Old school USN/USCG SAR crews doing night ocean rescues unaided, with only a searchlight and baro altimeter. Hardcore right there….
Lockheed “Darkstar”
- Thread starter NovemberEcho
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Old school USN/USCG SAR crews doing night ocean rescues unaided, with only a searchlight and baro altimeter. Hardcore right there….
Lawman
Well-Known Member
I joked with a coast guard pilot about the fact “we are the only ones to go out in storms”…. Yeah because you guys are using the white caps to keep from getting scared.
Flying over calm ocean in the dark doing a 10’ and 10KG amphib profile…
“Down 20…15…1*Bump/splash*”
“What was that!?!?”
“You’re good sir… hold your hover…”
“Ok boats boats boats I guess….”
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Used to get that putting out swimmers in a 10/10 due to the Hawk hanging tail low and the RADALT going up and down in ocean swells. Or same when picking up swimmers via 15 foot rope ladder. It’s a bitch enough climbing that thing as-is from the water, so I’d try and help a bit in making it a 10 foot, or slightly lower, iteration. Until the FE would say the stab is taking more than just spray, or water was starting to break over the cabin deck.
Roger Roger
Bottom of the list
Guess that’s why you have to strip those things down and replace half the sheet metal every few years….
Any ops around salt water, corrosion control becomes an issue. Everytime when returning to base after ocean work, there’s what’s called a “bird bath” located on numerous taxiways that you land and taxi through, essentially a high pressure car wash that is supposed to get the bulk of salt water rinsed off the airframe, but closer inspection is still required. Similarly, when doing ocean ops, a baseline TGT needs to be noted with the engine(s), and any TGT baseline rises during ops noted as the engine(s) will take some degree of salt spray down their intakes, which also isn’t good and requires a wash after each mission
NovemberEcho
Dergs favorite member
Which always made me scratch my head at KPAM being the F-22 base. Bird bath required after almost every flight. If you want an easier way to corrode away expensive assets, parking them on the beach is a good way.
im surprised with all the extensive dollars being spent to rebuild PAM. I get that they want the airspace Warning Areas and such, but I would think responsibility for those could be transferred to VPS, without having to rebuild nearly an entire base.
NovemberEcho
Dergs favorite member
The W areas are already Controlled by VPS. Have been since 2006ish I believe
even less reason to spend the cash to rebuild PAM
DropTank
Well-Known Member
Yeah, that too was supposed to have a cabin pod. Cut for weight and price.
I guess the Astronauts are expendable
knot4u
Repeat Offender
Not trying to be pedantic but it was actually "Screaming Mimi", an S-58T that the producers would dub radial engine starting sounds over the actual audio for the show. It used to live at Van Nuys and while it was ugly and very recognizable it seemed to be in much better condition than what was portrayed on the show. I think it may actually still be flying.
i remember they used to make radial engine coughing and sputtering sounds for the audio of this thing, when it’s a turbine engine conversion.
same with when they show Hughes 500s and have dubbed in and very distinctive Huey UH-1 rotor sound.
killbilly
Vocals, Lyrics, Triangle, Washboard, Kittens
You're of sufficient years that you probably saw both the movie and TV show. I remember getting SUPER excited as a kid when there was a TV-miniseries called "Amerika" about a Soviet takeover of the U.S. and they used the same Blue Thunder model to be the Red Army gunships. This was post-Red Dawn, so it was supposed to be "futuristic" - a model past the Hind-D.
God, I am OLD.
Lawman
Well-Known Member
I think it’s funny how badly 80s action movies have distorted our impression of the Hind… mostly because it was always a Puma with a lot of crap bolted to it.
I’ve flown with Hinds. I’ve been in Hinds… the damn thing is tiny for what it’s advertised to be. Yeah it’s bigger than the Cobra… what isn’t. Being in the back of one is like riding in a dip can inside somebodies butt pocket while they themselves ride in the back of a uhaul over dirt roads. It’s hot, it’s noisy, you’re not sure who’s foot or knee that is in the small of your back…
Hind Sucks… and being up front isn’t much better:
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///AMG
Well-Known Member
Hopefully that experience lately (for russians that is) has been bookended with a violent death.
FlyingAccountant
Well-Known Member
Columbia crew compartment broke up almost immediately. The astronauts died very quickly from depressurization followed by getting torn to pieces by the aerodynamic forces.
DropTank
Well-Known Member
That was due to the g forces of the roll then spin.
The Challenger had a yaw force applied and broke off the forward section
Both could have been avoided with a competent leader
FlyingAccountant
Well-Known Member
Yeah, the Columbia crew survivability report is available for download, but a lot of it is redacted out of concern for the astronauts' families.
There's a fascinating documentary on YouTube about Challenger told through the perspective of the engineer that told them exactly what was going to happen before it did and they didn't listen to him.
Both disasters are appalling examples of human performance failures.
NovemberEcho
Dergs favorite member
Good Challenger doc on Netflix too. Nothing that wasn’t really known already to the oubkic but nice having it said by the people who said it and everything laid out