Unreal heli rescue

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My buddy Ernie, Vietnam war chopper evac. Described a situation. One chopper ahead of him on the ground. Both got loaded. Started taking fire. He saw tracers going over the chopper ahead of him. That chopper stayed low and mowed through a bamboo grove to get out of there. Ernie followed.

@akflightmedic Could you explain something? Ernie told me about some of his evacs. His words, about, "I'd let the stick out until it started to bob and weave then backed off a little." What exactly did he mean by that?
 
I would definitely ask Ernie. I have never made a claim of having pilot training even remotely associated with my name or career.
 
akflightmedic said:
I would definitely ask Ernie. I have never made a claim of having pilot training even remotely associated with my name or career.
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Okay. So, any chopper pilots here?
Duh on me. Almost first hit on a web search. When the returning downwind blade is no longer moving through the air fast enough to provide lift equal to the lift of the opposite upwind blade. Excessive airspeed.
 
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UH-1 (or Huey's) where built to make their own LZ's in Vietnam; the blades would cut tree tops down far enough that they could get troop loads close to the ground, to jump off, push off supplies and load wounded. My Bro in law who flew as a door gunner on them said that they would take trees up to 2-3" in diameter depending on the type of trees. They put metal on the leading edge of the last 4 feet of the rotor blades.
 
@johnrsemt Doing chest compressions while staring out the wide open doorway of a chopper was as close as I want to come to the hard core craziness I've heard and read about that the Nam flight crews had to put up with every day.
 
johnrsemt said:
UH-1 (or Huey's) where built to make their own LZ's in Vietnam; the blades would cut tree tops down far enough that they could get troop loads close to the ground, to jump off, push off supplies and load wounded. My Bro in law who flew as a door gunner on them said that they would take trees up to 2-3" in diameter depending on the type of trees. They put metal on the leading edge of the last 4 feet of the rotor blades.
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Military grade helicopters are a far cry from those used in civilian HEMS...even If they are surplus. As has been pointed out in this thread, the military in a combat zone does not have to deal with the FAA and their regs.
 
ffemt8978 said:
Military grade helicopters are a far cry from those used in civilian HEMS...even If they are surplus. As has been pointed out in this thread, the military in a combat zone does not have to deal with the FAA and their regs.
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FAA oversight of Part 91 operations is pretty minimal. And more importantly, regulations are bent and broken all the time.

I honestly don't question for a moment that some cowboy ex-vietnam pilot flying for a public safety agency in the 1980's would have done something like this.
 
WTF is this thread?
 
Remi said:
FAA oversight of Part 91 operations is pretty minimal. And more importantly, regulations are bent and broken all the time.

I honestly don't question for a moment that some cowboy ex-vietnam pilot flying for a public safety agency in the 1980's would have done something like this.
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I'm not questioning that either...I'm just doubtful the mechanic wouldn't have had a come to Jesus meeting with the pilot afterwards. Somebody was going to have to explain why new rotors were probably needed.
 
ffemt8978 said:
I'm not questioning that either...I'm just doubtful the mechanic wouldn't have had a come to Jesus meeting with the pilot afterwards. Somebody was going to have to explain why new rotors were probably needed.
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Yep. And it’s not like rotor blades are cheap. When we flew the Bell 222 each rotor blade was $330k.
 
CALEMT said:
it was sarcasm. You guys are like the NSA you know everything.
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I know it was...but I gotta get my fun in somehow since @Chimpie took the ban hammer and won't give it back. :p
 
Meanwhile, over at the other end of the spectrum/universe from my OP...
I was up at the helipad yesterday because I like to watch helicopters which are very rare here. I've been told most of the choppers here are Vietnam war relics mostly reserved for ferrying VIPs around. (On a good day in bright light I can tell a helicopter from a hot air balloon so I don't have a clue what they are here).
And this chopper comes in to land. It's a big helipad. I've seen 3 choppers sitting on the ground there. In he comes and ... and ... hover, drift over here, over there, goes up a little, down a little, crosses the entire area once and goes back up maybe 100 feet, down again, noses across the entire area, tries to back up... all told, no exaggeration, more than 3 minutes to get the skids on the ground.
At one point I was thinking self preservation. Could I run fast enough if he looked like he was going to pile in?

Then a little counterpoint. People mill around for a while then a car pulls up and a rather glamorous woman gets out. She dons a jump suit over her clothes, strolls over to the chopper, spools it up ignoring the people hurrying to get clear, pops it into the air a few feet then takes off backwards, pivots and is heading for the horizon.
ffemt8978 said:
So what am I then???
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You need some banner, wave a huge flag, some fireworks maybe, to differentiaite between you and the know all see all end all be all mega mouths* heavily populating the threads.

* Unlike me. I enjoy an occasional meal of humble pie and learning something new. Got some words of wisdom? Lay it on me! Correction? Let's hear it! Need citations (that a web search wouldn't instantly turn up? I can usually dig them up, maybe with pictures.

PS I'm glad I didn't mention some of the other chopper escapades I've seen that made me go 'Did I really see that?'. The Chinook prancing and dancing the CGAS or army reserve does can get close to causing cardiac arrhythmias)
Chinook: RBMF 2R2E Flight crew: "We only got one engine lit so we're going slow." Me: .oO(SAY WHAT? You can lose an engine and keep on trucking?)
 
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I feel like every one of your posts is a fabricated lie that has no bearing to this forum whatsoever aside from telling "war stories" which are most likely not true.

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Anyone who has been in this field any length of time has their war stories to tell. Most of us refrain from going down that path unless we are using it as a teaching/ learning experience or to get questions answered. Telling "back when I was" stories for their own sake is a good way to get a thread locked for being off topic to the forum.

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