Mid air refuelling ?!?

[paulo]

Excuse me if I'm fuzzy on details, but during that ocean rescue this week, there were some Sikorskys that were refuelled from C130s :eek: :eek: :eek:

How does that work? How fast do they have to go (or how slow does the C130 have to go) to do this? Is it the same as f/w to f/w, i.e. a trailing hose?

[Skycop]

I was lucky enough to be trained to do this a few years ago out of Albuquerque, in my case using a USAF Blackhawk.

The maximum speed of the helicopter is close to the minimum speed of the C-130 so the initial formation is achieved by the heli flying S & L at an assigned altitude at 130 kts. The C-130 then flies about 300ft above and overtakes directly ovehead. It is quite an impressive sight from inside the helicopter! The heli is then manoeuvred upwards and forwards to make the connection. Obviously R/T contact is used between the two aircraft and there is also a homing system but I can't give any details of that.

The heli probe does extend but in the case of the Blackhawk it does not extend beyond the rotor tips; so it is important not to get vertically out of station when close to the basket, for obvious reasons :eek:

The helicopter flies to the basket from immediately behind with the rotor disc over the top of the hose, which curves down from the C-130 but levels off to almost horizontal near the basket. Actually, two aircraft can be in trail as there are two hoses, one each side of the C-130. The port station is easiest to fly as the propwash of the mothership affects the starboard side more. A slight overtake speed is required to "stab" the aircraft probe into the centre of the basket, which both locks the probe on and opens the fuel valve. I was very surprised :eek: to see a 2 foot long static discharge spark between the end of the probe and the basket just before we made contact, especially as it was dark and we were using NVGs. The IP I flew with was grinning from ear to ear at my exclamations as he knew exactly what was about to happen. Thanks for not telling me Dave!

It is not an easy thing to do, it requires very good close formation skills and a cool nerve.

Well done the yanks, wish I was there! ;)

[RW-1]

With HC-4, got to watch as we did that with the CH-53E several times in Italy.

Someone out on the net has a botched linkup, in which the 53 chopped the hose, I don't happen to have the link myself, sorry.

[Grainger]

I understand they had to refuel six times to complete the round trip.

Really good job guys - well done !

[Nigel Osborn]

In the 1964 Farnborough Airshow, Westland pilots demonstrated mid air refueling with 2 Wessex. The front one lowered a long fuel hose from the cabin and the rear one lowered his winch which had a grapple fitted. This grapple hooked on to the fuel hose and was winched up to the cabin which had been fitted with an appropiate fuel connection. All this was done while turning to remain inside the airfield boundary! Looked fun from the ground! Glad the system has been modernised!:D

[MightyGem]

I've also seen the clip of the CH 53 chopping the hose, but the clip
stopped there. Anybody know if the 53 landed safely?

[Skycop]

MightyGem,

If it's the one I think it is, the aircraft and all crew were lost.

[Barannfin]

Here is the link to a 53 chopping its own probe off, it doesn't look like the helicopter was lost, because it backs off after. Also the site apparently has a strict policy of not posting anything where people were lost. If I am mistaken Im sorry. http://www.aviationpics.de/mov/mil/mil.htm