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A Pat On The Back For All Helo Bubbas...

1rotorhead said:
Involved in a rescue of 3 VFA types a few years ago. The kids of one of the guys we picked up sent a care package to the swimmer that pulled him out. The kids made a thank you letter hand written in crayon. Every person who read it teared up a little.
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Very nice!

However I know one notorious VF type (recently released from federal prison) who was never so grateful. I received an email from an old SAR guy just this morning discussing him, that said in part:

"...I remember when we would invite him to HC-7 reunions we had to pay all of his expense's, I guess he forgot that we were the ones that rescued him after he was shot down..."​
 
Catmando said:
Very nice!

However I know one notorious VF type (recently released from federal prison) who was never so grateful. I received an email from an old SAR guy just this morning discussing him, that said in part:

"...I remember when we would invite him to HC-7 reunions we had to pay all of his expense's, I guess he forgot that we were the ones that rescued him after he was shot down..."​
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Hmm...the former congress critter comes across as quite the intolerable f***head...Ace or not.
 
Catmando said:
Very nice!

However I know one notorious VF type (recently released from federal prison) who was never so grateful. I received an email from an old SAR guy just this morning discussing him, that said in part:

"...I remember when we would invite him to HC-7 reunions we had to pay all of his expense's, I guess he forgot that we were the ones that rescued him after he was shot down..."​
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What's Driscoll like?
 
From what I've seen the ARS motto has branched out to multiple services, but it's fitting for those of us that train and dedicate ourselves to saving lives: These things we do, that others may live.
 
I watched the first episode of the show. Pretty good stuff. Something I never noticed but think is awesome: The moustache decals on the front of the aircraft. Out-f'ing-standing.
 
So, I'm watching Inside Combat Rescue and I notice the helos are flying with the cockpit doors off.
Anyone know why?

I can speculate it's for egress reasons, or for better viz in the LZ (which my be countered by brown out in the actual cockpit) or for weight or maybe for airflow/temperature control.

Anyone actually hear why?
 
2 big reasons.

First is brownout. You as the pilot can just look down, still see the ground and land the helo. (Whereas the way Big Navy makes all but -84 fly, with doors on as soon as you hit the cloud you have to rely on your crewmen calling drift and then blindly make corrections.)

Second helps with fastrope. Again you as the pilot can just look down and see where the fastrope is on the ground and fly your own hover, leaving the crewmen to clear the aircraft and man weapons. Same with the brownout issue, when you leave the doors on you have to rely on your crewmen calling drift/placement and use other references to adjust off of.

The Navy Helo community has been requesting for years to be allowed to take the doors off and with the exception of -84 everytime we get shot down. Funny though that "DVE" landings always get brought up at these NARGs and such and there are always requests from on high about what new systems we could integrate, or what new procedures we could institute to lessen the frequency of banging up helos doing them. Yet the easiest/cheapest solution is always denied.
 
Lowflier summed it up nicely but I have yet to lose sight of the ground in any brownout now that I'm flying doors off. You can literally hover in solid brownout, lean out of the door, look down and have perfect sight of the ground.

The amazing part is that overwater you get almost no spray in the cockpit but tons more vis if you're doing HVBSS, etc.

Hopefully some day big Navy will wise up and let everyone else do it. 84/85 shouldn't be the only two considering how much of an improvement in helo control the pilot has in the terminal area.
 
insanebikerboy said:
Lowflier summed it up nicely but I have yet to lose sight of the ground in any brownout now that I'm flying doors off. You can literally hover in solid brownout, lean out of the door, look down and have perfect sight of the ground.

The amazing part is that overwater you get almost no spray in the cockpit but tons more vis if you're doing HVBSS, etc.

Hopefully some day big Navy will wise up and let everyone else do it. 84/85 shouldn't be the only two considering how much of an improvement in helo control the pilot has in the terminal area.
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Wish I could say the same for the M model with anhedral blade tips. Everything gets blown back at the aircraft during landings. We cracked 7 windshields doing dust landings in Albuquerque and in Kuwait. Of course both areas were moon landings, with talcum powder dust littered with small rocks. I would hate to be pegged by a rock while landing.

The other issue we had with doors off was while waiting for a call. With the ECS broken n the HH-60M, there is no ventilation in he back. We had to fly with the windows removed in the cabin. Keeping dust an wild life out of the aircraft while on the ramp was impossible. At Camp Echo in Iraq, we had pidgeons and doves building nests on our arcraft overnight. One even build a nest and laid an egg in the less than 24 hours between daily run ups. Dust storms were another issue.

It appears the Air Force had more resources for their unit. We barely had enough to man both aircraft, the TOC, and do minimal maintenance. They spent more time on the ground before taking off. We never took more than 10 minutes to takeoff once the 9 line came in.

The show is pretty good. i like it. What surprised me was out of the first 3 episodes, I haven't seen them do anything with 50 cals that we didn't do with no guns.
 
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