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Who knew you could have so much fun landing a Ch-47???


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I can only imagine what its like to pilot one of those monsters.

 

It is surprisingly responsive, docile, and easy to fly thanks to AFCS and altitude/airspeed hold. It is also incredibly powerful - imagine sitting on the ramp, pulling "top of the green" torque, and shooting straight up into the sky at more than 3500 FPM!

 

Of course, you need a 3rd crew member (flight engineer) to maneuver in tight quarters or do precision hovering like in that video.

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Of course, you need a 3rd crew member (flight engineer) to maneuver in tight quarters or do precision hovering like in that video.

 

And he was on board the chopper too...

 

Severian47 -"I was on this bird when it happened. We weren't back taxing. The pilot on the controls landing it, landed whilst turning and the aft right wheel caught the asphalt and snapped off. I was the Flight Engineer at the cabin door and you'll see me get out of the helicopter at around minute 3:00. The pilots did exhibit skill in landing. It's hard to put a 13 Ton plane down on a pallet of wood, whilst taking directions from the FE in the back of the plane. The three guys putting the ten ton jack under the jacking point are all pilots now I think. I am sure two of them are. If you want anymore clarification on this video, send me a message."- Severian47

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Yikes, that vid made me cringe alittle. Now dont get me wrong, ive done some pretty stupid stunts in my time, but is getting that machine to land on a stack of pallets really worth putting all of those lives at risk?? Maybe this is common practice i dunno, but i guess i would reason the situation differently.

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Yikes, that vid made me cringe alittle. Now dont get me wrong, ive done some pretty stupid stunts in my time, but is getting that machine to land on a stack of pallets really worth putting all of those lives at risk?? Maybe this is common practice i dunno, but i guess i would reason the situation differently.

 

I don't think they really put anyone lives at risk that much. Sure they did a bit, but I think the risk would have been greater for the crew of the bird if they would have landed with only three wheels. They would have most likely destroyed, or heavily damaged the bird if they attempted to put it down without doing what they did and possibly killing all on board. You have to remember that the wheels don't retract on the CH-47. So a pure belly down landing was not a possibility.

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If she were to land with one missing it would probably break off the rest of the gear, thus you have a 25 ton beast sitting on its belly with no way to lift it.

 

Actually, I don't think the crew had any other choice but to land on those pallets. I don't think the other gear would have broken, but to land on three wheels would have resulted in the right aft corner (where the wheel was missing) to touch the ground - and at that ridiculous angle, without the dampening of the gear, I suspect ground resonance would have resulted in the aircraft ripping itself apart.

 

No, landing on the pallets was the right decision - and a pretty safe one too. Flying like that is actually all in a days work for a CH-47 crew. Really, it wasn't much different than hovering over a load and holding position while the FE hooks the line.

Edited by palmfish
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Actually, I don't think the crew had any other choice but to land on those pallets. I don't think the other gear would have broken, but to land on three wheels would have resulted in the right aft corner (where the wheel was missing) to touch the ground - and at that ridiculous angle, without the dampening of the gear, I suspect ground resonance would have resulted in the aircraft ripping itself apart.

 

I concur. I'm sure ground resonance was a major concern, so propping the aft corner up was probably the only option.

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I am actually surprised (having seen this video a while ago) that the aircraft didn't bounce around even more than it did, having no way of dampening vibrations (pallets have weak struts)...The 47 shakes a bit on startup/shutdown...more so on startup usually though.

 

 

 

CHAD

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Pogue,

Just joking around, lol….. Future206 started it!

 

All branches are fine. The training is all relative. I was in fire truck maintenance, the AF trained the Marines on the Oshkosh fire trucks we used. At the same base the AF trained Marines and Navy on the C130 turbo props. If you were going to be a truck driver in the AF you went to the Army driver school, same for welding in the AF had to go to the Army’s welding school. Just like the AF pilots that fly heli’s go to Mother Rucker… I am sure you know this, ;)

 

Happy New Year, lol……

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Ok, I need to tell a story.

 

Sherman, set the Wayback to Spring 83, place...Hill A.F.B. UT. Some Marines were training on another ramp-transient ramp-and they had brought one of their bomblift trucks-aka jammer-into our shop for repair. The repair was to replace one of the outriggers.

 

The outrigger is a piece of solid steel about 6"X8". The one on their jammer had been bent up and out so it was sticking up about 40 degrees. I'm not exagerating. It would take extreme forces to bend that steel.

 

The story I heard was that a marine was going very fast and went into a ditch. I'm still wondering because there are no ditches around the ramps.

 

Anyhow, since their equipment was yellow and ours were green, the jammer looked kinda goofy with one green outrigger and one yellow outrigger.

 

Ah, the good ol' days.

 

Later

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