Chinooks

[Atkinsmatt]

Don't forget about the fall when you either get blown off the load or shocked off.

[wyorunner]

Awesome pics boss!

I wonder what it would be like to hook up the slings under that Goliath for the first time. Oof
...Nate, you did that right? If so, try to describe it for us civies.

Its real noisy
Very windy while it is hovering forward over you and the load
Touch the hook before you ground the aircraft and the static charge will probably knock you unconscious
Then when the aircraft is ascending to pull the slings tight it gets really windy
When the load comes off the ground and you're within 100-200 feet you are:
1. Inside a tornado
2. Probably flying as well
No one can stand in that downwash with a max gross weight load at an 80 foot hover.
Although I've seen many a fool try...

Chief, what do they use to ground it before hooking it?

[TexasRedNeck]

I think they use an E1


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[Atkinsmatt]

Either a home made ground probe or now days they have insulated reach pendants.  We used to make them from a tent stake, commo wire and a stick with a bent antennae section as the hook with the whole thing taped together.

[Nate]

Awesome pics boss!

I wonder what it would be like to hook up the slings under that Goliath for the first time. Oof
...Nate, you did that right? If so, try to describe it for us civies.

its a bit nerve racking. 

1. you have this massive machine which according to physics should not even be able to fly let alone hover moving back and forth/up and down over your head,

2. you have some fool hanging out the hell hole staring at you,

3. you wonder if the mr. top gun wanna be fool operating the stick is going to sneeze and squash you like a bug,

4. 9 times out of 10 your standing directly ontop of whatever it is that you are trying to sling load waving what can only be compared size wise to the eye end of a needle (we call it a Q-tip) while trying to get the opening slammed into the hook opening and past the safety clasp (hoping mr top gun wanna be has it deactivated),

5. praying that which ever one of your moron friends/co-workers made the grounding rod correctly and that you dont litterally and i mean litteraly get blown off what ever it is that you are standing on by the massive shock of static electricty (i have seen it happen to many times),

6. having to stand there while T.G.Fool starts to gain altitude to ensure that your sling ropes dont get tangled up on anything.....doing all of that while as don puts it, standing in the middle of a tornado!

did i forget to mention if its a connex, then you have to get off of it lickity split with out doing the P.L.F. or your going for a ride?

heres a pretty good video of sling load operations:  https://youtu.be/PtXun3t8eT0

I think they use an E1

they are normally not even involved at that point as they become/are too much of a liability and a mission failure factor that can only be mitigated by them not being involved.

[Flyin6]

Don't forget about the fall when you either get blown off the load or shocked off.

I hate that

One night over at Ft. Smith some kid was hooking up a double HMMV load beneath my aircraft. The crewchief was looking through the center hole where the big hook is and he watched this kid who was standing on the wet roof of a HMMV reach up to grab the aft hook. The chief said it looked like he recoiled so hard that he fell off the truck and broke his arm...as in compound fracture. Lots of blood.
Well, me being in total mission mode and the flight lead. I told the people there to clear him out of the way and get another soldier on top of the load and get me hooked up because I was burning gas.
Now, in my defense I will say, this was a big mission. I was doing a proof of concept. I preached that the Chinook could carry a bigger load, further and return than anything and we were carrying a full load, 115 nautical miles, then returning on fumes to make another turn. I was the guy leading the whole thing, and frankly, in combat if someone gets hurt, you don't stop, you keep doing your job.
Thing is, this was not combat and my actions shed a dim light on me and my Chinook crews.
I regret that decision, and I definitely felt/feel bad for the kid who broke his arm. But I have always played hard and for keeps, and at that time, I think I was the only combat veteran in the flight or on the ground, so people were not used to operating like that. The Night Stalkers taught me a lot and hardened me up a bit too much for the regular Armee, I think.

[Flyin6]

Awesome pics boss!

I wonder what it would be like to hook up the slings under that Goliath for the first time. Oof
...Nate, you did that right? If so, try to describe it for us civies.

Its real noisy
Very windy while it is hovering forward over you and the load
Touch the hook before you ground the aircraft and the static charge will probably knock you unconscious
Then when the aircraft is ascending to pull the slings tight it gets really windy
When the load comes off the ground and you're within 100-200 feet you are:
1. Inside a tornado
2. Probably flying as well
No one can stand in that downwash with a max gross weight load at an 80 foot hover.
Although I've seen many a fool try...

Chief, what do they use to ground it before hooking it?

The hook up guys have some cable hooked to their load or to a copper rod smacked into the ground with a steel probe. You touch that to the aircraft and you're good for a couple minutes.

When I would aerial refuel, we could bet this big blue spark, like miniature lightening to jump from the tip of the probe to the drogue at the end of the refueling hose. Made a snapping sound too.

Crazee times...

[Flyin6]

Lets get the pics going again...

[Flyin6]

...

[Flyin6]

Small pics, sorree!

[Flyin6]

Keep going...

[KensAuto]

Thanks Nate (and Matt). Perfectly put in to words.

[Flyin6]

More of these magnificent flying machines and the soldiers who work around them

[Flyin6]

Gobbling up soldiers...

[Flyin6]

Aerial refuelling pic posted before...I reposted it just to remind me how much I didn't like doing that

[Flyin6]

A little NVG helo-casting...The term we use when kicking out perfectly dry SF bubbas into ponds/lakes/rivers/seas/oceans

[Flyin6]

I'm liking the paint on those new "F" models

[Flyin6]

So, the first unit I ever flew hooks in was A co/159th, Task Force 160 and our unit call sign was Pachyderms, a name given the unit when it flew in Vietnam. Am I looking at some pachyderm tribute bird here???

[Flyin6]

...

[Flyin6]

Soldiers

[Flyin6]

Alaska mixed in here

[Flyin6]

...

[Flyin6]

Salute at 10,000 AGL
Flag pics are always great
Singapore Air Force hook

[cj7ox]

Great pics, D! I see a lot of 36th ID (TXARNG) pics in the tiny ones!

[JR]

Nice little show again. How many soldiers would you normally carry? (not the wiki #)

[Flyin6]

Nice little show again. How many soldiers would you normally carry? (not the wiki #)

So we have seats for 33 with seat belts
So on a typical mission of low to medium risk, we would be restricted to those 33
However on high risk missions such as an emergency extraction the rules may get thrown out the window, then its a free for all
Special operations aircraft may theoretically have their own rules.
I have heard rumors of the crew chief packing 60 or more rangers in the back of my aircraft. I have heard rumors of the crewchief loading two jeep looking things and 40 rangers in the back of my bird. I also heard rumors of something approaching 100 peoples, all little munchkins mind you, flying off some place that was sinking or burning down, or about to get all blowed up, riding like cord wood in some night stalker aircraft. That of course is just conjecture, rumor, here-say, and unconfirmed bar-room drunk talk.

[Flyin6]

Hoo-ah!

[JR]

"Heard Rumors Of" 

[Flyin6]

Great pics, D! I see a lot of 36th ID (TXARNG) pics in the tiny ones!

Excellent!
Gotta love soldiers from states that start with "T"

I love me some Ar-Mee!

[Flyin6]

"Heard Rumors Of" 

Yea, ya can't verify what may or may not have happened...

[Flyin6]

That gray colored one is the first of many Chinooks delivered to the Indian Air Force

[Flyin6]

That boy in the bird with the "Big Red One" on the pylon is bankin' a bit close to the ground...I would never (cough-cough) be caught dead doin' something exactly like that ;-))

[Flyin6]

Looks like some paratroopers doing a "hop and pop"

[Flyin6]

The Nav-ee's worse nightmare

Armee whirly-birds on their decks

Notice the Hookers painted a big "ARMY" on the nose?

Now why do you think they did that (He-He)

[Flyin6]

It is said by many a wise man

That old Chinook pilots never die

They just fly off into a sunset...

[Flyin6]

I post em when I find em

[JR]

Question, I see diff screen on the intakes in many of the pics. Are these engine specific, model specific or deployment specific?

[Flyin6]

Generational, actually, JR

A models from the 60's had no inlet screens at all

B model had small engines with inlet screens that looked like a pointed front end

C ,D and E models forward had screens that were much larger kind of like a pointed mushroom

F and G models started using a variety of intakes. The barrel thing with all the little holes is a particle separator that pulls air in through the tube which has vanes which spins the air causing dust and dirt to be centrifuged into a collection chamber where it is pumped overboard via that aft facing tube.

Some birds actually had huge K&N filters which were a huge disaster as they filled up very quickly.

[JR]

Makes sense. Think the tractor style would work well with implements using them.

Funny ones are on the 53s that have 3 engines, looks weird with the offset intakes. When those flew into MCAS-H Santa Ana they almost pointed the nose straight up bleeding off that airspeed.

On a cool note, strangest plane I saw was a TU-95 coming into El Toro, being escorted by 2 F-4s. Mid 70s.

[Flyin6]

Makes sense. Think the tractor style would work well with implements using them.

Funny ones are on the 53s that have 3 engines, looks weird with the offset intakes. When those flew into MCAS-H Santa Ana they almost pointed the nose straight up bleeding off that airspeed.

On a cool note, strangest plane I saw was a TU-95 coming into El Toro, being escorted by 2 F-4s. Mid 70s.

WHAT???

Soviet nuke bomber landing at a Marine base at the height of the cold war!!

Defecting?? Stolen??  Lost, made a wrong turn at the bearing sea?

[TexasRedNeck]

What’s the hook spraying in front of the osprey (pic taken from the trainer jet)?


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[Flyin6]

What’s the hook spraying in front of the osprey (pic taken from the trainer jet)?


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Water

Icing test. V22 flies into the vapor cloud and starts to build ice. The effects are measured. Some military aircraft do not have de-icing, only anti-ice. Those aircraft will not be allowed to fly in weather conditions with anything more than trace to light icing.

[TexasRedNeck]

Makes perfect sense


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[JR]

Makes sense. Think the tractor style would work well with implements using them.

Funny ones are on the 53s that have 3 engines, looks weird with the offset intakes. When those flew into MCAS-H Santa Ana they almost pointed the nose straight up bleeding off that airspeed.

On a cool note, strangest plane I saw was a TU-95 coming into El Toro, being escorted by 2 F-4s. Mid 70s.

WHAT???

Soviet nuke bomber landing at a Marine base at the height of the cold war!!

Defecting?? Stolen??  Lost, made a wrong turn at the bearing sea?

Yep, it was the sound that got me looking. Never heard anything like it before. Who knows why, but figure we had enough bases and aircraft around that area to handle anything. Did you know there was a rocket factory in the hills behind El Toro? Used to hike up there and you could watch them test the engnes.

[Farmer Jon]

What’s the hook spraying in front of the osprey (pic taken from the trainer jet)?


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My brother in law would tell you they are spraying chemicals to seed the clouds. Weather experiments.

[Flyin6]

What’s the hook spraying in front of the osprey (pic taken from the trainer jet)?


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My brother in law would tell you they are spraying chemicals to seed the clouds. Weather experiments.

He'd be correct in saying they were weather experiments

[Farmer Jon]

What’s the hook spraying in front of the osprey (pic taken from the trainer jet)?


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My brother in law would tell you they are spraying chemicals to seed the clouds. Weather experiments.

He'd be correct in saying they were weather experiments

He's one of them that thinks contrails make it rain.

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[JR]

OK, no more late night radio for you guys.

[Flyin6]

Couple of new ones posted over on the Night Stalker site

[Flyin6]

That sound...

Settled into my very soul

Like the Huey from another war, this one is ours

Unique, powerful, awe inspiring

Feared by our enemies

Because hearing it for them and the men who will come with that sound

May well signal the end of their lives

That sound...


https://www.facebook.com/brad.bates.712/videos/10153284025876563