Margaret Thatcher
"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics."
Mark Twain
Got yanked out of the water by one every time I requaled at DWEST.
Not a real big fan of rotary wing flying. It just seems so unnatural.
I never flew in a chopper but I used to fly hot air balloons. That is just how the balloon boys get killed, fly that thing into the power lines. The arcing causes the wicker gondola to catch fire, then the propane tanks blow. Bad deal.
Happens every other year or so, five or six people die when the balloon hits the power lines.
I had always wanted to ride in a helicopter, and I did it. I've never had any desire to fly in one again.
Did my primary training with the Hughes TH-55, transitioned in UH-1s. Took my wife on her first rotary flight about 5 years ago in a Jet Ranger- she loved it.
We used to call the TH-55 the Mattel Messerschmitt. Aircraft only weighed 896 pounds empty.
If I had to fly helicopters for the Navy I would have quit flight school. Fixed wing is the only thing I want to fly. [;)]
I made a couple of treks between the USS Midway in the Tonkin Gulf and DaNang.
Most memorable was at Fort Hood, TX in the later 70's. I was a Project Engineer and we were putting an Artillery Control System through Field Tests and the only way to get from our offices to the "Battle Area" was via helicopter. We had an Army pilot on a couple of occasions that appeared to be making up for missing duty in Vietnam!!! It took several months for my butt to unpucker!!!!!!
If you can't feel the music; it's only pink noise!
And fiery auto crashes
Some will die in hot pursuit
While sifting through my ashes
Some will fall in love with life
And drink it from a fountain
That is pouring like an avalanche
Coming down the mountain
They were going to call in a Helo to Evac me off the ship, but due to the heavy seas they would need to lift me off in a basket.
I helped the Corpman decide it wasn't broken!
I did not want to ride off the deck in a basket, so the only Helo ride I ever had was at the Fair
I never had a near death experience in a helicopter but I did witness some of the mentality that contributes to them. Long, long ago and far, far away, when I was in Antarctica, the Army sent a gang of helicopters with pilots to McMurdo. Some of the most certifiably crazy people I ever met. They ran a shuttle service from Williams Field (Ross Ice Shelf air strip) to "town" (main station at McMurdo).
The Admiral had a standing order that routine shuttles between Williams Field and McMurdo Station had to follow the ice shelf and not take the short cut over open water because if you went into the drink, for all practical purposes you were dead as soon as you hit the water, but officially your life expectancy was measured in single digit minutes.
I caught a ride with the Army one day and noticed we were flying over open water. I asked the pilot if he was aware of the Admiral's standing order. He said "Not a problem. The Army has plenty of helicopters."
One day the Army took some scientists up into the Horlick Mountains and when they went above the altitude where a helicopter can fly, they crashed. The Army took the obviously appropriate action and sent a helicopter to get them. When the rescue helicopter got to about the same place the first helicopter crashed, they crashed.
VX-6 sent a C-130 with motor toboggans (snowmobiles) and they came down the hard way.
I never voluntarily got into a helicopter and if I ever get in another one it will be the same way I got into the first one.
CH 46 short flight to the field at Camp Pendelton. I noticed a leak to the crew chief. Who told me to let him know when it stopped. Cause that was when We had Problems.
I have never really come close to saying we would have crashed. So that is something.
lots of miles in a hu-1
Yep, me too, short & long hops...got the bad knee caps due to entering the doorways fast [;)]. As the native Americans would say "never no more".
"Never do wrong to make a friend----or to keep one".....Robert E. Lee
Half an hour was enough.
Trapping on board the Carl Vincent in a C-1 Trader with a woman pilot was more comfortable.
Brad Steele
6 yrs flew everywhere in UH-1 with Ohng. Gunships. Lots of fun on practice gun runs. I was a 45m20. Aircraft armament sub-systems mechanic. Pilots were Vietnam experienced warrant officers. Scare the crap out of us. Good times. Ft Campbell ky, Atterbury ind, Grayling Mich, Camp Perry, Aberdeen Proving Ground.
I was a 45L20 at Aberdeen in the early 70's
After reading this, I doubt I'll ever go again![:0]
serf
There's an old fella here in town that used to fly the big Sikorsky Sky Cranes rigged for fire fighting. I asked him once where he learned to fly choppers and he said "Uncle Sam's US Army flight school... But those little yellow people taught me how to do evasive maneuvers!"[:0]
Seriously, I hate flying in airplanes, but helicopters don't bother me. But then again, I also like playing with snakes.
To be honest, we really didn't get much higher than 150 feet AGL (flying that low reduces your time of exposure to those who don't appreciate your presence). Also, helicopter pilots have a really good grasp of profane language when under extreme amounts of stress.