Underslung loads question

[TD&H]

A question about underslung loads as I saw a Wokka with two loads over Essex this morning with a flight path that would take it between built up areas (alright call them towns).

At least from afar it looked as though it would be clear of the towns, but this made me wonder what is the policy regarding where you can fly with underslung loads? Also what is the SOP with loads if you suffer an engine failure?

It will be interesting to learn, thanks.

[Avtrician]

SOP as far as I recall is to avoid populated areas when carrying an external load, as you dont want to have to drop it on the town square if everything goes pear shaped..

[Yozzer]

Power limiting emergency:

Choices:

Have the USL take you to the scene of the crash.

Bin it and land safely, hoping that it lands on open ground.

Guess which one is SOP?

[Paracab]

Have seen said Wokkas over Essex recently, is anyone in the know able to give basic details of their objective away, without black vehicles pullling onto one's driveway ?

[FJJP]

Paracab, just had an interesting thought - could one find out using the FoI Act?

[I genuinely don't know - inviting someone with knowledge of the Act to educate me...]

[ShyTorque]

With an USL it's not a good idea to fly over a built up area in case of an inadvertent release or an unstable load that requires pickling off - but do remember that the pilot will always have a far better viewpoint than any ground observer could.

Engine failure isn''t the major consideration in the cruise for a twin as the other engine one will allow the aircraft to be manoeuvred safely away from the mandatory infants school and packed old folks' home before jettisoning the load over a safe area. We used to teach pilots to prioritise dropping it on MOD property if possible.

[BOTFOJ]

thanks for the Wokka flypast directly overhead Gatwick yesterday lunchtime too :ok:

[Roger the cabin boy]

The aircrew spend a fair amount of time planning in order to select a route that doesn't directly over-fly towns and villages, where possible. Clearly, that is not always possible, but the pilot will, as in the instance yesterday, gently "weave" around houses etc to minimise risk.

The activity in East Anglia has just been routine training and tasking - nothing secretive, I promise! :cool: Ash and trash, as ever!

SOP in an emergency is to fly the load to a safe area and ditch if neccessary. Obviously, some emergencies will prevent that, but they are most unlikely.

[BTDTGTTShirt]

Shy Torque
A very true statement you make by saying its not such a good idea to fly over built up areas with an USL. I remember during the early days with Chinooks down in the Falklands. We had a few nasty incidents with loads just fecking off for no apparent reason. We “lost” generators, porta cabins, boll@cks, iso containers not to mention a few shake on mini containers:O
We discovered that you can make quite a bang dropping a 2000 kg boll@ck full of diesel from 1000 ft:ok:
Only ever had to pickle a load off once and that was an FH70. Big gun! Helps when the rigging team put the breaks on otherwise when you land it at designated point which is on quite a steep slope of a valley side. Bloody thing developed a life of its own when it touched down and tried to take us with it. “Ping” When all the dust had settled it looked very sad with its barrel stuck in the mud bank on the other side of the stream:confused:
Very nearly had a similar experience in the Falklands trying to put a phantom onto a small ship, because of the downwash no one wanted to choc it.
Happy days.

[The Helpful Stacker]

I once saw a Chinook release a 4 tonner over Otterburn. The load was spinning like mad and the pilot appeared to be having a lot of trouble with it. It made a hell of a thump, the noise rolling gracefully up the valley towards us. Apparently those experts load riggers at JHSU had used 1200 cord instead of 150 for the breakaways which had made the load very unstable when some broke but others didn't.

The RLC had set up a Logs base over the road from us on the Harrier strip and this 4 tonner was destined for them. The vehicle arrived eventually, on a couple of DROPS lorries.

;)

[TD&H]

Gentlemen all, thank you for your replies. Kind of what I expected, but its always good to get a true answer rather than an assumption.

ShyTorque and Roger tcb you've given me a wonderful image of all military maps being marked with infant schools and old fogies homes with captions 'avoid this in an emergency and you'll get a spiffing write up in the educated press'.

Cheers, H:ok:

[Pontius Navigator]

The FOI will give you the true answer within 20 working days provided you provide a name and address - email will do.

Years ago we used to truck the odd 1,000lbs or few and were routed to avoid BUAs en route to the target.

Waddo, 21, turn left, miss Skeg, turn left, keep land on left, arrive Garvie Island, reduce load by 10t and RTB.

If the load was not reduced by 10t then we had a problem.

[Mmmmnice]

having had the odd load drop off/need releasing, I never plan to fly a load over anything I wouldn't want it to land on! common sense really?