Sea King retirement

[ChuckMK23]

Norfolk, Va. (Jan. 27, 2006) - The H-3 Sea King takes its final operational flight in the skies above Norfolk, Va., for their final flight before being replaced by the MH-60S Seahawk helicopter.

Talk about a legacy! It's a little sad to see the H-3 go. What longevity. It was, along with a number of it's contempoaries, an aircraft that simply defined Naval Aviation. The A-4, F-4, RA-5, A-6. We now have a nice safe, politically correct and vanilla fleet of Hornets and 60's.

We need A4s to wax poetic about the Sea Pig's retirement...

 

[Pags]

I'm glad I got a chance to log my .2 before they all went off to the boneyard. In fact, it might have even been the helo in the pic above.

 

[BigIron]

Norfolk, Va. (Jan. 27, 2006) - The H-3 Sea King takes its final operational flight in the skies above Norfolk, Va., for their final flight before being replaced by the MH-60S Seahawk helicopter.

Talk about a legacy! It's a little sad to see the H-3 go. What longevity. It was, along with a number of it's contempoaries, an aircraft that simply defined Naval Aviation. The A-4, F-4, RA-5, A-6. We now have a nice safe, politically correct and vanilla fleet of Hornets and 60's.

We need A4s to wax poetic about the Sea Pig's retirement...

Once again the MH-53E is forgotten...

 

[ChuckMK23]

Once again the MH-53E is forgotten...

Sorry BigIron you're right. Ok, well then it's an all Sikorsky fleet. You guys still have the ballsiest thing in the air. Not to mention the most comfy cockpit seats.

 

[jai5w4]

I thought there were a couple of SH-3's still doing (a little) business at NASNI...

 

[ChuckMK23]

nope - they are alll done. HSC-3 has gotten rid of theirs

 

[zab1001]

What about the range birds at Pacific Missile Range in Hawaii?

Maybe they don't count them as "operational" since it's not a squadron.

edit: just shot an email to my buddy (H-3, C-26 type at PMRF). I'll have a def. answer soon.

 

[Fly Navy]

Are the SAR birds from NASP gone?

 

[Pags]

I think a lot of the old H-3s have been being slowly replaced by SH-60Fs. I don't know about the API birds, but I don't think they're used in the SAR role anymore...just school's command support.

 

[Fly Navy]

They're done with the station SAR? Did Mobile CG take over or something? I remember them talking about that when I left there.

 

[Pags]

They're done with the station SAR? Did Mobile CG take over or something? I remember them talking about that when I left there.

An old roommate was an NFO and I remember him telling me that the Navy is no longer responsible for SAR in the area, and that it's now being covered by the CG (out of NOLA I think?). Of course, this was all before Katrina, so who knows how its been changed now.

I was also told that due to some new nationwide plan that the CG is in charge of all overwater SAR and the AF the overland stuff. But this was just a casual coversation, and I have done no research to back it up.

 

[Fly Navy]

We lost our SAR assets here a little over a year ago. Now, if we need rescue, it comes from Jackson... from what I believe is an ANG Cobra (does ANG still fly them?) or Apache unit. Something silly like that.

 

[ChuckMK23]

The Navy helo community has never taken SAR seriously anyway - The AF and CG do this stuff say in and day out pretty well.

 

[beau]

yeah...I got my .2 as well....though as a mid....first and only Helo I've ever flown.....very interesting to say the least! on my first pass around the pattern...I slowed below 60knots and everything started shaking and vibrating pretty hard....thought the thing was stalling!! of course it wasent...but being a fixed wing pilot it was weird to me. Hovering was very challenging!...man that was a blast!!

 

[BigIron]

Sorry BigIron you're right. Ok, well then it's an all Sikorsky fleet. You guys still have the ballsiest thing in the air. Not to mention the most comfy cockpit seats.

I'm overly sensitive:icon_smil

I'm pretty sure Sikorsky is glad it's an all SAC fleet. They have good stuff and better stuff (K model) on the way.