Hart ch-47

[cdavenport]

Originally Posted by Ashrunner

Major...I loved both of my tours in Alaska. The first, 70-72, was refueling aircraft, and the second, 83-85 in Public Affairs. Two totally different jobs, but both offered exciting times.

I worked in the command post and flew the RC-135S Cobra Ball from 80-83. I loved my tour. Flying the Ball was a strain, but AK was a dreamland!

Crazy me, I especially loved the winters. I couldn't wait for the first snow to fall; I lived on my snowmobile!

[willygoat]

Aaah the Cobra Ball. I went on a refueling mission last summer with the Nebraska Air Guard on on of their KC-135Rs. We refueled a Cobra Ball out of Offutt AFB. Way cool!

[2Kamser]

Zathros, if you make a HH3/Sea King, will you make the most famous one? the nbr "66"? - please do as it will make some Apollo's into a great diorama with a hovering Sea King above the bobbing capsule

[Knife]

NOOOOO..... The world has enough large and small models of the SH-3 Sea King, in both paper and pl**tic. It needs a Sikorsky S-61R, the tricycle gear version with the loading ramp ala the Jolly Green Giant.

The ones I flew up in Alaska had the uprated engines, but the gearbox could only take 86% of the power the engines could produce, limiting the performance. The Russian helicopters were all designed with gearboxes that were practically unbreakable. I flew a Mi-8 Hip in Africa that didn't even have a torque gauge because the gearbox could take anything the engines threw at it.

The fact that most systems where electrical was an advantage in the Arctic. Electrical systems still work at -40 degrees. In the H-53 most systems operate hydraulically, and when hydraulics get cold they leak from every seal. They tested a H-53 in Alaska and it looked like the Exxon Valdez with oil spilling everywhere.

I had the pleasure of flying an H-3 from Anchorage Alaska to Pensacola Florida for rebuild. The trip took about a week, and we flew about 300' above ground level the whole way. A great way to see Canada and the U.S.

[Knife]

By the way, isn't this tread about the H-47? Sorry to hijack it.

[2Kamser]

knife, do you have any links to any good SH3's? i have only seen small "ugly" ones, no decent bigger ones yet

[Knife]

GPM has a 1/33 scale Sea King (GPM kit 035) and there's a couple of 1/48 scale plastic kits around. There's at least 6 1/72 scale plastic kits that I know of. I haven't tried the GPM kit, but their HH-53 kit builds up nicely.

[Ashrunner]

Knife...I love reading the stories of any helo airframe. And don't mind the hi-jack at all.

Zathros...Knife is correct...there are WAY to many SH-3 Sea King out there. A more famous image is an HH-3E crew hovering over a spot of jungle of SEA, hoisting up a down crew member with tracers zipping by. So avoid the temptation to do a 'navalized' version and concentrate on the S-61R airframe. With minor changes to fuselage and the addition of a radome, you have a Coast Guard HH-3F Pelican. 8v)

Major...In February of 1985, I was the main point of contact for the disappearance of an RC-135 in Alaska. The aircraft, with minimal crew, was practicing approaches to Valdez Airport using a microwave thingy (I don't remember the details of the approach gear, only that it was microwave based). At the time, there was a nasty snow storm in progress. It had made a couple of passes and witnesses could hear it turning for another approach which never happened. The aircraft had smacked into the mountains northwest of the airport.

Air and ground search crews were thwarted in their attempts to locate the crash site for three days after the disappearance due to the storm. When the storm subsided, more than 10 feet of snow had fallen in the area believed to have been the crash site. The aircraft wasn't found until I believe May when a passing T-33 noticed a glint of sunlight on a peak in the area of the crash. Checking it out closer, he spotted a portion of the wing of the aircraft.

It was the last aircraft accident I handle for the Air Force in Alaska, and was one of the toughest. The incident involved an SR-71 overflight, SAC Hq trying to tell me what to say and do, and my superiors at AAC Hq telling me to ignore SAC. In the end, SAC despised me, coworkers at Eielson AFB wanted nothing to do with me, the news outlets, both local and national, getting answers quickly and me (an E-5 Staff Sergeant) getting a pat on the back from a Lt. General for the way I handled the situation.

But now, back to CH-47 HART helicopters, HH-3E non model kits available and too many SH-3 Sea Kings out there 8v)

[Zathros]

The S-61 is a beauty for sure. One of my favorites. I shall heed the advice. If you can find the picture you are talking about would you post it please?

[Knife]

Here's some photos: