Down wash yarns

[mickjoebill]

Whats the most novel, unorthodox or funny incidents you've encountered involving downwash?

This recent incident is :cool:

http://news.sky.com/skynews/video/videoplayer/0,,91059-deer_180107_1200,00.html



Mickjoebill

[Hiro Protagonist]

That deer rescue was great!

A friend of mine dislodged a large wheeled dumpster with some spare Bell 214 wind, and sent it rolling downhill toward the highway below... Luckily the dumpster took out it's aggression on a parked vehicle rather than reaching the road where the results could have been worse than a dented bumper.

[helopat]

From my PERSONAL experience...ages ago (in the USN) at an airshow in Boulder City, NV (just outside Vegas) there was an airshow. We were a static display (Seahawk) parked between a CH-53 and a Chinook. After the show, we had to split so we opted to lift and depart from between the two other aircraft.
Now, the Seahawk puts out a lot of downwash, but not enough to be a problem for our neighbouring aircraft. However, about 50 metres along our departure path, a whole row of porta-loo's went ass over teakettle as we passed overhead...OOOPS! Fortunately nobody 'aboard' those babies when they went ass up...just a few embarassed moments for us to ponder.
Come to think of it, on another occasion inbound to McCarran Airport in Vegas we were directed to air transit from the threshold of the duty runway to the parallel taxiway to land. As we did so (at about 60-80 feet) we blew up a TREMENDOUS cloud of dust which caused tower to have to 'waveoff' the inbound RPT aircraft (which, I believe, was the reason for the direction to air taxi to land on the taxiway)...as soon as we switched to Ground we were told "call me as soon as you shutdown" by the controllers (uh, oh). Fortunately, after explaining that we were moving on the aerodrome as directed by them, they cooled down a bit...no harm done.
There have been instances (not me, thank Christ) where Seahawks have blown corrugated panels off the roofs of buildings and, on at least one occasion, blown light civil aircraft over on the flightline (YOINK!). I guess when you're flying 10 tonnes of aircraft it takes a bit of energy to do it and that energy, in the form of the downwash, can do nasty things.
HP

[SASless]

Vietnam 1968

LZ West near Que Son Valley southwest of Da Nang

Mountain top artillery base

Chinook doing resupply runs with sling loads

Boonie Rat gets caught on the helipad heading for the water trailer with a Jerry can in each hand

In a fit of desperation he seeks shelter in the four hole dunny (fuel drums cut in half for receptacles and burned every day)

Me...new pilot in country

Overshoots the pad...pulled LOTS of power to get stopped

Dunny and said Rat levitates momentarily then over the side of the mountain they go....rolling,bouncing, jumping, contents including said Rat going every which way on its way down to the concentina wire and trip flares

We drop the sling load at its appointed place and peer down the hillside from a hover

Said Rat seen looking like a Chocolate covered Snow Man and not smiling for some reason....he'd pay money at the County Fair for a ride like that

Dilemna....four loads left to go to the LZ where now very upset Rat has access to all sorts of things that go Bang

Extra sortie laid on at no cost to supported unit to fetch a water trailer just for the Unwashed Boonie Rat

Seems a bit funny now but at the time....oh Buddy!

[helopat]

Vietnam 1968
LZ West near Que Son Valley southwest of Da Nang
Mountain top artillery base
Chinook doing resupply runs with sling loads
Boonie Rat gets caught on the helipad heading for the water trailer with a Jerry can in each hand
In a fit of desperation he seeks shelter in the four hole dunny (fuel drums cut in half for receptacles and burned every day)
Me...new pilot in country
Overshoots the pad...pulled LOTS of power to get stopped
Dunny and said Rat levitates momentarily then over the side of the mountain they go....rolling,bouncing, jumping, contents including said Rat going every which way on its way down to the concentina wire and trip flares
We drop the sling load at its appointed place and peer down the hillside from a hover
Said Rat seen looking like a Chocolate covered Snow Man and not smiling for some reason....he'd pay money at the County Fair for a ride like that
Dilemna....four loads left to go to the LZ where now very upset Rat has access to all sorts of things that go Bang
Extra sortie laid on at no cost to supported unit to fetch a water trailer just for the Unwashed Boonie Rat
Seems a bit funny now but at the time....oh Buddy!

* Cost of training a Chinook Pilot - $ ___________ (fill in price here)
* Cost of moving helicopter and pilot to Vietnam - $ _________(take a stab at price here)
**Value of blowing a shi**er down a mountain and seeing 'chocolate covered snowman' emerge STANKY and PISSED OFF but relatively unharmed - PRICELESS!!

[Ascend Charlie]

Landed our Huey (in the 70s) on the tarmac outside the civil terminal in Tamworth, because that was where the fuel plug was. After the refuel, an F27 Friendship taxies in, and stops quite near to us -access to the plug, and all. Passegers unload, and there will be a 20-minute wait for the load-up and departure.

We can't wait that long, so with the F27 captain's agreement, we crank up for departure.

The Hostesses (as they were called in those days) were standing on the top of the steps, watching us.

Full throttle, 6600 revs, we pull pitch. And the hostie's dresses flip upwards over their heads to make them look like roses. Laughed so hard, could hardly hover taxy away. VERY red faces watching us from inside the cabin, applause from the refueller.:sad: :ok: :8

[SASless]

Vietnam 1969

Pineapple area west of Saigon

Chinook scraping the top of the pineapple plants and Nipa Palms with her ears laid back....hauling the mail!

Lunch time harkens as belly's growl

Light bulb flashing in young Warrant Officer's pea sized brain

We'll hit the 199th Brigade HQ Mess....best steaks in the country

Me...brain in stop forgets to slow down until a bit late

Chinook laid on its side, lever on the bottom....and as we cross the Monsoon ditch with its single log foot bridge....pulled power to max trying to stop

Seen through the chin bubble at a strangely odd angle....a pair of very shiny jungle boots and a bright shiny star imbossed on a steel helmet and some very starched jungle fatiques now headed nose first into the muck of the monsoon ditch.

Up Lever...roll out into trimmed flight...cyclic to the forward stops...and head quickly to any place else for a meal of cold canned C Rations.

I am sure the General thought we did it on purpose....but we did not hang around to inquire. Momma always said one could be too curious.

[John Eacott]

RNAS Culdrose, 1969: the Sea King was new to the RN, and we still did a lot of things the way that we'd always done with the Wessex, such as hover taxi everywhere.

Cue lonely Hiller 12E on solo sloped landing practise, usual area alongside the ammo dump. Quite predictably, the downwash from a passing King Dipper neatly rolled the 12E in a ball down the slope, unnoticed by all, including the tower over the other side of the field.

Tearful Midshipman eventually makes his way on foot across the airfield, nearly as upset by the accident as by the fact that no one noticed, nor missed him :p

[leopold bloom]

Some years ago an RAF Sea King from Manston was scrambled to a light aircraft in trouble crossing the Channel from France. Light aircraft carries out a text book forced landing in a field, everyone OK and no damage done to aircraft. The Yellow helicopter arrives and the crew decide to land-on next to the light aircraft. As they arrive in the hover the rotorwash blows the light aircraft over. Next day's headlines in the local rag went something along the lines of: "Bungling Helicopter Crew Downs French Air Ace".:D

[diginagain]

I, too, have had cause to bowl over a row of porta-cludgies, but this time by remote control.

I was given the task of marshalling incoming aircraft into the static park at a heli-meet. At the same time, a bloke from a different unit was trying to get his portaloos lined up. One aircraft was going to arrive late, and due to the prevailing wind, would have to shoot his approach over the 'facilities'. The other bloke outranked me (considerably), and wouldn't wait until the aircraft had arrived, and so I had to marshall a US Navy SH-3 directly over a row of about 20 interconnected loos.

Nobody was surprised when they all fell over in a smart and military fashion. What did cause a shock was when Officer i/c emerged from one, somewhat soiled, having decided to test his installation.

[verticalhold]

Terribly wussie really after SASless et al.
Landed with a very famous actress at a major sports event. Ground crew were a bit quick and actress jumped out and had her skirt blown right up.
Leader of the GH team came up to me later and said "Thanks mate that *** ****** hasn't half got a bloody hairy a***."
Never seen her in the same light since.

[Head Turner]

Bell JetRanger tasked to drop off Bride and Groom at hotel where the reception was being held after the wedding.
The problem was that the space behind the hotel was tight and it was Summer time and the restaurant had outside tables with parasoles. This was in the New Forest in southern UK. On the descent to land several of the parasoles lifed off and got airbourne, one managing to fly right over the three storey building and land point first on the roof of a car.
The car just happened to be the limo for the bride and groom....OOOPPs.

[Lord Mount]

I did a skydiving display into an emergency services event.
The event was held in a park with lots of tall trees all over it.

One of the most popular attractions (apart from the heroic skydivers) was an RAF Chinook static display. The crew were doing a fine job all day showing people round.

Unfortunately the aircraft had to leave before the end of the event. The crowds were ushered back and marshalls did their best to keep people back.

Due to the trees surrounding the aircraft I realised it would have to be a max perf TO and I was trying desperately to get the marshalls to push the crowd back at least twice the distance they were standing.

I got the impression that the thoughts of the marshalls were 'What does this bloke know. He jumps out of airplanes. He is obviously mentally subnormal. I shall ignore him and hope he goes away.'

With engines burning and rotors turning I saw the pilot and cojo trying to wave the marshalls back away from the aircraft but, like me, they were being steadfastly ignored.

It was quite surreal standing back away from the aircraft to see everyone (yes everyone) knocked over as the Chinook leapt into the air. I saw two baby buggies (thankfully empty) blown about 200 yards away and damaged beyond repair.

The impulse to subsequently find those marshalls and give them the 'told you so' look was just too strong to resist.

[Hughesy]

I had to pick up a family from their private property and take them for a 10 minute flight to drop of at Aucklands downtown heliport.
Landed at property in Squirrel, frictioned it up and jumped out to make introductions.
Chatting to parents and was about to load the heli up, when husband needed something from the house, so I said I would load the kids in (including 20 year old daughter) while the husband was away. The son climbed in, followed by the daughter in a summer dress, there was just enough downwash/recirculation to blow the dress up over her head...right in front of me! She was pretty quick to pull it down, but not fast enough for her parents not to see, which they thought was pretty funny.
The downtown helipad is right next to a resturant, so I kindly advised her to hold on this time, as 30 diners might also find it funny. No more incidents, but had a smile for the rest of the flight.
Hughesy

[ShyTorque]

Scene: A Police Squirrel was chasing and videoing an illegally ridden quad bike and a motorcycle across a disused and very dusty coal tip. Both disappeared under a railway bridge and the bike was dumped out of sight (it was stolen). Both riders appeared again at full speed on the quadbike. Rider eventually gave up after the helicopter sat across his bows, matching his speed. He got off the quad bike in disgust. The pilot (me) was asked to land so he could be arrested. As the aircraft approached a low hover, the angry looking rider suddenly ran full tilt at the heli. As his intentions were unknown and he was about to endanger both himself and the aircraft, the pilot went around. As the heli moved away, there was a roar of approval and laughter from the police observers.

On landing back at base, the video tape of the incident showed the bike thief surrounded by a personal mini whirlwind of black coal dust, whipped up by the downwash (a complete fluke as it happened). On reappearing, coughing and choking, he looked as if he had done a full shift down the long-closed coalmine. His white eyes blinked out from a blackened face and he was in no fit state to run any more! :E

[Blackhawk9]

Oil company Christmas party in Darwin about 10 years ago 214ST bringing in Santa, told said oil company all reqd distances for downwash etc, but they knew better! previous years had been a 412 .....lot less downwash , they assured us plenty of room, said 214ST arrives, lots of small very happy children, moments later lots of small human tumble weeds, tables and santas thrown all gone , bloody funny later but not at the time, though I had to fight hard to keep a straight face after shutdown , picking up small human tumble weeds in between sobs asking why Santa blew them away.

[SASless]

Yet another Chinook yarn....

Vietnam again....flying support missions for the Royal Thai Army units near Bearcat.

Firebase move underway....hauled some troops and general cargo then the guns and ammo. Final few sorties were left over items and thousands of empty sandbags. The Thai's removed everything when they departed a field site.

Approaching the old LZ....looked down at what looked like an Ant colony...lil bitty men scurrying feverishly to stack and bundle the empty sandbags into 8,000 pound loads.

Thai Officer in the helicopter talking to the ground troops calls for smoke on the ground....out comes a pretty purple smoke....load seen and hook up man fixed in our sights.

As we arrive at the load to be picked up.....fleeting thought of "I sure hope those bundles of sand bags are banded or some how secure....aw,cmon now....surely they aren't just stacked there loose? No one can be that thick?"

Everything looked fine as we hooked up, a few bags moving about but not bad...and began to lift...to discover we had way more than the requested load of 8,000 pounds.....more like 12,000 pounds maybe....both engines at max torque and barely able to ascend with it but still flyable. While concentrating on being as smooth as possible and keeping the torque right on the max mark....began to ease forward.....and all of a sudden the sky went dark....green dark....zillions of green sand bags dark! It was as if we had flown into a dark green cloud....with sandbags hundreds of feet in the air.

Conscious thought of "Lycomings don't let me down here...."

As we did a turn in the other direction we flew downwind by the LZ and it was still raining empty sand bags and scattering them over about a half square mile of the old Firebase.

Returning for another load.....instant replay of the same scene....again zillions of green sand bags into the heavens! Ultimately darkness interrupted the circus act with many...many...old sandbags littering the countryside.

[NickLappos]

My favorite downwash screw-up:

I was ferrying an H-53 (42,000 lbs of mighty moose muscle) down to Norfolk VA from Stratford CT when the weather went sour. We were down to 300 feet and couldnt reach anyone, so we stopped at Accomack County airport, a nice little 2500 foot strip, so my CP could telephone ahead. We just passed at a low hover down the runway to the mid-field shack, where my buddy went in with a pocket full of dimes while I idled by the gas pumps. He was quickly seen back-peddling out of the office with the airport manager pointing a finger in his chest, yelling at him is words that could almost be heard above the two 4500 HP engines idling on the helo.

Why was the airport manager mad? It turns out that he had just finished spending all morning prepping the airport for a small air show to be held the next day, and he had placed hundreds of bean bag lights, small signs for parking and guide ropes and stands just off the runway. When I'd hovered down the runway, I had blown literally every one of these things into the woods and swamp around the airport!

[Farmer 1]

There had been heavy snow over northern England (it happens occasionally in winter), and there had been widespread power failures in Geordieland. Three of us, two pilots and an engineer, were sent to help out the local electricity board.

We landed in a small field, covered in knee-deep snow, to pick up spares for the client. The engineer was out of the aircraft, supervising the loading; I was non-handling. I saw three men the other side of a nearby fence, gesticulating wildly, big grins on their faces, eyes shining bright. I ignored them, but my mate wondered what was their problem.

“It’s three drunken Geordies,” I said. “They just want a ride.”

He was unconvinced, and waited until the engineer finished his job, struggled back into the aircraft and dusted off most of the snow covering him. Then he asked him to go and see what these chaps wanted.

Highly unamused engineer stomped across the field, and what followed was a demonstration of the universal medium of body language. Engineer, now spitting feathers, stomped back to the aicraft, struggled into the aircraft, dusted off most of the snow covering him.

“It’s three drunken Geordies. They just want a ride,” he said. Or words to that effect.

“OK,” said the pilot. “Watch this.” He applied the perfect amount of collective, and I watched a wall of snow head towards the men. Two of them were not quite as inebriated as the other, and they hit the deck just in time. The other, still bearing an impossibly wide grin and with bright shining eyes, stood there. He had the presence of mind to cover his eyes, eventually, and I watched as snow rapidly built up over his body, beginning at the centre of his head, arms and limbs, and spreading outwards. Within a couple of seconds, all I could see was his outline. He was a white silhouette.

As we transitioned away, I saw what was now the front half of a snowman fall to the ground, and two men on the ground lauging their socks off.

[ShyTorque]

In the very early 1980s I was in Belize, flying an RAF Puma. There was an Army lookout post right down in the southwest, on a tiny rocky outcrop overlooking the border. From the nearest army base near Punta Gorda it was 18 minutes by Puma, but according to the special forces folk we often flew, it would be 3 weeks on foot as it was all mangrove swamp. Not surprisingly, we used to resupply everything by air, food, drinks, fuel for the generator, etc. All the rubbish used to come out by air. A typical load included lots of plastic crates of soft drinks. This was done just once a week.

At that time, the Ghurkas were the regiment in theatre. Great soldiers, excellent in the jungle, but not so good at working with helicopters.....

The raised helipad was made from corrugated iron sheets vertically on edge fastened to wooden posts and backfilled with limestone. It was designed for a (skidded) Scout helicopter and was therefore only just big enough for a Puma to get its wheels on. The pilot was talked into position on the pad by his crewman lying on the aircraft floor. As the nosewheel was roughly in line with the rear of the pilots seat, it always felt like we were landing on thin air, overlooking an almost vertical drop off the rocky outcrop. We never shut engines down on the pad in case we couldn't start again - we didn't fancy a 3 week walk/swim across the jungle as there was no room on site for a second aircraft.

One day I arrived at Punta Gorda to be tasked with a resupply. As well as all the usual stuff the Ghurkas refrigerator had gone u/s so we were taking them a new one. The army stripped off all the protective outer wrapping and loaded it. The flight went well, we landed on the pad and the resupply began, with the crewman supervising. It was normal for stuff to be stacked adjacent to the helipad and for the soldiers to lie on it to hold it in place.

This was done and the new fridge was placed next to the helipad. As always, the Ghurkas were very pleased to see us, and the thought of their drinks now being cold would have filled them with delight - it was big smiles and thumbs up all around. The empties were all loaded and we were about to depart but the Ghurkas seeemd to forget the drill. As soon as I pulled pitch, they all ran back along the access track instead of securing the stuff.

As I lifted in my peripheral vision I saw the brand new fridge fly door open, the downwash get inside and lift it up and over the Ghurkas heads. It was last seen bouncing down the rocky cliff..... :ugh:

[diginagain]

Ghurkas......... Great soldiers, excellent in the jungle, but not so good at working with helicopters.....

Early one morning, supporting an exercise on Sennybridge training area, climbed out of Brecon, and called up the players to ask what their weather was like. Got a Ghurka radio operator, who responded to my question "How far can you see?" with a very precise "Three feet". Rather puzzled, as it was an unusually glorious day, I sought verification before heading back to town. Again, "Three feet" was the reply.

My curiosity piqued, as we could by now see the HLS, we carried on, in unlimited vis, unbroken sunshine. Having landed and shut down, I wandered into the 9 x 9 CP tent, and found my radio operator sitting precisely three feet away from a green canvas wall.

Still wouldn't want to mess with them, though.

[TeeS]

Ah Speechless, more fond memories of good times in Aberdeen - do they still happen!! BCal kilts were purpose made for entertaining with a touch of collective as the paper work was brought out. Did Holly stay at London City (I think)?

I have vague recollections of an S61 being asked to expedite its departure and doing a rolling take off from the taxiway - Parked Cessna 152 was flipped onto its back.

Take it you are aware of planned BCal get together in Nov?

TeeS

[excrewingbod]

Mid 80's, think it was June 86, BAH sent over one of its 234's to display at the annual RAF Buchan open day.

On this particular day, there was a cricket match in progress in the playing field next door. Nothing untoward happened, until the end of the display. The crew demonstrated the 234's capability of climbing, vertically, like a love sick angel, whilst at the same time demonstrating a max-rate yaw turn.

The downwash from the chinook caused absolute chaos in the cricket field - tables, chairs, people rolling around the field.

Absolute corker of a display, can still hear that distinctive chinook whine, as it shot off into the heavens, before disappearing back to ABZ.

The helicopter displays were somewhat muted at subsequent Open Days.

[[email protected]]

Mid 80's, Portadown NI, Eagle VCPs with the UDR on a weekend. Call from patrol to be picked up from a playing field where they were being harrassed by locals. We arrived to see a group of kids aged 8 - 15 approx, mostly on bicycles who had been pursuing said patrol hurling stones and abuse. We landed on, embarked the troops and performed a cushion creep style transition over the top of the yobbos with a max power pull at the moment critique. We circled round in the climb to witness said yobbos and bikes spread out in a flattened daisy pattern - they learned about helicopter downwash that day:)

[Agusta]

I’m not a pilot but I use to work at a helicopter company at Sywell Northampton, this is my "Down Wash Yarn" experience. My role at the company was Ramp Supervisor, this involved me holding a CAT 2 fire certificate and I was also part of the Sywell Aerodrome crash team.

Back in 1998 the airfield asked if I would stand in for the Aerodrome fire fighter, as he wanted a day off, which I was happy to do. At Sywell there is one full time fire fighter, the Chief Fire officer who also was a Controller (FISO) in the tower and the rest was made up of people like myself how worked at the airport.

On this particular day, the first time I had done this job on the airfield, I got the fire truck out and done the fuel checks, the rest of the day was either sitting in the office, re-fuelling or dealing with anything that came up. As the day went on I though I would jump in the fire truck and have a drive round, runway inspection ect., I stopped not far from ATC to watch a Jetranger cross the active and land at the
Jet A1 pumps which are close to RWY 07/25.

Making an approach to RWY 07 was a flex wing microlight, as the microlight got to the point where the helicopter had crossed the runway it started to brake dancing in the air, it landed at least three times before it turned over on the runway. I sat there watching this thinking “Not today, not on my first day… please”. Lucky I was not far away and was there in seconds with the fire truck. As I came to a stop I could see the pilot still strapped in looking at me with a big grin on his face; this made me feel better as I could see he was not hurt. But what made the moment was the Chief Fire Officer appeared puffing, panting, bitch and moaning that it was the second time the fire truck had gone and left him behind and he had to run for it; he was also getting some stick from some of the retain boys who appeared on scene about the same time. I can't say what he said back to them in reply as it's unrepeatable!

[vaqueroaero]

I saw an MD 900 being marshalled in a bit too close to the edge of a ramp area where there was a fairly old panel fence which bordered on to a drop and then on to a 3 lane highway. We all saw what was going to happen, including the pilots as two 8 foot sections of the fence started to rock violently and then picked themselves up and went over the edge of the ramp and landed in the road. Luckily the traffic lights were red, so all the traffic was stopped. A couple of us jumped down and pulled all the debris out of the way, finishing just as the lights changed anf traffic resumed its normal flow.

[Arm out the window]

Winching some stuff from a Huey down to an Army location in the north QLD rainforest in the mid-80s - small hole in the trees marked by smoke - all's proceeding well, with us in contact with the guys on the ground on VHF-FM.

The radio chat from the ground is all relaxed and low key until suddenly his voice goes up an octave - after a while it turns out we'd blown a dead limb off a tree and hit one of the blokes on the ground; not serious injuries, luckily, but enough so they needed a medevac. Luckily there was a helicopter on-scene - us!

[coptor doctor]

While the west Edmonton mall was being built we were contracted toi sling Air conditioning units onto the roof due to the size of the structure a Crane could not put them in place. WE did a quick recon on foot and looked at the garbage on roof everything was cleaned up and away we go.
First lift as we approach the roof location I notice out of the corner of my Eye as I was on the roof giving hand signals a very large section of roof was lifting and tossed over the side turns out it was the wood structure that tempoarily covered the huge skylight opening coverd with plastic it quickly turned into a large Kite. Over it went into about 10 parked cars. Neither the structure or most of the cars survived..

[Desert Dingo]

You rotary wing guys get all the fun :{

http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/d.dingo/ATT11.jpg

[oldgrubber]

Many years ago on one of the little flat tops we had a young helicopter mechanic who thought he would video a Harrier take off serial. Being on the Seaking squadron he knew about downwash, but obviously thought he knew about jetwash too. He chose to stand outboard of the Seaking folded and parked in the “fly” spot next to the island behind the front aircraft lift, and even more bizarrely, no-one stopped him.
Cut to the mess deck later that evening.
“Does anyone want to see my video?”
We were all bored and videos were still relatively novel so we mumbled for him to put it on.
A shakey scene of a Harrier spooling up at the end of the runway, appeared on the television; “spotter!” we all chorused. Then the harrier received the launch signal from the FDO, the pilot released his brakes, and it roared up the deck as matey boy panned keeping it in shot.
As the harrier leapt off the ski ramp the television was suddenly filled with, sky, deck, sky, deck several times, finally ending with him clambering to his feet having been rolled down the deck. Memory is fading but I’m sure I remember an angry looking FDO advancing on him before the screen went blank.

[tony 1969]

What a cracking picture Desert Dingo,:ok:
I'd drop that Bose and grab her ....... :mad:

[SoundBarrier]

and some girls spoil all the fun by wearing jeans...

http://www.denimology.com/2009/09/gisele_bundchen_HudsonJeans_HelicopterSG.jpg

[NotHomeMuch]

Departing an airshow in Kamov 32. Large crowd of bystanders. Pull collective and up go ladies skirts and tops. This was followed by a comical pull skirt down, pull top down but skirt goes up, pull skirt down but top goes up and so on.....they didn't sue us.

Landing at open day with said KA-32. Daffy woman runs in front of us and gets bowled over, quite severely. Bit banged and bruised but reasonably intact........she sued us.

Doing a cell phone tower and while landing in a farmers paddock his poorly constructed shed - yes, it was a really shoddy affair - partially collapsed. He had actually suggested this paddock despite being warned about downwash from Kamov.........he sued us. Methinks he was after a new shed :}

[Agaricus bisporus]

Well, it was probably Sunday June 15th 1986 that the Chinook (BV234) appeared at the RAF Buchan Families day.

I clearly recall it as a Sunday, and surely that would be the right day for such an event?

In which case...my logbook shows it was also the day of my 1179 (type rating test) on the 234, G-BISN with Capt Dave Humble. It was not only my first ever flight in the beast, but also the only occasion I ever flew a Chinook on a Sunday so this must be the one, tho I had forgotten it was tacked onto the 1179.

We got a call during the sortie from Abrdeen Radar saying they'd had a request from RAF Buchan to see if there was anything flying that afternoon that could give them a low pass or two to liven up their families day, and we were the only cab airborne. (ABZ operations were on a very gentlemanly routine in those days with no scheduled flying at weekends). We couldn't spend much time on it, but agreed nonetheless. I guess we were not far away, or organised the sortie so we were near Buchan, and the Capt sketched out a plan; fast low pass over the site, pull up into a biiig wingover, reciprocal fast run back, splitarse turn and flare to a 100ft hover over the site, hold it for 10 seconds, then a full power vertical climb to 500ft and a max performance transition away towards ABZ.
In an empty Chinook this is all very impressive stuff involving some pretty radical attitudes. I think Dave was also showing me what the old 234 could do too because there was bugger-all sky in the view as we went over the top of that first wingover. We hauled round in a gloriously thunderous slapping flaring turn to the hover, nose pointing at the sky and as it dropped to the hover attitude I saw all the loose gear on the ground. Picnic tables, chairs, umbrellas, picnics, whole families picknicking everywhere, an ice cream van with a big red and white striped awning, and a row of green canvas field latrines...After we'd stabilised in the hover for a few seconds a thought was forming in my head that this had potential for discomfort on the ground just as the first picknick or nine got airborne. I think Dave realised it too and pulled all the pitch he had which was perhaps not the best idea, and iirc didn't transition away but kept to the briefed vertical climb. (Did we do a 360 yaw in the climb? That would have been typical BV234 showmanship but I don't recall it). I hollered to get out of here fast but by then most items of the families day were dispersing radially beneath us at a surprising rate; entire picknicks and parasols were zooming about like magic carrpets and the ice cream van, awning wrapped over it's roof was visibly rocking on it's wheels. The dunnies went over like ninepins flapping wildly. I remember seeing lots of people spreadeagled face down on the ground, arms protecting their heads from the carnage of the family day that was hurtling past at face height!

As I recall we rather slunk into Aberdeen and adopted a low profile as we disposed of the flight paperwork and were actually scuttling towards the door of the Ops room whan Fraser (the ops manager) called after us " Dave! I've got Group Captain Crabfat, CO of RAF Buchan on the line; he'd like a word!"
Dave turned a little green and went slowly back to the desk, I could almost hear his brain turning in overdrive but there was no escape. Oh sh!t! Now we're for it. Dave spoke his name, listened with what I can only describe as a stricken look on his face, and then slowly broke out a shaky disbelieving grin.

The CO had apparently told him, "Damn good show chaps, well done! Made the day, don'cha know!"

Bless him, he was either blissfully unaware of the disaster we'd so rudely visited on his families day or was a master of forebearing, tact and diplomacy.

And that was the last we ever heard of it.

(told as accurately as 25 yrs of faulty memory allows, but that's the bones of the event. Thanks to excrewingbod for reminding me!)

ps. of all the machines I've flown before or since the BV234 was the one I remember the fondest, and the one I'm proudest to have flown, and the one I'd most like to fly again.

[Brilliant Stuff]

Cracking story. How can they fault you after all they did ask for you.:}:}

[SkyTruckDriver]

Desert Dingo-Nice pic! Brings back a great memory.

Flight school graduation at Ft. Rucker, Alabama, 1984. Hanchey AAF if I remember correctly. Family and friends were allowed on the flightline to look at our aircraft in the morning. Afterwards, we would do the graduation "mass-formation-flyby" and ceremony at the parade field on post.

I was scheduled to fly into the parade field for the ceremony, so we were departing much sooner than the other graduates doing the formation-fly-by.

As I pulled up to a hover in the UH-1H to exit parking, the very HAWT wife of a buddy (fellow newbie W01) walked around the nose of an adjacent aircraft wearing a billowy sun dress. And UP it went over her head for the "ultimate show". My instructor said "WOW! and we laughed the rest of the day...... mainly because my buddy was standing close-by when it happened, caught us staring :ok:(during the prolonged hover check) and gave us a serious glare:*.

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Korea, winter, 1986 flying MedEvac in UH-60A Blackhawks. Had an evac mission on a very cold weekend morning immediately after a snowstorm.

Finished the mission and returned to the base (Cp Humphreys) around 0800. Did some practice snow landings, then ground taxied to the hot refuel pads. As we were taking fuel we noticed that a bunch of soldiers had started to clear the snow off the adjacent pads/walkways. Had my crew chief advise the person in charge to hold off on their snow clearing ops until we were done with refuel and had cleared the pad.

Tower gave us clearance for hover ops as we were the only aircraft operating on the airfield. Performed helicopter snow-blower ops for about 20 minutes, topped off with fuel, went to our pads and shut down.

A bit later, an LT and a couple of NCO's showed up at our hooch to thank us for clearing the pads/walkways. They got us stinkin drunk in the 'ville the following weekend and thereafter when they saw us.

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Mid 1990's, flying H-60L Blackhawks in Panama late, late one afternoon. We were part of a multi-national training exercise for peace-keeping/nation building. The "villages" in the jungle vicinity Ft. Sherman were comprised of US military roleplayers that needed to be "won-over".

Team leader:} to me: "Chief, I need to go to Pina Village."
Me: "Roger, I'll put you on the road 150m up from the village."
Tm Ldr:}: "No, put me on the LZ on the edge of the jungle right next to the compound."
Me: "Are they expecting us?. Do they have their gear and the porta-potties (porta-loo's?) secured down?"
Tm Ldr:}: Yeah, roger, no worries-they know we're coming and ready for us. They were told to secure the porta-potties, too.
Me: "Roger, we'll be there in a few minutes."

We get there, do a high/low recon. No wave-offs from the "villagers". Before landing check complete. On short, short final with the 4 porta-potties at 3 o'clock and 40m, my crewchief says "They're rocking and....there they go!"
1,2,3,4 like ducks in a row and out of one stumbles a figure that is completely blue and covered with soggy TP.
Laughing as we touched down.......
Tm Ldr:}: "Oh well, I thought they were secured. Pick me up in 20 minutes."
Me: "Roger, 20 minutes-we'll pick you and your team up on the road 150m away."

The roll-players were not happy and evidently, we blew some of their "mermite cans" (food) over as well. We (flight crew only) came back later that night and delivered pizza, BK burgers-n-fries and cold beverages.

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Late 90's, H-60L Blackhawks, doing practice approaches/landings to skyscraper helipads in a South American capitol city. Whilst on short final to the top of a large bank, we noticed a bunch of women in bank uniforms (white blouses/short blue skirts) watching us on a closeby stairway. Let's just say the views were most excellent!


Good times!

[Agaricus bisporus]

What is it with we helo people that most of these stories involve us half drowning poor unfortunates in wrecked chemical toilets?

Have we no shame??

hmm, thought not....

[Frenchrotorhead]

Osprey Landing Injures 10 (with video) | VTOLBLOG (http://vtolblog.com/?p=2988)

PI9gWlM0QY8

The way it strips that tree from the top ...

[BobbyBolkow]

AAAAH! ShyTorque....

That bought back many happy memories of plonking a Gazelle on Cadenas OP and trying not to infringe Guatamalan airspace! :ok:

And a few interesting stories about Gurkas in helicopters!.... But maybe leave that for another thread.

Anyway, I digress. Belize (again) early 80's, and following a big Battlegroup North exercise, it was decided to have a big de-brief (large lunch!) at the Myan ruins near San Ignacio, for all VIP observers and nebbies.

Andy Capp's Commando's and Sappers set up 180 lb tent on site and proceed to set out lunch for the High Rankers (spell checked!) and VIP's. Teeny weeny's tasked with taking Brigadier and local dignitaries to site. So 2 gazelles land 50M downwind of site, and 2 pilots accompany pax to have a nose. VERY POSH nosh! Ice statues, the works. Well, nobody worried about taxpayers money back then!

Pilots told to bu@@er off! So retreated to aircraft to enjoy (?) our cookhouse nosebag. 5 mins later the unmistakable drone of a Puma approaching carrying high ranking crab type. Obviously, to avoid having thier pax walk too far sideways, they decide to land 25M UPWIND of the tent!!

Switch to slo-mo..... as the tent starts to lift and the biggest sandstorm carries dust, bushes and pretty much anything else lying around into whats left of the tent...............

The debrief was, apparently, unedible!..... and lots of red faces all round :O

OOOOH HOW WE CHUCKLED! Sometimes life doesn't get any better :D

[grumpytroll]

We landed our UH-60 in the desert near a large air assault mission that was being formed. 66 hawks heading into Iraq in 1990. I had a single ship mission but wanted to follow along as chalk 7 in a previously formed group of 6 across the border so as not to appear suspicious to the AWAC's boys. We had ESSS wing tanks mounted. I asked my co-pilot to jump out and run over to the nearest group of 60's and ask about tagging along. He was an excitable young fellow and leapt out on his mission with vigor. Since they were all spooling up, we stayed running. After just a few minutes I could see my CP trotting across the desert through my goggles. His were flipped up. I could see the writing on the wall but could do nothing to stop it. I alerted my gunner/crew chief to direct his attention out the left side of the aircraft as we were going to possibly see a good show. Not to disappoint, CP ran full steam and chest high into the front of the ESSS tank. I saw the bottoms of his boots, toes pointing toward the heavens and his goggles flew about six feet into the air. He got up with a big toothy grin, policed up his goggles and away we went. He was in a bit of pain the next day but enjoyed the attention as I replayed the incident to all.

[rotorfan]

Wunnerful stories above!

I was one of 30 or so volunteers that organize an annual airshow. Working the smoke-oil truck this time, I was in the area where A/C refueling happens. An AH-1 sat in this same area, too, surrounded by a temporary chain-link fence about 50m away. Crew needed to leave, and once the ship started to make noise, people came in droves up to the fence, as close as they could go. I walked the fence telling them to move back, hold their hats, watch their eyes, turn the baby buggies away, etc. It did no good, they stayed their ground. I knew the sound of those lovely wide blades pulling pitch, so turned my back to the Cobra and faced the unwashed masses. Had a front-row view of them stumbling to stay upright, chasing hats, shielding eyes from the sandblasting, etc. After the ship was away, I shrugged my shoulders at them to say "you were warned".:=