Originally Posted by
Tourist
I was flying hercs into an airstrip at 5000 ft in the highlands of New GUinea. Normally our loads were taken from the airstrip to the final destination by truck, but a landslide took out the road. For a while, the high priority items were being slung by some Columbia Helicopter Chinooks which were there operating in those oil fields. 20,000 lb was the load limit we were given for the Connexes full of high priority stuff .
I would speculate that Columbia's Chinooks were stripped of everything not strictly necessary for carrying maximum sling loads, and were lighter airframes than a CH-47 in military trim, much as our L-382's are significantly lighter than a Airforce 130H, despite being 15 ft longer. My colleagues who are former AF speak of BOWs for the C-130's almost 10,000 lb heavier than our planes. A similar thing may be in play here. Other than that, I'm done arguing with you about something I've been involved in and have seen first hand and you haven't.