Quote:
Originally Posted by fanaudical
Pretty impressive and what a beast of a helo...
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I think that is a 53K...not sure.
Two things:
I have about 100 hours in H-53E's and it is like, as I have written before, like flying your house from the bathroom. Phenominal aircraft.
When I was the Chief government pilot at the Sikorsky factory, I got a call from the Coast Guard saying that a H-60 Jayhawk had an a emergency landing below the tide line in Cape Cod. They needed to get picked up before the tide came in.
1996 time frame. Odd I can't find an article on it.
Anywho, the Coast Guard guy was great and I told him I'd get the crews ready (I had a 53E in the air but we needed to bring it back to get the riggings to pick the Jayhawk up. I also had two pilots (one a Marine and a great guy and a prior Marine Sikorsky pilot...both had been "rocks and blocks" instructors) ready to roll. Major Joe was already airborne in the 53E returning and Dave was cued up to go.
I had to call my Boss, a Navy Captain to make sure he was good to go.
To my surprise, he said no...it was getting late but I felt we had time before dark. He disagreed.
I called the Coast Guard guy back and told him what my Boss said. To his credit, he says, "get it done, we'll take care of your Boss...he won't stop this if you can make it work..."
So we did.
I flew a Seahawk to help with comms and any other assistance.
Joe and Dave snatched it just before dark and put it a parking lot. One of the coolest peace time flights I have ever had.