How do you fly a Chinook....

[ranger]

BBDT:

Re-reading my first post, I see that it didn't convey the reverence and admiration I intended when I say that you all are crazy. I'm incredibly thankful that you all are such a crazy lot, and do crazy crap and make it seem as normal as putting pants on.

In 2011, a friend of mine deployed in Kandahar doing route clearance was hit by an IED, losing his left leg to explosive amputation and he was pinned in the wreck in such a way that they couldn't get a CAT on it for a few precious minutes. He lost a lot of blood. But a Chinook crew on a totally unrelated mission diverted to his hot, uncleared area to casevac him without so much as blinking, and subsequently saved his life.
He's home with his wife in Kentucky now and they have two little girls, 2 and 5 years old. Last I spoke to him, they're expecting a third now around Thanksgiving - he's hoping for a boy.
From the bottom of my heart, thank you for doing what you guys do.

Helicopter crews in deployed areas are truly heroes! When the GAARNG 48th IBCT was working south of Baghdad - we knew that within minutes of "troops in contact" we would have one or two Apaches literally on top of us itching for payback - in those days there was always two Apaches prowling around BIAP and the crews came by out BDE TOC for coordination and collaboration. When we had wounded, the dust wasn't settled from the IED before the Blackhawk MEDEVACs arrived - the time from wound to being in the Baghdad area "MASH" (can't remember current term) was in minutes.

[taadski]

Glad we didn’t lose a good crew for that guy on the mountain.

Who foots the bill in rescue operations like this? The cost is high, the risk inmense for the crew, and all for a few guys who wanted to take high risks...

I could not agree more.

The guy chooses to opt out at the summit, then does a "cry for help" 9-11 call, putting every responder/rescuer at risk.

Selfish prick.

Unfortunately, this has become standard fare in the civilian rescue world. The expectation that many carry into the woods/mountains these days is that a quick click of their Spot device or a 911 call on their cell phone will result in an immediate evacuation by helicopter. And for the most part, obviously depending on conditions and local capability, they're right. I work for a (county) agency responsible for alpine rescue in our region and we fully investigate both of the above and either rule out or implement rescue action.

In Colorado, there's a state DOLA program that allows the recoup of rescue related costs for agencies that are statutorily obligated to conduct such missions. We typically utilize a select few private aviation assets that we train with regularly. But we also use the Air National Guard a good bit too. If they're requested via the AFRCC, and the mission is a "life or limb" affair, we incur no cost for their resources.

[HC-7]

The 47 on the roof was 2003 in Afghanistan.....Mission was flown a Pennsylvania Army National Guard pilot....His civilian full time job was flying as a Medevac pilot out of Allentown, Pa....It was during a combat mission...Rear wheels entered the hooch, we had to $ 72.00 in damages.....regards....alex

[rayrevolver]

Was shooting the bull with an old CH47 guy and found out about this beast:

http://aviationintel.com/the-donald-...inook-in-1991/

[RevolverRob]

One of the reasons I care not a whit about mountain climbers, ice climbers, and skiers is their desire to do dangerous activities in remote places and expect someone else to clean up the messes they make. The fact that those folks are often incredibly affluent and socialists isn't lost on me either. It's one of the rare instances, where I'm willing to paint people with a broad political brush, right off of the canvas.

Glad the Chinook Crew is amazing and did a great job. Sad that guy wasn't left on the mountain.

[Guerrero]

Makes my stomach lurch just seeing this:




Practice:


...makes perfect

[NEPAKevin]

FOB Fenty is named after Lt. Col. Joe Fenty who along with I believe ten other soldiers and crewmen were killed during a night time extraction when a CH47 was doing a similar maneuver and the blades stuck a tree.