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Random Griz Aviation Musings

Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
Summer has arrived in FL. A lot of chaos that Jax Approach was doing their best to manage yesterday. Everyone was holding where ever they could find an open hole while we all waited for a pretty large cell to move through.

VQQ and NIP are somewhere in this mess, along with one pissed off tanker (we're all here for you, STEAM 46).

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The flight was supposed to be a little more than a 1:30, but turned out to be longer. My pax weren't completely happy.

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Although he eventually got less annoyed than my wife.

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Finally I was able to grab the visual with some light rain as the storm moved on, and it was off to home to have a cocktail...
 

hlg6016

A/C Wings Here
Saw this set up on the Sheriff's new Bell 429. Super sweet. All the bells and whistles. Sorry I never got to fly in it.

Is this something new? Don't recall seeing anything like it in a new UH-60M I saw several months ago. Anyone fly with this panel guard thing? You like it?
View attachment 38139
That takes "don't touch my shit" to a whole new level.
 

wink

War Hoover NFO.
None
Super Moderator
Contributor
Saw this set up on the Sheriff's new Bell 429. Super sweet. All the bells and whistles. Sorry I never got to fly in it.

Is this something new? Don't recall seeing anything like it in a new UH-60M I saw several months ago. Anyone fly with this panel guard thing? You like it?
View attachment 38139
It is their primary SAR bird. I was wondering if it was to prevent the Mountain Rescue guys from leaning on it or throwing gear up there. My experience was they were all very sharp and possessed a minimum of airmanship not making that likely. Maybe because they are more likely to have civilians in the cabin.
 
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IKE

Nerd Whirler
pilot
Just received a visit by a section of plopters, one Navy CMV-22 and one Marine MV-22. Both full of pax. Guessing from Pax River. Nice overhead break - shook my office window! Grabbed the duty vehicle and got a peek from ops.
View attachment 38084View attachment 38085
Here's what was happening:
 

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
So this guy fascinates me. Called HeavyD Sparks, he is known for making crazy truck modifications and I guess he has a show on some cable channel. In any case, he learned to fly in a Rotorway Jet Exec and later bought a MBB and now has an H-60. Apparently when he got the -60 he found out it had a cracked pylon but he paid for the replacement and now flies the thing around! Who knows that chop shop work paid so well?

 

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
Has anyone here seen Triple Frontier on Netflix? It's a rare movie that uses a helicopter sling load accident (on a Hind?!) as a major plot device...
I’ve seen it. It is a good, fun movie. The helicopter is an MI-8 Hip and the crash scene is well done.
 
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ChuckMK23

FERS and TSP contributor!
pilot
So this guy fascinates me. Called HeavyD Sparks, he is known for making crazy truck modifications and I guess he has a show on some cable channel. In any case, he learned to fly in a Rotorway Jet Exec and later bought a MBB and now has an H-60. Apparently when he got the -60 he found out it had a cracked pylon but he paid for the replacement and now flies the thing around! Who knows that chop shop work paid so well?

@Griz882 This guy - and others like him are what I call the "Beard and Carhartt" helo crowd. We have two helicopter flight schools in the area and I know the principals/owners well. About 60% of the students in both these schools are your normal professionally minded types with solid goals and climbing the professional rungs. The other 30% are the tatted up, "Beard and Carhartt" crowd who scrape every last dime from their day jobs driving a truck with unrealilstic dreams and disorganized training engagement - as they build time toward attaining a Private Pilot - Rotorcraft Helicopter rating that they will never achieve. One guy - when I struck up a conversation, shared his vision of how he and a buddy "are gonna buy an old Huey and fix-her-up and paint it cool and travel the country living in the back, making money doing aerial contruction and firefighting' without any grounding on what it would actually take. I'm all for dreams, believe me and I'm not going to burst a mans bubble - but they come in with wads of cash, fly and not seen again for 3-4 months. lol.
 

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
@Griz882 This guy - and others like him are what I call the "Beard and Carhartt" helo crowd. We have two helicopter flight schools in the area and I know the principals/owners well. About 60% of the students in both these schools are your normal professionally minded types with solid goals and climbing the professional rungs. The other 30% are the tatted up, "Beard and Carhartt" crowd who scrape every last dime from their day jobs driving a truck with unrealilstic dreams and disorganized training engagement - as they build time toward attaining a Private Pilot - Rotorcraft Helicopter rating that they will never achieve. One guy - when I struck up a conversation, shared his vision of how he and a buddy "are gonna buy an old Huey and fix-her-up and paint it cool and travel the country living in the back, making money doing aerial contruction and firefighting' without any grounding on what it would actually take. I'm all for dreams, believe me and I'm not going to burst a mans bubble - but they come in with wads of cash, fly and not seen again for 3-4 months. lol.
I guess so. I mean as a helicopter owner I toy with the idea of buying a turbine ship but the costs are staggering - and I’m just thinking a 206 or similar! A UH-1 or (heaven forbid) an H-60 would be like buying three houses and then setting them on fire so you can buy three more!
 
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