When Helicopters Break Down and Need a Tow...

D

Dain Arns

Senior Member
You grab a 'Hook'...
(Great audio.)

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You can see the lift cable bounce one time, then when it's snugged up again, you hear the turbines really load up to give the extra lift!
 
Having trained a lot of folks to do this, the magic is in the prep. Also, a CH-47 brings in it's own weather system which you have to learn to deal with, and it's pretty intimidating when it comes hovering over you. You really have to train your folks that when they are standing on the load (in my case HMMWV's with Shelters) do not crouch down...makes it harder for the pilot since he has to get lower so you can secure the hook.

Wonder what the density altitude was in this instance? The CH-47 definitely seemed to struggle and I've never really seen that before, even in lifting far heavier things.
 
Great vid, hate seeing my daily driver all broke down like that. Depends on how much fuel they took around, still looking at >12,000lbs.
 
this was during the "scotts fire",i heard the helo pilot tlling air attack he was having trouble,,,was a few minutes of stress for a few on the fire to start with
 
TeaSea said:
...Wonder what the density altitude was in this instance? The CH-47 definitely seemed to struggle and I've never really seen that before, even in lifting far heavier things.
Click to expand...

I was wondering the same thing.

Altitude there in the area is not very high, most looks to be in the 400-1000'ASL range, from what I'm seeing on a terrain map.
Looking at the temp for that day, Sept. 13th, looks like it was in the low 70's.
Like Tom mentioned, the turbines sound like they load up, and I thought I could hear the transmissions strain as well.

It's not a 'Firehawk', so no external tank on the Blackhawk that could have been full, I'm sure it was using a Bambi bucket.
Would think they would have removed any fuel onboard as well to lighten it up, and prevent any leakage in case it had to be dropped. :kilroy:
 
Dain Arns said:
Altitude there in the area is not very high, most looks to be in the 400-1000'ASL range, from what I'm seeing on a terrain map.
Looking at the temp for that day, Sept. 13th, looks like it was in the low 70's.
Like Tom mentioned, the turbines sound like they load up, and I thought I could hear the transmissions strain as well.
Click to expand...

You might be confusing the area for the city of Scotts Valley. The city is down by Santa Cruz and gets cooled by the ocean. The area called Scotts Valley here in the video is further north in Lake County, east of Ukiah. It can get very warm up around there, but it's a dry heat! A very scenic area of Kalifornia to drive or I would imagine, fly around.
 
The blades are roughly 250#'s each (so 250x4), full fuel around 2300#'s. So no issue for a lightly loaded "D" model Hooker, even with a high DA and temp.
 
Meshman said:
You might be confusing the area for the city of Scotts Valley. The city is down by Santa Cruz and gets cooled by the ocean. The area called Scotts Valley here in the video is further north in Lake County, east of Ukiah. It can get very warm up around there, but it's a dry heat! A very scenic area of Kalifornia to drive or I would imagine, fly around.
Click to expand...

I did. Should have added Lake County into the search parameters.

Makes more sense now, double the Altitude, basically.
Mostly areas averaging around 2000' to 3000' ASL.
Temps for that day were already in the 80's in mid-morning, high of around 97 degrees.

Yes, I miss the 'dry heat' of the West where I grew up.
The heat and humidity of the mid-west can be crushing to me at times, here.
Can't even imagine what it would be like in the South. :icon_lol:
 
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