Most Valuable Underslung Load

[peterperfect]

Noting the precious Red Bull F1 car being taken up to the Burj al Arab Hotel Heliport, I wonder if any fellow Ppruners can relate what has been the most expensive load ever lifted by helicopter ?

Subtext for the thread can also be the most valuable ever dropped/lost at sea....!
pp

[John Eacott]

I imagine some of the stuff we used to sling in the RN was reasonably high value, but I've no idea how much! Phantom Spey engine, Russian SOSUS buoy (squillions!), etc etc.

I lifted an F1 into the Melbourne Tennis Centre for Mercedes some years ago for a promo before the Melbourne GP, probably had some value to someone. We had a practice lift earlier and the riggers caught a mirror with a strop, casual $10,000 just for the carbon fibre mirror arm :cool:

Disembarking from Eagle one of our Squadron had the doors fly open on the underslung chacon which had all the lads' baggage after a 9 month Far East pleasure cruise. Certainly a valuable load lost at sea for the owners :eek:

http://www.eacott.com.au/gallery/d/1279-1/826+Sea+King+142+with+chacon+underslung+air+to+air+over+Looe +Bar+Cornwall.jpg

[wmy]

The Alinghi Americas Cup Catamaran would be a strong competitor:
http://www.sailmagazine.com/racing/alinghi_water_landing.jpg

The ship has dimensions of 35m x 25m x 4m and a flying weight of 12tonnes. It was slung by a Mil Mi-26 from Lake Geneva (Switzerland) climbing to 3000m (!) over the Alps to Genua (Mediterranean).
http://www.20min.ch/diashow/25898/7382160-588eab7ffaaf78f96695f454ef72f9fd.jpg

The mast of the Catamaran (fully carbon composite, 60m long, 2.7tonnes) was slung with a Superpuma the same routing:
http://www.20min.ch/diashow/25898/7381885-aff6250008cd1ff3544a6d618ec0bf72.jpg

Both had to land in Italy for intermediate fuel stop:
http://www.schenk-photos.ch/GENEVA_1/Alinghi_transport_helicoptere_files/web%20AL%20a%20Genes%20CB.jpg

http://www.schenk-photos.ch/GENEVA_1/Alinghi_transport_helicoptere_files/web%20AL%20arrive%20a%20Genes%203%20-%20CB.jpg

Rumor sais, the process of design, research and construction took overall about 90 million Euros...

walter

[ShyTorque]

One of our Cold War usl jobs was Lance missile resupply (i.e. tactical nuke).

Best not to jettison one of those..... :ooh:

[John Eacott]

The Alinghi Americas Cup Catamaran would be a strong competitor

A thread about it: Yachting: Alinghi airlifts yacht over the Alps to the sea (http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/384228-yachting-alinghi-airlifts-yacht-over-alps-sea.html)

[Ian Corrigible]

A convenient excuse to post this:

QgdFotAkUEU

(The vid ends before a left landing gear deployment failure results in the Dream Chaser tumbling off the runway; full extent of the damage still not revealed.)

I/C

[Bravo73]

The Alinghi Americas Cup Catamaran would be a strong competitor

Is that catamaran more valuable than either a) a broken Chinook:

http://defense-update.com/images_new2/mi6_afghan.jpg

b) an airliner:

http://www.panoramio.com/photos/original/25923980.jpg

or c) an F-16:

http://media.defenceindustrydaily.com/images/AIR_CH-47_Dutch_Carrying_F-16_lg.jpg

?

[Jack Carson]

The 6594th Test Group utilized a combination of C-130 and HH-53C aircraft to snatch spy satellite film canisters either in flight or out of the Pacific Ocean off Hawaii during the cold war. At the time, the information contained in these retrievals would have been considered priceless even if the actual value of the physical film canisters were of little or no value.

[hookes_joint]

There's no monetary value you can put on a persons life, so live load short haul HEC etc has got to be number 1.
Whether doing short haul rescue or getting the linemen up to the towers, there's no load that will demand more concentration when lifting or will change your life forever if you lose it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GBWHUdPQCH8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fuf6FJSM4Ns

[nomorehelosforme]

I reckon IC has posted the must valuable load so far! There again how much does a Nuke cost?

[SASless]

Mine was a six man Dive/Rescue Team.

What value do you place on a Human Life that is entrusted to you when you dangle them from a 150' Long Line?

[HLCPTR]

SAS

I recall McGuire (sp?) rigs on multiple occasions.

Got the T-shirt... for hauling, not for riding. ;)

[ShyTorque]

I know of one particular pilot who was very surprised to see the same bloke at both the load pick up point and the load drop point........

Underslung Christmas trees were involved so it's not the most valuable load but quite seasonal.

[spinwing]

Mmmmm ...

I seem to remember being seeing certain Maori (and Pakeha) gents hitching helicopter rides by sitting on captured/shot deer attached to the machines in nets (or otherwise?) :=

.... certainly the deer were valuable ;)

Ahhh ... those crazy Venison recovery days !! :ugh:

[ShyTorque]

The "hooker up" I'm referring apparently got inadvertently tangled up during the load pick up and decided it best just to literally hang on until the aircraft got to the drop point.

[Ready2Fly]

...and to "hold on tight" i bet :eek:

[9Aplus]

Not the most valuable, but still nice $$$ pile :cool:
5-pJ2XaKu2o

Aston Martin - Dubai Centenary Spectacular at Burj Al Arab - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-pJ2XaKu2o&feature=youtu.be)

[SASless]

I guess one such dropped load might qualify.

A brand new UH-1H Command and Control Radio equipped Huey had a hydraulics failure....less than 25 flight hours on the aircraft since new. We were tasked to sling it back to Chu Lai from LZ Baldy. Per our standard procedure we routed out over the South China Sea cruising south at 3,000 feet.

All was normal until we felt a sudden bump....and the FE say rather excitedly...."Aw ****!".

We circled around and watched a Huey set a speed record straight down into the ocean with a huge splash at the end of the descent.

Fortunately for us we were able to retain the remains of the Strop (provided by the Huey Unit) that had snapped.

Such a shame really....and reminds you that anything that gets hauled by sling load under a Helicopter should be expendable....as bad things do happen every now and then.

[heliduck]

Back in 2000 Buzz Aviation's B407 from Sydney slung Richard Branson into Cockle bay for the Australian launch of Virgin Mobile. Imagine the insurance claims if that went wrong! I don't know who was flying at the time.

[Decredenza]

Not quite as spectacular as the other loads but I hauled a $3 million remote control submarine (for tunnel inspections) with an AStar.

When the conversation turned to the possibility of a dropped load they turned down the optional insurance. I turned off the electric release...

[OvertHawk]

The inadvertent pax in the "Christmas tree" incident did not have the option of holding on - he was suspended upside down by his ankle which had got caught in a loop of the rope that was being used to sling the trees. Fortunately for him his boot did not come off and the pilot (who was unaware of the stow away until after the incident) put the load down gently so as not to break the trees... Very Very lucky escape! :eek:

OH