Adventure: Heli Attack!

[Flyin6]

So, this adventure started off in a Jeep, but ended in quite a different form of transportation. The jeep did get another three hundred miles on the odometer, but this time didn't get dirty. I got some better information on it concerning highway driving and fuel mileage. During the morning drive down, I was being tossed around (windy conditions) and it turned in a disappointing 14.8 mpg. The drive back was somewhat better at 15.2. Both legs were driven at 69-70 mph.
It was quite frosty when we pulled out for the drive down to London Kentucky. This city is nearing central Kentucky and is surrounded by the massive Daniel Boone National Forest.

[Flyin6]

We were driving there because one of my best friends that I served with in the Army was on temporary duty there operating this:

[Flyin6]

Kat came along and was just fascinated by the experience which ended up lasting all day long. Mike who went through the US Army rotary-wing flight school in 1979-1980, in the same class I did has flown ever since! Kathy had never met him before, and his coming to London served as a rare opportunity. His home base is Bend Oregon, so he is quite a ways away from home!

[Flyin6]

With our youngest son soon to enter a 4-year college and into their aviation program, mom is all about learning and experiencing aviation outside the Commercial airline world. She saw me fly in the Airlines but only witnessed dropping me off at the airport when I would fly off to Afghanistan or Iraq during those days when I was a contractor over there. We had met and married after I retired from the Army, so that world is a bit foreign to her.

Mike gave her a much better understanding of the brotherhood we military guys have. She even commented that the more of my old friends she meets the more she is impressed with how close we all are. She stated that the way we all are is just like a real family. Thinking about it, at times, honestly, that bond born from desperate and hard times in the military is stronger perhaps.

Anyway, she was having a great time!

[Flyin6]

Mike is one of the unsung heroes of our nation, he really is. He started as a WO-1 Army Warrant Officer flying UH-1H Huey's in Gibelstadt, Germany right after flight school. I served with him in the very same unit for the next three years. We were "Ravens" assigned to A-company, 3rd Aviation Battalion, Combat of the 3rd Infantry Division. He went into the General Support platoon, and I was assigned to the Aero-Scout Platoon flying Jet Rangers.

Following that Mike went to Fort Rucker, the very home of Army Aviation where he taught incoming Army aviators how to fly the Huey. He was an instructor pilot, and later a higher-order, Standardization Instructor pilot. He did extremely well and even became an Instrument Examiner. I went through that school as a CW4 with 6,000 hours and it kicked my butt. Mike did it as a CW2!!!!!

Due to circumstances beyond his control, he left the active Army after 14 years and entered the National Guard where he departed as a CW3 pilot in command and instructor pilot some years later.

Like most of us, he played around with some additional college education and even started a construction company in Bend Oregon. You should see the 4300 sq ft home he built for his family.

[Flyin6]

As it turned out, that would only be the start of his flying career. He hauled logs off of hills with a crazy looking K-Max helicopter, set large power transmission towers in place with a S-64 (CH-54) Sky Crane and found a home fighting forest fires.

That mission is called "Air Attack" in the business. You've all seen the vids and photos of helicopters dropping water on fires mostly in the western US, but in fact, all over the world. Mike did that so much that he could scarcely recall how many sorties he has flown. I'd have to say the number is somewhere in the ten-thousands range. He has flown above those roaring flames and at times he has flown through them. He has personally saved thousands of homes from incineration, and he has lost the fight too. He has been a pilot on every big fire in Canada, the US, and Mexico for over thirty years. The number of guys with his experience and abilities in America is two digits long, and possibly single digits!

He has flown an incredible 17,000 hours doing this crazy stuff and he is still alive! He once landed a Huey in Idaho in the saw-tooth mountains out of gas in a blinding snowstorm. He had to find and break into an abandoned cabin and start a fire to survive. They found him on the fourth day! He is so far out of bounds with the dangerous stuff he has survived that I personally know of no equal.

[Flyin6]

Although he normally flies the totally massive S-64 Crane and is an actual FAA-approved examiner for that airframe, one of only a few in the world, he was sitting on this smaller S-61 in London. While we chatted, Mike was on a 1-hour recall status by the US Forest Service because of the likelihood of fires in this enormous forest which is larger than some eastern states I think.

This thing can suck up 1000 gallons of water from its dunk-hose in 45 seconds

The sky crane more than double that

They can sortie about every 3 minutes if the water source is close by so this machine can save a lot of property or good timber from destruction

[Flyin6]

At the end of that hose is a jet boat prop which is spun up hydraulically by the pilot, creating a torrent of water to rapidly fill that tank. The pilot then flies to a position where he can dump it on the fire.

I flew some fire suppression missions myself in my Chinook. We carried a large water bucket called a Bambi bucket. It held 1,750 gallons when full and I can tell you, that was a handful. The bucket was on the end of a 100-foot strap with doors I could open from a button on my cyclic. The profile is to fly at 50 knots at 150-200 feet, or higher if the flames were that high, and release over or right ahead of the flames. If you released over a house you could knock the roof right off the structure. Water is eight pounds per gallon and a thousand of them make quite an impression. I wouldn't admit to using that on people or animals in, say, an urban combat scenario, but I can tell you I have heard one can flat-out wash away an angry crowd of people in one pass.

[Flyin6]

Mike and I are like brothers. We hadn't seen each other for quite a long time, although we communicate every now and again. He will retire from flying next year when he turns 70. To me is a hero. He is a good man, a patriot, and a warrior who never complained, he is a loving father and husband, and I am a better man for just knowing him. America needs people like this soft-spoken man and although he would be the last person to ring his own chime, I can say to all who read this, Mike is amongst the best America can produce. A country of men like this would be unstoppable. He has a heart for the youth and loves mentoring them. He is a much better instructor pilot than me. Where I'd yell at you, yank the controls and maybe hit you with something. Mike would simply give you a certain look and you'd feel the disappointment at having failed this man. He's the best!

[Flyin6]

It felt good for me to get back into a proper flying machine, its been too long. It also felt great to visit my old friend. It feels like home sitting in a seat shoved right into a windscreen holding on to a collective and cyclic. I had my run at it and it was a deeply rewarding experience that made me what I am today. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, United States Army, for trusting me to wear the rank and pilot these machines and carry America's best sometimes into harm's way...Thank you very much!

[Bigdave_185]

So your telling us you two kids didn’t go water any grass with the super soaker up at the farm????


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[Flyin6]

So your telling us you two kids didn’t go water any grass with the super soaker up at the farm????


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at $5Kish an hour...No

[Bigdave_185]

I thought that was just walk-in around money for a ol retired guy?!?


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[Flyin6]

I thought that was just walk-in around money for a ol retired guy?!?


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He is flying that ship for another 10 days, then down to Macon Ga to support the end of fire season down there.