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Harrier Down Off Oki, or SAR threadjack :)

ChuckMK23

FERS and TSP contributor!
pilot
Because the Navy helicopter community lacks a decent over water SAR capability, the Air Force 33rd Rescue Squadron completed the pick up in HH-60G Pave Hawks - and without the ugly white tape on there helmets :)

BZ to the AF.

33d_Rescue_Squadron.jpg
 

croakerfish

Well-Known Member
pilot
Because the Navy helicopter community lacks a decent over water SAR capability, the Air Force 33rd Rescue Squadron completed the pick up in HH-60G Pave Hawks - and without the ugly white tape on there helmets :)

BZ to the AF.

WTF? How'd you jump to that conclusion?
 

ChuckMK23

FERS and TSP contributor!
pilot
Can't a former Navy helo guy hate about the Navy helo community in peace? Sheesh :)

Not hating - but always jealous of what the AF did with rotary wing. VERTREP and the occasional man overboard SAR and drone recovery was fun - don't get me wrong :) But was always envious at material condition, gear, and funding of AF helo community...
 

Hotdogs

I don’t care if I hurt your feelings
pilot
Yup. The 33rd is the goto SAR unit for basically all of the Oki flying units. I'm pretty sure they are always maintaining some sort of alert condition when jets are in the air.
 

Pags

N/A
pilot
A little tongue in cheek - but the AF invests in long range over water SAR. It's disappointing that our own can't conduct a SAR case like this...
I'm not sure I follow. As others have pointed out that unit tasked with SAR around Oki is the AF. This is because Oki has a large AF presence. There are NO USN helos based or deployed to Oki so I'm not sure why you're maligning USN capabilities.

If a USN helo had been there it could have conducted the resecue just as well as the AF had. I'm not overly familiar with the capabilities of the 60G but it doesn't have some magic overwater capability that the USN lacks. I'm not even sure if a 60G has rad alt and a hover coupler (paging @busdriver).

Big picture wise USN hasn't invested in long range SAR because it's not a doctrinal responsibility USN holds. USCG handles long range SAR in CONUS. The only place where the USN has primary SAR capabilities is Guam. There are station SAR units in areas that are near large expanses of wilderness such as Whitney or that have weird requirements such as Pax. In Norfolk at least USN helos were backup to the USCG for SAR and the wing maintained an alert posture with USN SAR Alert crews designated at all times. There have been a few cases were the USN was called out because USCG ran out of resources.
 

ChuckMK23

FERS and TSP contributor!
pilot
I'm not sure I follow. As others have pointed out that unit tasked with SAR around Oki is the AF. This is because Oki has a large AF presence. There are NO USN helos based or deployed to Oki so I'm not sure why you're maligning USN capabilities.

If a USN helo had been there it could have conducted the resecue just as well as the AF had. I'm not overly familiar with the capabilities of the 60G but it doesn't have some magic overwater capability that the USN lacks. I'm not even sure if a 60G has rad alt and a hover coupler (paging @busdriver).

Big picture wise USN hasn't invested in long range SAR because it's not a doctrinal responsibility USN holds. USCG handles long range SAR in CONUS. The only place where the USN has primary SAR capabilities is Guam. There are station SAR units in areas that are near large expanses of wilderness such as Whitney or that have weird requirements such as Pax. In Norfolk at least USN helos were backup to the USCG for SAR and the wing maintained an alert posture with USN SAR Alert crews designated at all times. There have been a few cases were the USN was called out because USCG ran out of resources.
I conceded the point - agree.
 

LAMPS Ninja

I love LAMPS?
pilot
I'm not overly familiar with the capabilities of the 60G but it doesn't have some magic overwater capability that the USN lacks. I'm not even sure if a 60G has rad alt and a hover coupler (paging @busdriver).

It's been a few years since my USAF exchange concluded, but as of 2014 there was no meaningful RADALT hold -- and definitely no coupled hover like we have in the Navy. The altitude hold was unreliable at best, and its use wasn't even discussed at the schoolhouse. As it was described to me, the hover coupler system we had was good enough to keep you in an area roughly the size of a football field, but you wouldn't count on it for precision hovering. An upgrade was coming that might have made its way to the fleet by now, and I'd guess that the 33d would be among the first to receive it (being located on an island and all), but even without it, I wouldn't doubt their ability to locate me in an ocean or render assistance to me once they do.
 

TexasForever

Well-Known Member
pilot
Crew Chief talk on plus basic pilot skills should keep you in a pretty stable hover right? Why would you need/trust a hover hold?
 

squorch2

he will die without safety brief
pilot
It's night time, pilot workload, people have died trying to hover at night over water without altitude holds/coupled hovering systems.

I've got more, but the people dying is a pretty good one.
 
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