All Things Aviation Related

[bugstrider]

Being the last race at Reno this year, I ordered two commemorative belt buckles that finally arrived. Will be displaying them in the office.




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[rsrguy]

They should have raced...

[KNS]

Interesting Corsair II Trivia:
While the F-117 Stealth Fighter was becoming operational at the Tonopah Test Range in Nevada, the pilots needed an aircraft to maintain flight currency when not flying the F-117. The Corsair II was chosen because it had a similar cockpit and avionics layout. To account for the increased activity at the Tonopah base, the Corsairs were left outside on the ramp during the day so Soviet satellites passing overhead would see nothing more interesting than Corsairs while the F-117s were tucked away in hangers.

[bugstrider]

Drove up to the airport to drop an item at the hangar. Kinda a cool shot of the moon peeking through the clouds. The new night setting on the iPhone makes it look brighter than it is.



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[Heel n Toe]

https://planehistoria.com/bv-141-the-asymmetrical-aircraft/

[Heel n Toe]

Whaaaaaaaat?????????????

I'd never heard of this ingenious capability until just now.





https://planehistoria.com/grumman-f6f-hellcat/

[CurtEgerer]

^^^^ Pilot at moment photo was taken: "Hold my beer".

[KNS]

Bell X-1 being prepared for flight from Boeing B-50.

[ramonesfreak]

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/aviation-youtuber-jenny-blalock-dead-215127846.html

I’ve seen this woman’s YouTube videos. She has one a few weeks ago where she returned to land when the alternator died…wonder if this crash was related. Sad

[herr_oberst]

That's too bad, what a tragedy.

Apparently it was the beautiful Beech that went down, not the Cessna in the lead photo.. RIP, fliers.

[Heel n Toe]

Really nice tribute to the F-4... going full screen and using headphones is strongly recommended... and turn it up.

[fanaudical]

Kinda fun to watch and listen:

[svandamme]

Then there is Navy refueling

[edgemar]

[fanaudical]

Pretty impressive and what a beast of a helo...

[svandamme]

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by fanaudical

Pretty impressive and what a beast of a helo...

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.

[fanaudical]

Cool story. I hope the boss was OK and didn't roast everybody over that one too badly...

I live a few miles from KUAO which is home to Columbia Helicopters (mostly Chinooks) and sometimes the Erickson SkyCranes show up. Those things are huge. I haven't seen any of the 53's in person.

[Seahawk]

^^^ My CO at the time, call sign "COS" was smart enough to get the program after I called him back and mentioned that the rescue of the Jayhawk was a few elevator rides above his pay grade...the Coast Guard wanted their intact helicopter off the rocks before the tide came in and assured COS that he would be a speed bump at best.

"Oh."

BTW, the Jayhawk lost part of a main rotor blade due to a failure in manufacturing and they still managed to land the thing upright and savable.

The vibrations must have been amazing.

I never spoke with the pilots but they had the juice.

Chinooks and Sky Cranes...be still my beating heart. I haven't flown either one but...

[Robert Coats]