The Air Operations Department at NAS Key West recently took delivery of the former YSH-60F prototype. This aircraft will be used for search and rescue duties.
BuNo 163282 had previoulsy been stationed at NAS Jax as a maintenance trainer and had not flown in over three years. The "Dragonslayers" of HS-11 were tasked with removing the aircrafts ASW suite and restoring the SeaHawk to flying status. Squadron maintenance personnel worked more than 1400 hours to accomplish this feat!
The aircraft is the first of numerous SH-60F's that will be deconfigured of ASW gear and tasked with SAR duties. These aircraft receive the designation UH-60F and replace the UH-3H as air station SAR assets.
BuNo 163282 had previoulsy been stationed at NAS Jax as a maintenance trainer and had not flown in over three years. The "Dragonslayers" of HS-11 were tasked with removing the aircrafts ASW suite and restoring the SeaHawk to flying status. Squadron maintenance personnel worked more than 1400 hours to accomplish this feat!
The aircraft is the first of numerous SH-60F's that will be deconfigured of ASW gear and tasked with SAR duties. These aircraft receive the designation UH-60F and replace the UH-3H as air station SAR assets.
We had this one bird which had been a hangar queen for over a year. When they put the hub and MRBs back together, they had put them on in the wrong order, so when we turned it up for the first time, I thought the whole thing was going to shake itself apart. As it was, we almost ended up on our side before everything was shut down.