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Random Griz Aviation Musings

Griz882

Griz882

Frightening children with the Griz-O-Copter!
pilot
Contributor
skybert said:
View attachment 39195
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What a sad day! Those things were enormous and I can remember going there to visit a buddy and seeing them filled with -46s and -53s. They are on the National Register (Historic American Building Survey) and the land there is wildly expensive…I always suspect arson when I see this wondering if someone is looking to profit from this “terrible fire.”
 
IKE

IKE

Nerd Whirler
pilot
Gatordev said:
Correct. I can't tell who's who in that pic, but I think both crewmen are nuggets, based on some of the other pics. Or one of them is the senior crewman. It's tough to tell. The PAC was a 2P and our OIC is in the left seat. I was jealous because I'd never done forward VERTREP before and wanted to try it. I ended up getting to do it on my next deployment.

If I'm remembering the events of the picture correctly, it was only 3 or 4 pallets which I believe would have totaled around ~2400 kilos or ~$48 million 2004 dollars of product that morning.
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I did fwd VERTREP once. It was a SWO surprise: unplanned, unbriefed. We were supposed to make 2 rounds of 3 picks from the flight deck of a Flight IIa, but when we came in for the 2nd round and found an empty flight deck, the OOD directed us to the bow.

Me being both the self-assessed cool OIC and the HAC wanting to do something unique, we CRMed it into reality. What I didn't realize is my AWR2 hadn't VERTREPed more than required by the syllabus, and had never done it from CRUDES. Sitting left seat, I had a great view of maybe 2 ft of steel on the bow and lots of water. Luckily one of my 2Ps was kind enough to record the event.

Holy s**t was our tailwheel close to the port lifelines. It turns out both of the BMs working the pendants were ~5 ft nothing and were afraid to stretch up towards the helo. Our aircrewman was just bringing us down to meet them. Lessons were learned.

I'm eternally grateful my JOs kept the pics out of briefs until a certain CO (now CAG) moved on.
 
Gatordev

Gatordev

Well-Known Member
pilot
Site Admin
Contributor
ChuckMK23 said:
That has the makings of quite the FITREP bullet!
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Believe it or not, that was chump change compared to what we did that deployment. As in an order of magnitude. We technically didn't hit the billion mark, as those are tough numbers to resolve when you have multiple mission kills but no evidence to count.

Those pallets weren't even ours, they just got dropped off on our ship when another ship had to go into port. We were giving them to a Cutter who I think was heading home.

IKE said:
Sitting left seat, I had a great view of maybe 2 ft of steel on the bow and lots of water. Luckily one of my 2Ps was kind enough to record the event.

Holy s**t was our tailwheel close to the port lifelines. It turns out both of the BMs working the pendants were ~5 ft nothing and were afraid to stretch up towards the helo. Our aircrewman was just bringing us down to meet them. Lessons were learned.

I'm eternally grateful my JOs kept the pics out of briefs until a certain CO (now CAG) moved on.
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Yeah, I was left seat when I did it and there wasn't much to see. It was something different and cool to do, though.

I'm surprised but not surprised that a CO would flip about doing what was an approved procedure. Sigh. I'm trying to figure out who that would have been. I was thinking maybe Hondo, but he's retired now, apparently.
 
ChuckMK23

ChuckMK23

FERS and TSP contributor!
pilot
Gatordev said:
Believe it or not, that was chump change compared to what we did that deployment. As in an order of magnitude. We technically didn't hit the billion mark, as those are tough numbers to resolve when you have multiple mission kills but no evidence to count.

Those pallets weren't even ours, they just got dropped off on our ship when another ship had to go into port. We were giving them to a Cutter who I think was heading home.



Yeah, I was left seat when I did it and there wasn't much to see. It was something different and cool to do, though.

I'm surprised but not surprised that a CO would flip about doing what was an approved procedure. Sigh. I'm trying to figure out who that would have been. I was thinking maybe Hondo, but he's retired now, apparently.
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Many memories doing VERTREP to the fwd (bow) spot of an FFG - delivering 76mm ammo and or SM-1's - just like hoisting to that spot with pax, kind of your test early on as a H2P if you were ready for your first deployment.
 
ChuckMK23

ChuckMK23

FERS and TSP contributor!
pilot
Gatordev said:
Believe it or not, that was chump change compared to what we did that deployment. As in an order of magnitude. We technically didn't hit the billion mark, as those are tough numbers to resolve when you have multiple mission kills but no evidence to count.

Those pallets weren't even ours, they just got dropped off on our ship when another ship had to go into port. We were giving them to a Cutter who I think was heading home.



Yeah, I was left seat when I did it and there wasn't much to see. It was something different and cool to do, though.

I'm surprised but not surprised that a CO would flip about doing what was an approved procedure. Sigh. I'm trying to figure out who that would have been. I was thinking maybe Hondo, but he's retired now, apparently.
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This crew seems to have the skills!
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1721883772424253496
 
ChuckMK23

ChuckMK23

FERS and TSP contributor!
pilot
Griz882 said:
I did a 160th “ride along” on a practice mission like that. Those guys just have amazing awareness of their rotor location and gear. It takes practice!
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Unlike us - who were making it up all along the way - no doctrine or standards in hindsight, amateur hour. We did the best we could with limited practice.

One of our certification flights for VBSS with what was then ST8 - I'm flying Dash-2 in the right seat as HAC. The 2P is now a United CA and farmer in Maine!

 
hscs

hscs

Registered User
pilot
Scary when you look at Lakehurst and all of the ALRE depot Mx that goes on inside of a similar blimp hangar.
 
VMO4

VMO4

Well-Known Member
With respect to Seven's suggestion, it is getting a Continental A85. Unlike a bunch of Cub owners, I am trying to keep mine true to its type certificate, the A85 is listed as an approved engine on the original 1946 type certificate, unlike the O-200, etc... you see on many upgrades. This engine is actually the engine behind which I received my T/W endorsement when it was attached to my mechanics Aeronca Champ. The Champ airframe was destroyed when an idiot lost control of his Navion and flew into the hangar, the engine survived the incident unscathed and sat in a corner for two years unitl being placed on my Cub.

IMG_2475 2.jpg
 

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