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Saying Goodbye to My Seahawk | Military Aviation | Air & Space Magazine

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Saying Goodbye to My Seahawk
The day I had to leave my SH-60B helicopter at the boneyard.

We landed from a hover and taxied for what seemed like miles across the desert airfield. At last, the plane captain waved us to a stop, and we began the shutdown procedures for our Sikorsky SH-60B Seahawk. I held the controls while my copilot ran the checklist and flipped switches. He reached the step that reads “PCLs—Idle,” which directs the pilot to pull the power control levers aft, out of the “Fly” position.

“Killing One,” he said, indicating that he was securing the no. 1 engine. Poor word choice, I thought, as the turboshaft shut down. The Turbine Gas Temperature gauge on both engines ticked to zero, the helicopter’s heartbeat flatlining for good.

It was late November 2012, and, accompanied by another SH-60B due for decommissioning, we had reached the final stop on our cross-country flight: Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, home to the 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group. Davis-Monthan is home to the largest military aircraft “boneyard” in the world, a usually-final resting place for more than 4,400 aircraft, including a relatively small number of civilian aircraft. This is Arlington Cemetery for faithful aircraft who have spent their lives in service to their nation. After three decades in salt spray and pitching waves, it seemed strange that these helicopters should end up in a dust bowl ringed by mountains. But it would be the final resting place for every SH-60B I had flown in my first three years as a Navy pilot.

The sudden absence of the rotor blades’ staccato roar made the silence in the cockpit feel somehow just as loud. In just a few seconds, the boneyard workers would surround the aircraft, inspect it carefully, and begin the preservation process. Some aircraft are marked for metal scrap, some are cannibalized for parts to keep other aircraft flying, others are marketed to foreign militaries. A lucky few even return to flight status.

I didn’t know my aircraft’s ultimate fate. I knew that within days, if not hours, it would be drained of all fluids and sealed with a white latex layer called Spraylat. I knew its rotor blades would be removed, giving it an appearance as unsettling to me as a headless Barbie. The lines of Earthbound aircraft made me think of broken toys.

Before unstrapping and climbing out, I reached for the rotary dial of the TACAN, or Tactical Air Navigation System. I clicked until the numbers read “51X”—the homing beacon channel for Naval Station Mayport in Jacksonville, Florida. Silly, but it made me feel better. Just in case this Seahawk ever needs to find its way home.

The Mayport squadron I joined in 2010 as a “nugget” aviator, HSL-46, sent detachments of six or seven pilots, 20-odd enlisted maintainers, and one or two helicopters to deploy on the Navy’s smallest boats. Most people assume Navy pilots deploy on aircraft carriers, but the world of the -60B was much more confined. The USS Anzio, a guided-missile cruiser and the largest class of the Navy’s small ships, is all of 567 feet long. We took two helicopters and stuffed them, blades and tail folded, in an afterthought of a hangar above the missile deck.

These Seahawks had been built in the mid-1980s in the Sikorsky factory at Stratford, Connecticut. Plaques stating each helicopter’s month and year of delivery were usually obscured by the copilot’s boots in the cockpit. The two aircraft being retired on this day had deployed many times, on cruisers, frigates, and destroyers, with many pilots.

Before 1993, only men had the privilege to fly them. Sixteen years after women were given the chance, I was assigned to a -60B in a training squadron, HSL-40. The helicopters that had hunted Soviet submarines during the cold war and stood watch in the waters off Kosovo were often nicknamed after pilots’ wives or girlfriends. By 2011, the helicopters were just as often named for reality TV celebrities or popular songs—my favorite was called “Crazy *****” after a hard rock song. (The helicopter dubbed “Kim” was named for Kim Kardashian, although this was not meant as a flattering tribute.)

I was among the last to fly the SH-60B. By the time of the official SH-60B Seahawk sundown ceremony in San Diego, about two and a half years later, all Navy helicopter squadrons would have transitioned to the MH-60R—also named Seahawk—which boasted an all-glass digital cockpit, among other enhancements.

Our two-aircraft formation had flown from Florida to Arizona in a four-day, three-night “road” trip. It was my first flight over land in more than half a year. After months of monochromatic blue beneath the aircraft, a change in scenery was revitalizing, and I soaked up the green bayou vistas of the Deep South, grateful to be back in the States. We refueled in landlocked cattle towns, where the concept of a seagoing service was as foreign as a Democrat. On our next-to-last day, after 12 hours of flying, we stopped in El Paso just after sunset and tied down the aircraft for the night, one leg short of our destination. We had been allowed three to five days to deliver the birds, with authority to deviate for weather or maintenance issues as long as we kept our squadron apprised of our progress. Without saying it out loud, all four pilots seemed to want to delay the inevitable parting.

The isolated world of a warship at sea can be claustrophobic, and even the most serious of missions felt like a reprieve from ship’s prison. We called it “air liberty”—flying low over the whitecaps, spotting dolphins in foreign waters, cloud surfing on lazy, quiet days in theater, and then the high-intensity night approaches to the rocking postage stamp of a flight deck. Our helicopters represented freedom, the way a teenager’s first car does.

Over two deployments I logged nearly 1,000 flight hours, and spent more than a year away from the States. My squadron changed in my absence, phasing in the new helicopters. New pilots, sharing the new-car smell of their advanced MH-60Rs, were my peers, sort of, but they made me feel like a dinosaur.

The military has a life-cycle plan for every war machine purchased, and the original intended life span of an SH-60B was 10,000 hours. When a replacement helicopter wasn’t quite ready, a paperwork drill extended the limit to 12,000 hours, then 13,000. To offset the extensions, the engineers at Naval Air Systems Command implemented a system called Fatigue Life Management, limiting flight time to 80 hours a month per aircraft. The -60B, dubbed a “legacy” helicopter as new ones rolled off the assembly line, were all I’d known, and the boneyard delivery offered me a chance to say goodbye before shore duty. I would continue flying in the MH-60R for a test squadron, but it wasn’t the same. I felt I owed the SH-60B a debt of gratitude, for my early flight lessons and for its years of service to many pilots before me.

The boneyard workers handed Sharpies to the six aircrew so we could sign the tails of the two helicopters. As I signed, I recalled all the hours I had spent in a -60B, learning what it meant to be a Navy helicopter pilot. I signed a custody transfer release, and the boneyard crew offered a receipt. Unsure of what to do with a receipt for a multimillion-dollar helicopter, I folded it and stuffed it in the pocket of my flight suit.

I ran my hand across the helicopter’s rivets one last time, and walked away.

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The military has a life-cycle plan for every war machine purchased

Wonder what the original plan was for the Ma Deuce

90 year old .50

Thanks for that!

I flew the first SH-60B delivered to the fleet, 00, and was a founding member of the first Seahawk squadron.

Great aircraft.

The B model was replaced by the R...I helped develop that aircraft as well.

I have over a man-years worth of time running around in just the B alone.

Again, thanks'for the memories!

Once in a while, I stumble across a thread like this.
This forum has some very interesting folks.

... a tip of the hat to y'all

I do have to say this. I don't know Nicole but her well done article (linked article is good) kind of completes the circle for me on the 60B.

I probably picked up at least 5 aircraft brand new 60'B's from the Lockheed Martin plant in Owego, NY and flew them across country to San Diego. The B's were made in Bridgeport, CT at the United Technologies Sikorsky plant, then flown to Owego for the very intensive installation of sensor packages.

Brand new a/c with the new aircraft smell that I got to jam across the country in.

My second tour I was an operational flight test pilot at VX-1 in Pax River. I led the team that did all the operational flight test of the Block I upgrade to the B, which included guns and missiles. The picture below is of me in 1990 after completing the first war shot of a Penguin Missile off Puerto Rico.

On a subsequent tour, I became the Chief Government Pilot at the Sikorsky Factory and delivered brand new Block I 60B's to the Owego plant.

Lastly, I was the lead PM on the replacement for the 60B, the SH-60R Seahawk.

So, I do have a bit of history with the aircraft. Again, thanks!

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1475254022.jpg

Cool, thanks for that. How long is a cross country flight in one of those things? I assume it takes a while and a few refuels.

I assume it's more scenic than in a jet plane because I assume you're not even remotely close to the same altitude, and speed, but you probably do want some altitude for both efficiency and avoiding weather?

The Seahawk carried over four hours worth of gas so at 125kt cruise (143mph) you could get back in two days but we usually spent three and enjoyed the scenery from 500ft.

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Originally Posted by Seahawk (Post 9300781)

The Seahawk carried over four hours worth of gas so at 125kt cruise (143mph) you could get back in two days but we usually spent three and enjoyed the scenery from 500ft.

I presume you could land at any branch of military base to refuel on a trip like that. I suspect you had a favorite spot to stop for the night.

like the song.
'those were the days my friend...

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1475257918.jpg

Rika

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seahawk (Post 9300781)

The Seahawk carried over four hours worth of gas so at 125kt cruise (143mph) you could get back in two days but we usually spent three and enjoyed the scenery from 500ft.

OK, so unlike a jet plane, altitude isn't necessary or beneficial, I guess. I can imagine that 500ft would be cool.

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Originally Posted by masraum (Post 9300858)

OK, so unlike a jet plane, altitude isn't necessary or beneficial, I guess. I can imagine that 500ft would be cool.

I could spend a day writing about this:

The Seahawk is powered by two jet engines, the GE-T700-401Cs. They each put out, depending, 1600SHP.

They were designed to operate as efficiently as possible at low altitudes (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Electric_T700) since most military helicopters are not outfitted with oxygen for the pilots to fly above 10,000 ft msl.

After that it gets really complicated. Unlike most fixed wing jets, the 700's in the 60 series helicopters are turning mechanical linkages in order to rotate the main and tail rotors, which provide lift and directional authority. A high altitudes, the density of the air is less, impacting the ability of the main and tail rotors to do their job.

Here are two links that go into helicopter performance:

http://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aviation/helicopter_flying_handbook/media/hfh_ch07.pdf

Helicopter Lesson Guides, Darren Smith, Helicopter Instructor

Density altitude is the key!

^^^Always.

I have piloted or ridden in everything from transports to F-18's.

Nothing beats nap of the earth time or low level flight in a helo in all of aviation.

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Originally Posted by Rikao4 (Post 9300904)

lower is even better..

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1475260736.jpg

Rika

Why to I hear the Ride of the Valkyries when I see pictures like that? :eek:

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Originally Posted by GH85Carrera (Post 9300935)

Why to I hear the Ride of the Valkyries when I see pictures like that? :eek:

I like that picture.

Paul - I'm sure this is a dumb question, but did you ever land on a destroyer?

The reason I ask is that my daughter (an ensign and Jr OOTD) had told me harrowing tales of getting those things down on to the deck.

So when I finally got to go on a short (family) cruise, I was shocked to see that not only did they have to get it down on to the deck, but also it had to be landed on a device like a dolly. I couldn't believe the added degree of difficulty!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Seahawk (Post 9300899)

OK, yep, yep, I knew they were running on jets, which I guess was why I wondered if a high (but not that high) altitude offered some improvement, but between the cold and oxygen at higher levels (bad for passengers) and even more importantly, the fact that there's a lot less air for the props to work with to create lift, it makes perfect sense that they would design them to work at a specific altitude.

This is an interesting thread! I enjoy learning about this stuff.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rikao4 (Post 9300904)

lower is even better..

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1475260736.jpg

Rika

This picture reminded me of one of my favorite movies, Black Hawk Down. I realize these are different helos...just the way they're flying along the coast is similar to me

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