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СН-46 in SEALs training

Sam I am

Sam I am

Average looking, not a farmer.
pilot
Contributor
Ah yes, the old pump the APU gag...never gets old. And Pags is correct, I had two engine failures in flight in my short time as a Phrog pilot. Once actual no shit engine failure as we were crossing the deck after an FCF on that actual engine and another deliberate shut down when were fully loaded headed into Israel.
 
Sam I am

Sam I am

Average looking, not a farmer.
pilot
Contributor
Max the Mad Russian said:
???
Click to expand...

Embassy log run into Tel-Aviv fully loaded with all the supplies for Thanksgiving Dinner and we're about 1/3 of the way there. I'm the HAC. Crew Chief shouts those magic words: "Oh Shit!"...I look in the little dash mirror and oil is gushing out of the right engine bay. Like...rivers/buckets of oil. WTF!? Crewman quickly drops the cover and splash...oil everywhere. I'm like how much have we lost? He's like, "All of it!" We were safely in the single engine envelope and had a big runway about 10 miles ahead. So before we leaked the whatever was left and burned the engine up we elected to shut it down and perform a run on landing. I declared the emergency, did the landing, copilot is blocking the pedals and we taxi into the line. When all of a sudden:

"Oh Shit!"
"Now what?"
"We got smoke, we're on fire!"
"HOw the F@#K are we on fire?!"
"It's the brakes!"
Thanks co-pilot.

So we got the bird stopped, got the brake fire out (it extinguished by itself really), almost no damage...just hot brakes and scorched rims. Tires looked okay. And then we see the two trucks in front of us rolling in hot and out jump the Israelis all with machine guns and running at us. I'm like, "They know we're American right?" Turns out they did as they set up a defensive perimeter around the bird and I'm like, "They must really like turkey." Anyway, we spent about 6 hours on deck as they unloaded our bird. Our other Aircraft finished up the the log run and brought some tools so we could figure out what was up. Turned out that AMD sent us an engine that only had about 1/4 of the bolts holding the accessory drive on the engine torqued down. We could literally spin most of the bolts by hand. I have no idea how it made it through the FCF much less stay on the engine.

We were quite the celebrities while we were there. A whole bunch of Israeli Army came to chat us up, several female types (all gorgeous), and took pictures with us...I traded my US flag patch with a hot blonde for her Israel flag patch. Tightened up all the crap we could, topped off the oil, got a one time authorization to fly the bird back which was uneventful, and that was that.
 
Griz882

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
Sam I am said:
Ah yes, the old pump the APU gag...never gets old. And Pags is correct, I had two engine failures in flight in my short time as a Phrog pilot. Once actual no shit engine failure as we were crossing the deck after an FCF on that actual engine and another deliberate shut down when were fully loaded headed into Israel.
Click to expand...
It was funny to watch. I had not seen it before, but it was clear the crew was punking us a bit...good guys.
 
AllAmerican75

AllAmerican75

FUBIJAR
None
Contributor
Pags said:
It would not be odd for a Phrog to have an engine problem that required an extended water taxi.

In fact, it would've been weirder if the Phrog hadn't had an engine problem.
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I worked for a former Phrog driver (transitioned to the 60S and is now getting ready to retire), and he said as long as the old girl was leaking, they were happy. It was as soon as all the leaks stopped that they knew they had a problem.
 
P

Pags

N/A
pilot
AllAmerican75 said:
I worked for a former Phrog driver (transitioned to the 60S and is now getting ready to retire), and he said as long as the old girl was leaking, they were happy. It was as soon as all the leaks stopped that they knew they had a problem.
Click to expand...
Very common in helos (and probably most a/c too) of that era. Phrog, Shitter, and H-3 all had leak limits and operated under the "if it's not leaking it's empty" principle. But those aircraft were all like the millennium falcon: they took lots of TLC and whispering to make em work.
 
Griz882

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
Mostly unrelated question....is the SAR helicopter on an LHA a USMC Venom or a Navy -60? If it is a navy bird are they drawn from HSC squadrons?
 
AllAmerican75

AllAmerican75

FUBIJAR
None
Contributor
Pags said:
whispering to make em work.
Click to expand...

You're telling me this isn't standard Navy practice? I've known some crew chiefs who would say it's applicable to all aircraft.

In fact, I think it's a Navy-wide thing. When I was on the FFG, our snipes built an altar in main control and made regular offerings each watch to the gremlins in the plant just so we could keep the lights on, CHT pumping, and showers hot.
 
Griz882

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
Pags said:
60S Det from HSC
Click to expand...
Thanks, I was trying to remember what the SAR bird was on my last USMC float (Iwo Jima...the old one) and for some reason I am thinking -46 but I can’t remember if they were Corps or Navy.
 
PhrogLoop

PhrogLoop

Adulting is hard
pilot
Pags said:
Perhaps @PhrogLoop will regale us with his Phrog story. Which is perhaps the most HC/Phrog story I've ever heard.
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Oh boy, lemme get a beer first. There we were off Horn of Africa, Fall of 2002. Launched off the NASSAU on an FCF flight after a full flight controls profile. Not 5 minutes into it, we were 300’ and 70kts when we heard a loud pop in the back, the whole bird shaking. My crew chief yelled “what the fuck was that?!” and the nose pitched up PAST 45 degrees. Dave in the left seat was at the controls (I was in the FCF checklist) and he pushed the cyclic all the way forward to the stops with no effect. I looked over my right shoulder at the ocean rushing at my face. I took the controls and (counterintuitively) lowered the collective to the bottom stop. That allowed the nose to drop enough so that our aft rotor did not chop into the water. We bounced in ground effect at 20 feet and zero knots. Bird was a bucking bronco and I settled into a hover about 10 degrees nose high. Very uncomfortable. I asked Dave to take the radios and ask Boss for a green deck. Dave was so cool on the radio that Boss had no idea we were in serious trouble. He tried to spin us around a couple of turns so he could clear the Harriers back aft. I said, “No way, Boss, we need to land now.” With an armful of collective and a lot of forward cyclic, I could only make about 35 knots the whole 5 miles back to the boat. Straight-in to spot 7, no hover landing. Shut down, unstrapped, and kissed the flight deck. The 4 of us hugged each other on the flight deck for a minute. Found out shortly thereafter that the drive arm link on the aft rotor system came apart because of a missing bolt and cotter pin post FCF. The aft rotor went to flat pitch which resulted in the uncommanded nose up. If Dave had raised the collective to add power, we probably would have flipped backwards and fed the fishes.
 
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