If you get yourself shot down you've done no good, and probably resulted in mission failure.
-
Please take a moment and update your account profile. If you have an updated account profile with basic information on why you are on Air Warriors it will help other people respond to your posts. How do you update your profile you ask?
Go here:
Edit Account Details and Profile
HCS-5 Re-established
- Thread starter bubblehead
- Start date
If you get yourself shot down you've done no good, and probably resulted in mission failure.
There's a lot more mountains than MANPADS in those mountains. HIRSS is cutting off your nose to spite your face. Somewhere there's an engineer who surely could've designed a method to reduce exhaust heat sig without robbing power - we just didn't specify that requirement in the contract.
Keep in mind, the 160th has no say in who we support, it most decidedly "directed". The current incarnation of HCS-5 will do a lot more for theater NSW both in CONUS training and deployed than we can resource.
The real crime is that we're making more efforts to support theater SOF in CONUS, but are chopped to a different boss when deployed, which does a great injustice to the Team guys with regards to consistency and SOPs.
If you ask me, I wish NAVAIR had 2 more NSW squadrons and MARSOC too, maybe our OPTEMPO would slow down a little. Heck, if they'd done this 3 years ago, I would've transfered back to the Navy to fly for them. Think they'd take a 40 years old CW4 with 22 years in?
MR-
There is a solution. The up-turned exhaust. I have some pictures of a UH-60M with them at Ft.Rucker. Unfortunately I am getting an "Upload Failed" and its only 79k. WARNING: They look gay...like the Batmobile. Plus, the first thing an Army aviator will do with them is cook some blades with the rotor brake set on start up.
HIRSS is only one of the problems, if you want to call it that. Ballistic armor plates (BAPs) and Inlet barrier Filters (IBFs) are major power robbers as well. At least CMWS (APR-39, AVR-2B, etc...) is not that heavy. Thank goodness we finally lost the ALQ-144.
I'll take the HIRSS and other ASE equipment, but would love to lose the mechanical litter pan, ECS, and non-opening parasitic bubble windows in our HH-60Ms. In other words, give me a UH-60M with a FLIR and BAPs integrated into the floor instead of just added on top. It's pretty ridiculous that we weigh over 18.5k at takeoff with only 360 gallons of fuel internal and nothing external.
I gathered some fun facts for the 60M:
- IBF = +14 sq ft drag
- HIRSS = +14 lbs/hr fuel flow and 1% difference with baffles removed (we cannot remove the entire HIRSSa
- HONTEK blade coating + 2%, but recent AWR says between 4-8% in sn OGE hover and +4 sq ft of drag for cruise airspeed
- Engines power available goes from 105% to 90% climbing from 0' to 10,000' PA
- Engine power required in a hover increases 5% for each additional 1000 lbs gross weight
- Wide chord blades = -5% in a hover
- BAPs = approx +800 lbs (don't want to wake crew chief to get W&B book, so just an estimate)
Edit: Before discounting the HIRSS, see what your threat brief guys say about it.
I think that's the difficult part, getting them comfortable with just showing up to the random ship/place/etc and going from there. I know of a few cases where it has happened but it's been so isolated that I wouldn't call it a trend by any means as of yet.
Absolutely agree! There is definitely a "quality spread" in tactics proficiency across HSC, and it is usually based on CO whimsy (based on what I have personally seen). I can't blame the customer for wanting to screen their help.
Not something that can be discussed on an open forum, but the up turn exhaust has some very serious issues that make it worse than HIRSS. Its the ALQ-144 of exhaust suppression...
Serious question and not trying to poke at you, but can't they remove the HIRSS? I thought I saw a couple of Sierras in Haiti that weren't wearing them.
And then you have to deal with letting the CTF responsible for logistics letting you go for the work, dealing with civilian time cards to man the deck, a ship that doesn't have the right IT gear, and the list goes on.......
Never seen a sierra without HIRSS. Like bert said, PCOSI improves boot up times. If youre standing an alert you can always do a SH ALIGN after your first spin to reduce egi load times.
In the regime that scoob is flying in good preflight calcs to include Ps should help keep you abreast of a/c performance. Paying attention to Pr vs Pa, Ps, and blade stall is a lot more important the further you get from sea level. As primarily sea level dwellers its something we tend to forget about as demonstrated by HSM-41.
No poke taken - I've asked the question myself. I may ask again - but I'm guessing there's some serious anal spectrometry from NAVAIR involved with it.
I've also asked about moving the engine cowling latch back up front - it totally messes up my whole preflight gymnastic performance - particularly the dismount.
Even more glad we passed on the opportunity to "upgrade."
I'll have to dig through my pictures and see if I have an accidental photo of the Sierra that I swear I saw. It wasn't all of them, but one of the dets' birds.
As for gynmastics...I HATE it when the rescue hoist is removed. Completely screws up my foot placement/routine.
Won't argue with that at all.
I know I wouldn't want to be flying in Iraq in the spring of 2007 without HIRSS