Underslung Load 'Incidents'
The Belvedere acquired quite a reputation for carrying loads (mostly successfully) as Wing Cdr John Dowling in his book "RAF Helicopters" (HMSO) states:
Some of the loads carried.
Recovering a RN Whirlwind Mk 7 to HMS Albion - Brunei Jan 1963.
Deloying "Green Archer" radar near Indonesian border.
Deploying Bloodhound near Kuching
Recovering a Whirlwind Mk 10 - Germany 1962
...an unexpected role which the Belvedere acquired, and one which it retained throughout its life, was the recovery of crashed aircraft or helicopters unserviceable in inaccessible places. Altogether, between 1960 and 1968, Belvederes recovered 31 crashed aircraft or parts of wreckage including 23 complete helicopters, two Austers, two Chipmunks and a hovercraft. Twenty of the helicopters lifted were in FEAF, one in Aden, one in Germany and one in England...
Recovering a RN Whirlwind Mk 7 to HMS Albion - Brunei Jan 1963.
Deloying "Green Archer" radar near Indonesian border.
Deploying Bloodhound near Kuching
Recovering a Whirlwind Mk 10 - Germany 1962
The RAF did not buy helicopters based upon looks!
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 308
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Some great photos there Warmtoast. Thanks all, for the continuing 'tales of the unexpected' - maybe I should just pull up a sandbag and read these posts to my studes in your collective absence, Ppruners?
Any more contributions, old or new, welcome....although judging by some stories, one or two of you would quite happily never do another load again!
Any more contributions, old or new, welcome....although judging by some stories, one or two of you would quite happily never do another load again!
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1,797
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Haflinger buggy USL in NI & T_M wondering which bit of it was going to fall off first. Describe to front crew the reg plate* doing 360s around the last remaining rivet. Or the seat now only held on by one very loose nut and bolt banging happily in the airflow. Or the canvas roll-up on the front that was tied up with shoelace knots of which one had become undone and the other was loosening.
Copilot VDB climbs out of seat to stare down below at events previously described and gets sudden onset of vertigo. Returns to front just as first (& only) event occurs. The rolled up canvas finally breaks free and unwravels itself, releasing the half dozen metre long metal stakes (that were not known about) to descend earthwards together at VNE from about 2000' agl.
Happily over farmland so nothing futher to report and the farmer will never know how the spikes got there.
*all haflingers had RN number plates so blame if lost would have been a done deal.
Copilot VDB climbs out of seat to stare down below at events previously described and gets sudden onset of vertigo. Returns to front just as first (& only) event occurs. The rolled up canvas finally breaks free and unwravels itself, releasing the half dozen metre long metal stakes (that were not known about) to descend earthwards together at VNE from about 2000' agl.
Happily over farmland so nothing futher to report and the farmer will never know how the spikes got there.
*all haflingers had RN number plates so blame if lost would have been a done deal.
Last edited by Tiger_mate; 18th Jun 2012 at 21:06.
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Down Memory Lane
Posts: 44
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The Brown Arrows
Picking up the septic tank in a net from the highest Golf tower to return to Bessbrook. Pull in loads of power, drop over the edge and get flyaway speed when the following conversation took place.
Me: Oh ****
RHS: What is it?
Me: ****
RHS: FFS, what is it?
Me: I just told you, there is **** everywhere
LHS: WTF?
Me: The lid on the tank has come off* and we are down creating our own brown chemtrail!
LHS & RHS in unison: Oh ****!!
We 'successfully' dropped our load back at BBK much to the disgust of the TSW det who had to hose down the pan afterwards. All I can say was that it must have been curry night up on the mountain because there was a lot of brown stuff and it was very smelly. The plus side was that as we came around the corner to BBK there were some little scrotes underneath trying to throw golfballs up at us. They got a nice surprise
*the lid was still attached, but the paracord tying it shut had snapped
Me: Oh ****
RHS: What is it?
Me: ****
RHS: FFS, what is it?
Me: I just told you, there is **** everywhere
LHS: WTF?
Me: The lid on the tank has come off* and we are down creating our own brown chemtrail!
LHS & RHS in unison: Oh ****!!
We 'successfully' dropped our load back at BBK much to the disgust of the TSW det who had to hose down the pan afterwards. All I can say was that it must have been curry night up on the mountain because there was a lot of brown stuff and it was very smelly. The plus side was that as we came around the corner to BBK there were some little scrotes underneath trying to throw golfballs up at us. They got a nice surprise
*the lid was still attached, but the paracord tying it shut had snapped
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Lincoln
Posts: 40
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The monthly re-supply of Mt Alice was done by MV St Brandon anchoring in Albermarle Waters and a Chinook lifting the full Iso containers off the ship and up the hill. It was an interesting diversion from the usual day job, so I stood and watched and took a few photos.
There were about half-a-dozen containers parked in a row with an empty slot about half way along. I have a photo of the underslung container being slowly moved into position in the empty slot, but it is twisted out of alignment. A rope had been attached to one corner of the Iso so that the ground handlers could manoeuvre it into position. The photo shows the container to be about 6 feet off the ground and the handler heaving on the rope, heels dug in and leaning at 45 deg away from the load.
My next photo shows the container straightening up, now only 3 feet off the ground, at the exact moment the ground handler's feet slipped on the wet grass and he shot feet first under the descending load. Fortunately, it still needed to rotate another 20 deg to line up, so there was enough time for the handler to execute a quick half role and engage emergency scramble mode. I have never seen such a white face before or since. The poor sod was seriously shaken by how close a call he had experienced.
There were about half-a-dozen containers parked in a row with an empty slot about half way along. I have a photo of the underslung container being slowly moved into position in the empty slot, but it is twisted out of alignment. A rope had been attached to one corner of the Iso so that the ground handlers could manoeuvre it into position. The photo shows the container to be about 6 feet off the ground and the handler heaving on the rope, heels dug in and leaning at 45 deg away from the load.
My next photo shows the container straightening up, now only 3 feet off the ground, at the exact moment the ground handler's feet slipped on the wet grass and he shot feet first under the descending load. Fortunately, it still needed to rotate another 20 deg to line up, so there was enough time for the handler to execute a quick half role and engage emergency scramble mode. I have never seen such a white face before or since. The poor sod was seriously shaken by how close a call he had experienced.
Avoid imitations
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
Posts: 14,573
Received 422 Likes
on
222 Posts
I recall over twenty years ago, a certain Flight Lieutenant, then serving as a QHI on 240 OCU, being tasked to fly a great big, brand new, air portable SatCom station for the British Army. I think it was the first they ever had and obviously an extremely expensive piece of kit. It was a large, heavy "Portakabin" type shed on wheels. As the Chinny transitioned away, it suffered an engine "cough".
The obvious resulted........ load jettison button was pressed. The Chinook crew returned home, hugely embarrassed for busting the Army's new toy.
Oh, how we simple Puma folk sympathised! 
The Army later sent some reminders in the form of photos of the scene - IIRC, the largest recognisable piece was the jockey wheel off the front of the chassis
But said Flt Lt got his own back by being stratospherically promoted to Air Rank.
The obvious resulted........ load jettison button was pressed. The Chinook crew returned home, hugely embarrassed for busting the Army's new toy.
Oh, how we simple Puma folk sympathised!
The Army later sent some reminders in the form of photos of the scene - IIRC, the largest recognisable piece was the jockey wheel off the front of the chassis
But said Flt Lt got his own back by being stratospherically promoted to Air Rank.
Last edited by ShyTorque; 18th Jun 2012 at 23:49. Reason: typo!
Join Date: Aug 2001
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 1,797
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
S_T
The value quoted at the time was five millions worth, and it would have been '86.
I have a photo somewhere of a (formally serviceable) 105mm parked partially sub-terrainian in the Otterburn peat by the same OCF. IIRC, crewman was Taff B.
One exercise in Germany and an army tool box fell from a net and went through the windscreen of a car on the autobahn. Not pretty but thankfully no personnel damage beyond shock to the female driver. Crewman was TT.
Worst ever USL for me was an empty skip on a long strop, given dispensation by JATE to fly it. 40kts max and believe me, that was too fast. Scheduled to truck it fm V813 to BBK and had enough of it by Armagh so parked it overnight and continued the journey the followiing day!
The value quoted at the time was five millions worth, and it would have been '86.
I have a photo somewhere of a (formally serviceable) 105mm parked partially sub-terrainian in the Otterburn peat by the same OCF. IIRC, crewman was Taff B.
One exercise in Germany and an army tool box fell from a net and went through the windscreen of a car on the autobahn. Not pretty but thankfully no personnel damage beyond shock to the female driver. Crewman was TT.
Worst ever USL for me was an empty skip on a long strop, given dispensation by JATE to fly it. 40kts max and believe me, that was too fast. Scheduled to truck it fm V813 to BBK and had enough of it by Armagh so parked it overnight and continued the journey the followiing day!
Last edited by Tiger_mate; 19th Jun 2012 at 05:23.
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 159
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Way back in 82, I was a baby hooker working with the spanking new Wokka, lifting the jawdropping CVRT's from a cutting somewhere near Upavon. Imagine driving down a road with woods to your left when you come across a cutting about three football pitches long, this was the LS. Task was to rig and hook up a couple of baby tanks. USLC was followed to the letter, the acft arrived on time and we hooked up the first tank.
The whining of a Chinook at MAUM brings a tear to my eye, but anyway off staggered the cab with the tank flying some good NOE (10ft max). The acft never climbed, it just settled for a very flat departure and charged at the road, and the plain beyond - but oh so slowly. The crew would never been able to look left then right then left again as they (the tank) crossed the road because of the high trees. The truck driver on the road had a near death experience as 10+ tons of fighting machine floated across in front of him. We thought the whole episode strange, so had a good look over tank number two. It looked like the picture, we had the correct slings, it was a nice day. What went wrong? JATE never test flew CVRT's with mud on them or completely 'bombed' up. In the field we never took scales with us. It was 'weigh' too heavy.
Lesson learned, note to JATE, moved on. Never lost a load in 11 years of 'hooking'.
The whining of a Chinook at MAUM brings a tear to my eye, but anyway off staggered the cab with the tank flying some good NOE (10ft max). The acft never climbed, it just settled for a very flat departure and charged at the road, and the plain beyond - but oh so slowly. The crew would never been able to look left then right then left again as they (the tank) crossed the road because of the high trees. The truck driver on the road had a near death experience as 10+ tons of fighting machine floated across in front of him. We thought the whole episode strange, so had a good look over tank number two. It looked like the picture, we had the correct slings, it was a nice day. What went wrong? JATE never test flew CVRT's with mud on them or completely 'bombed' up. In the field we never took scales with us. It was 'weigh' too heavy.
Lesson learned, note to JATE, moved on. Never lost a load in 11 years of 'hooking'.
There is a difference between the small John Deere bulldozer and a Cat D-4 too. One was for the Wokka....the other for the Sky Crane. Guess which one we took out of the baseball field by mistake? The B Model Wokka was strong...but gosh.....those Cats are made out of real steel!
To cap it off....we were accused of stealing the dozer. The Engineering unit that got the Cat instead of the John Deere swore they never seen it! Blind buggers in that they were on a mountain top LZ hardly bigger than the Dozer when it got there.
To cap it off....we were accused of stealing the dozer. The Engineering unit that got the Cat instead of the John Deere swore they never seen it! Blind buggers in that they were on a mountain top LZ hardly bigger than the Dozer when it got there.
This was filmed by one of the lads on our camp where Chindet was based back in 1985.
I worked for NAAFI EFI, & asked the RAF if they would mover a container full of crates of beer from the top of Camp to between the NAAFI buildings.
This was done as a training flight.
The hooker who set this up neglected to put ropes on all four corners of the container which is why it took a while to place.
For those of you who know me, will see me in the film.
Many thanks to the aircrew & hookers who set this up & for their help as well in placing the container where it was needed.
Chinook container Move Falkland Islands 1985 - YouTube
I worked for NAAFI EFI, & asked the RAF if they would mover a container full of crates of beer from the top of Camp to between the NAAFI buildings.
This was done as a training flight.
The hooker who set this up neglected to put ropes on all four corners of the container which is why it took a while to place.
For those of you who know me, will see me in the film.
Many thanks to the aircrew & hookers who set this up & for their help as well in placing the container where it was needed.
Chinook container Move Falkland Islands 1985 - YouTube
Just for time reference, I was probably the last non-aircrew badged guy to do the crewman course at TH and even then I was only allowed to do it piecemeal – boss didn’t agree but CI very enthusiast , as was I! I subsequently did the last SAR ever with a Sycamore in UK, helped bring out the last patrol from the Borneo jungle when Confrontation finished and logged quite a bit of time in HK – including a night GCA to Kai Tak from medium level at the end of a casevac: this last episode clogged up the approach and led to a couple of very expensive diversions to Manila!
As a nervous and callow youth, I was very much aware of the opportunity for dropping a clanger with loads.
I had a crib sheet on which was written the gross weight in pounds of the many common items carried eg: tin boxes of 7.62mm both loose and belted and a range of other items which the Army called ‘natures’ – please don’t ask why ‘cause I don’t know. If I was presented with a pre-netted load for USL, I would count the number of items as best I could and compare with my crib sheet. Occasionally, I’d get presented with some documentation prepared by the Army. If so I also compared quantities offered and weights stated – surprising how often one or t’other was wrong.
Depending where the load was coming from and what it comprised, I’d ask where the scales were located on which the load was prepared and occasionally asked for items to be weighed in my presence.
If the there were numerous loads. I’d note their weights and then discuss the order of lift with the pilot and what he calculated his fuel states would be, so that the pickup sequence could be agreed and I was forewarned as to when he wanted to refuel and how much he wanted – getting the Zwicky pump to work is another Thread altogether and we needn’t bother with it here! Very occasionally, the load would be weighed on the hoof – so to speak. That is, it would be hooked up and then the pilot would see what the fuel flow was like when he tried to lift it.
This seemed to work well and there were never too many problems. I took the view that the pilot was my mate and I wasn’t going to be responsible for any cockups whilst I was supervising the loads. A chap I trained with, accepted a load of ammunition as offered by the Army and loaded it into the back of a Beverley. The aircraft took all 6600 feet of the runway at Labuan to get airborne and as it couldn’t climb above about 7000 feet, it flew all the way to Tawau by going round the coast. Prior to landing the captain briefed for a heavyweight landing and after touchdown had the load weighed. It put the aircraft weight at take-off as 7000 lbs over the max a.u.w. for the Beverly and remember this is in a hot climate.
I was also a bit fussy about the nets being used. If I could, I always looked at nets being returned or those awaiting loads to see that the net was in a good condition/state of repair. I also looked particularly at the load bearing parts of the nets and kept a careful eye on the underslung fixtures etc on the aircraft – this is all Whirlwind 10 by the way (jet engined S55, for non Brits).
Standing underneath a single engined aircraft whilst hooking a load on was something I never really got used to – always a certain tightening of the muscles! Funnily enough, spent many an afternoon being winched out of the warm waters of Clearwater Bay Hong Kong but never had the same sensation that if the donk stopped a couple of tons of Whirlwind was going to crack me over the head.
So after this long winded diatribe, what are my points re USLs.
First, careful preparation. Know the capabilities of the aircraft and be absolutely certain that you and anybody else working with you knows exactly what they’re doing.
Second, never rush the brief and make sure everybody knows the procedures for dealing with the unexpected/emergency etc.
Three, make sure the load has been placed in the most appropriate container/ net or whatever. Also, is it correctly rigged for flight eg are there any drogues.
Four, check the load is properly secured in the container/net etc. Confirm weights and dimensions are in limits and make sure the pilot knows what he’s getting and understands any peculiarities with the load such as handling during acceleration/deceleration. It’s a bit alarming when the load overtakes one on final approach!
Five, is the aircraft routed with an eye on safety, in case it becomes necessary to get rid of the USL.
There are probably several other points but these will do for now.
Old Duffer
As a nervous and callow youth, I was very much aware of the opportunity for dropping a clanger with loads.
I had a crib sheet on which was written the gross weight in pounds of the many common items carried eg: tin boxes of 7.62mm both loose and belted and a range of other items which the Army called ‘natures’ – please don’t ask why ‘cause I don’t know. If I was presented with a pre-netted load for USL, I would count the number of items as best I could and compare with my crib sheet. Occasionally, I’d get presented with some documentation prepared by the Army. If so I also compared quantities offered and weights stated – surprising how often one or t’other was wrong.
Depending where the load was coming from and what it comprised, I’d ask where the scales were located on which the load was prepared and occasionally asked for items to be weighed in my presence.
If the there were numerous loads. I’d note their weights and then discuss the order of lift with the pilot and what he calculated his fuel states would be, so that the pickup sequence could be agreed and I was forewarned as to when he wanted to refuel and how much he wanted – getting the Zwicky pump to work is another Thread altogether and we needn’t bother with it here! Very occasionally, the load would be weighed on the hoof – so to speak. That is, it would be hooked up and then the pilot would see what the fuel flow was like when he tried to lift it.
This seemed to work well and there were never too many problems. I took the view that the pilot was my mate and I wasn’t going to be responsible for any cockups whilst I was supervising the loads. A chap I trained with, accepted a load of ammunition as offered by the Army and loaded it into the back of a Beverley. The aircraft took all 6600 feet of the runway at Labuan to get airborne and as it couldn’t climb above about 7000 feet, it flew all the way to Tawau by going round the coast. Prior to landing the captain briefed for a heavyweight landing and after touchdown had the load weighed. It put the aircraft weight at take-off as 7000 lbs over the max a.u.w. for the Beverly and remember this is in a hot climate.
I was also a bit fussy about the nets being used. If I could, I always looked at nets being returned or those awaiting loads to see that the net was in a good condition/state of repair. I also looked particularly at the load bearing parts of the nets and kept a careful eye on the underslung fixtures etc on the aircraft – this is all Whirlwind 10 by the way (jet engined S55, for non Brits).
Standing underneath a single engined aircraft whilst hooking a load on was something I never really got used to – always a certain tightening of the muscles! Funnily enough, spent many an afternoon being winched out of the warm waters of Clearwater Bay Hong Kong but never had the same sensation that if the donk stopped a couple of tons of Whirlwind was going to crack me over the head.
So after this long winded diatribe, what are my points re USLs.
First, careful preparation. Know the capabilities of the aircraft and be absolutely certain that you and anybody else working with you knows exactly what they’re doing.
Second, never rush the brief and make sure everybody knows the procedures for dealing with the unexpected/emergency etc.
Three, make sure the load has been placed in the most appropriate container/ net or whatever. Also, is it correctly rigged for flight eg are there any drogues.
Four, check the load is properly secured in the container/net etc. Confirm weights and dimensions are in limits and make sure the pilot knows what he’s getting and understands any peculiarities with the load such as handling during acceleration/deceleration. It’s a bit alarming when the load overtakes one on final approach!
Five, is the aircraft routed with an eye on safety, in case it becomes necessary to get rid of the USL.
There are probably several other points but these will do for now.
Old Duffer
Early '83, Falklands, Chinook moving ISOs from Sir Percival to Orford preparatory to building the AD radar there. I don't know how many we had moved, but the stack of ISOs was reducing (all carefully prepared by the hookers ), until all that was left were those sitting on the forward deck. As we lifted one of these I foolishly drifted slightly 'off' the deck, or I was not fully overhead, at which point the crewman shouted 'the b****y loads leaking' (or words to that effect) as it was suddenly engulfed in water; we pulled away from the deck and turned around to see what was happening. I had dragged the load slightly, but enough to go through the highly pressurised fire fighting ring main which surrounded the deck, and there was now a fountain resembling the one at Chatsworth House issuing from Sir Percival. And that was the end of our day's tasking!
Last edited by Shackman; 19th Jun 2012 at 10:01.
Thread Starter
Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: UK
Posts: 308
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Thanks to all the continuing contributions - including the fountain display, Shackman! Old Duffer, your ops certainly sound pre-JHSU, presumably taking care of the ground handling and the subsequent flying - in a hot climate too. I'm thinking of 'Top Ten Gotchas' or something similar - helped by these contributions.
Night task to take rations various to G100. On dropping the load was asked where the spuds were as the sack was empty. No reports of any injuries on the ground due to flying Maris Pipers!
Not a flying USL incident but during my time at Shawbury I was duty hooker up and having hooked up the umpteenth load looked around for something to alleviate the boredom. Spotted a derelict fire alarm point at the side of the load park with an open access panel, prodded around inside and noticed whirring noise, lost interest and returned to hook up another load. Shortly afterwards heard sound of fire engine sirens on the other side of airfield and was soon aware of the approaching fleet of fire trucks. They arrived at the derelict alarm and stood around debating what to do until I was seen in the distance and was approached by Office Dibble who complained about helicopters setting off alarms.
After they had departed calm descended for a short time until more klaxons were heard but this time it was a contingent from Shrewsbury reacting to what was thought to be a major incident at the aircraft storage hangars. Happily my stint as hooker up was complete and it was back to the crewroom and another of life's lessons learned.
Not a flying USL incident but during my time at Shawbury I was duty hooker up and having hooked up the umpteenth load looked around for something to alleviate the boredom. Spotted a derelict fire alarm point at the side of the load park with an open access panel, prodded around inside and noticed whirring noise, lost interest and returned to hook up another load. Shortly afterwards heard sound of fire engine sirens on the other side of airfield and was soon aware of the approaching fleet of fire trucks. They arrived at the derelict alarm and stood around debating what to do until I was seen in the distance and was approached by Office Dibble who complained about helicopters setting off alarms.
After they had departed calm descended for a short time until more klaxons were heard but this time it was a contingent from Shrewsbury reacting to what was thought to be a major incident at the aircraft storage hangars. Happily my stint as hooker up was complete and it was back to the crewroom and another of life's lessons learned.
Avoid imitations
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Wandering the FIR and cyberspace often at highly unsociable times
Posts: 14,573
Received 422 Likes
on
222 Posts
The dreaded "night stream" was mentioned earlier. Two Puma stories come to mind.
The first was told to me by one of the participants, an ex RAF instructor of mine. Pre TANS or GPS days, all navigation was done by DR. All very well in good visibility but his particular night was at the end of the summer, the air extremely hazy due to the build up of smog from the farmers' corn stubble burning (thank goodness this process is now banned in UK).
The night stream was a "Round Robin" between RAF Odiham and Salisbury Plain and back again. Aircraft took off five minutes after the preceding one, in radio silence. This spacing often got eroded if there was a delay in unhooking, or whatever so it wasn't unusual for aircraft to bunch up a little at times. The route was an oval "racetrack", to give lateral separation between outbound and inbound aircraft. In theory...
My colleague was flying back to Odiham when he saw a white light ahead. He knew this was the tail light of the preceding Puma. So he carried on, just intending to calmly keep an eye on it. But almost immediately it seemed they were catching the light up far too quickly and it got much bigger.
With split seconds to spare, my colleague realised the white light wasn't a tail light at all. It was the reflection of the white cockpit lights on the face of a Puma pilot coming the other way, head on! The Pumas got so close that my colleague even recognised the other pilot.
Thankfully, both pilots broke hard right. The two Pumas passed belly up to each other with minimal spacing. The rider to this was that the crewman wasn't strapped in and nearly departed via the cabin door. A very lucky escape indeed for all concerned.
The second tale: 230 Sqn were tasked in RAFG to carry out a night Rapier missile resupply exercise. These were netted loads of missile canisters. We knew the weight and the speed at which they were cleared to fly, the exercise was possible, but only just. The Puma was always short of fuel so it was necessary to fly USLs everywhere as fast as they could go. There was a very strong wind blowing, no problem, what fuel we gained on the outbound leg was a bonus and these dense, netted Rapier canister loads would go fast.
We picked up the netted load. It came off the ground really easily. The significance of this didn't hit home until we transitioned away and tried to accelerate to cruise speed. The loads were far too light! Although a lighter load meant less fuel burn against the wind, the very light weight in this case meant that the loads wouldn't fly anywhere near the published cruise speed. So overall we lost out, big time. We landed the load with both fuel low level lights on (less than ten minutes fuel remaining). Other aircraft didn't make it back, having diverted (I think PCP was one who diverted).
The problem was, for training use, the Rapier canisters obviously didn't contain real missiles but they were supposed to be ballasted to the same weight. The Army hadn't put any ballast in them.
The first was told to me by one of the participants, an ex RAF instructor of mine. Pre TANS or GPS days, all navigation was done by DR. All very well in good visibility but his particular night was at the end of the summer, the air extremely hazy due to the build up of smog from the farmers' corn stubble burning (thank goodness this process is now banned in UK).
The night stream was a "Round Robin" between RAF Odiham and Salisbury Plain and back again. Aircraft took off five minutes after the preceding one, in radio silence. This spacing often got eroded if there was a delay in unhooking, or whatever so it wasn't unusual for aircraft to bunch up a little at times. The route was an oval "racetrack", to give lateral separation between outbound and inbound aircraft. In theory...
My colleague was flying back to Odiham when he saw a white light ahead. He knew this was the tail light of the preceding Puma. So he carried on, just intending to calmly keep an eye on it. But almost immediately it seemed they were catching the light up far too quickly and it got much bigger.
With split seconds to spare, my colleague realised the white light wasn't a tail light at all. It was the reflection of the white cockpit lights on the face of a Puma pilot coming the other way, head on! The Pumas got so close that my colleague even recognised the other pilot.
Thankfully, both pilots broke hard right. The two Pumas passed belly up to each other with minimal spacing. The rider to this was that the crewman wasn't strapped in and nearly departed via the cabin door. A very lucky escape indeed for all concerned.
The second tale: 230 Sqn were tasked in RAFG to carry out a night Rapier missile resupply exercise. These were netted loads of missile canisters. We knew the weight and the speed at which they were cleared to fly, the exercise was possible, but only just. The Puma was always short of fuel so it was necessary to fly USLs everywhere as fast as they could go. There was a very strong wind blowing, no problem, what fuel we gained on the outbound leg was a bonus and these dense, netted Rapier canister loads would go fast.
We picked up the netted load. It came off the ground really easily. The significance of this didn't hit home until we transitioned away and tried to accelerate to cruise speed. The loads were far too light! Although a lighter load meant less fuel burn against the wind, the very light weight in this case meant that the loads wouldn't fly anywhere near the published cruise speed. So overall we lost out, big time. We landed the load with both fuel low level lights on (less than ten minutes fuel remaining). Other aircraft didn't make it back, having diverted (I think PCP was one who diverted).
The problem was, for training use, the Rapier canisters obviously didn't contain real missiles but they were supposed to be ballasted to the same weight. The Army hadn't put any ballast in them.
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 159
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
Another South Atlantic dit. 20' ISO container sat on a 40' trailer. Hookers forgot to undo the securing lugs on the trailer. Crew took the lot up to the mountain. Non consice signals from the hooker waving to the crew didnt help either!
Join Date: Jul 2000
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 159
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I think from a crewmans perspective, its good to have a mental picture of what you are looking at so far as a load goes.
The Chinook that parked in a hurry in Stanley with chunks out of its blades is a good case in point.
The culprit was a badly rigged 40' ISO. The diference with rigging a 20 and 40' ISO is that 2m extension chains are required on the latter at each corner. This culprit container was rigged sans chains, resulting in the 'included' angle between the roof of the container and the sling stirrup to be too shallow. The load came off the ground earlier than might be expected. This then resulted in a catastrophic sling failure, container getting very wet, and a quickstop by the harbour. This was an incident before we had the luxury of redundant rigging, and all ISO's were single point lifts IIRC.
The Chinook that parked in a hurry in Stanley with chunks out of its blades is a good case in point.
The culprit was a badly rigged 40' ISO. The diference with rigging a 20 and 40' ISO is that 2m extension chains are required on the latter at each corner. This culprit container was rigged sans chains, resulting in the 'included' angle between the roof of the container and the sling stirrup to be too shallow. The load came off the ground earlier than might be expected. This then resulted in a catastrophic sling failure, container getting very wet, and a quickstop by the harbour. This was an incident before we had the luxury of redundant rigging, and all ISO's were single point lifts IIRC.
The only intentional underslung jettison I've actually seen was a Holden Kingswood sedan dropped from an RAN Westland Seaking at a NAS Nowra airshow in 1998. There was a great video that the AMTDU instructors showed us on basic course of an Army Unimog truck dropped from a Chook at a DZ in western Sydney. It had been incorrectly rigged so that the two rear strops rubbed together and snapped, allowing the truck to swing forward. The crew then sent it off on it's 200' free fall with predictable results.
There were also rumors about an incident relating to underslung boat trial that was being conducted by AMTDU in the early noughties. Apparently the vessel (a large RHIB) impacted the underside of the Chinook during flight trials and was cut away! I was busy with other stuff at the time so I don't actually know the story.
There were also rumors about an incident relating to underslung boat trial that was being conducted by AMTDU in the early noughties. Apparently the vessel (a large RHIB) impacted the underside of the Chinook during flight trials and was cut away! I was busy with other stuff at the time so I don't actually know the story.