Resurrected from the Boneyard!!!

[Schnugg]

From Navy News Online....

050809-O-0000C-001 Cherry Point, N.C. (Aug. 8, 2005) - U.S. Marines assigned to Marine Aircraft Group Sixteen (MAG-16), off-load a Navy MH-53 Sea Dragon helicopter from an Air Force C-5 Galaxy transport on board Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. Three MH-53 Sea Dragons have been removed from the nation's war reserve, or "bone yard," at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., for upgrading and reconfiguration at Naval Air Depot Cherry Point, before being returned for service in the fleet. Photo courtesy of Larry Conley (RELEASED)

 

[nfo2b]

Wow, what a cool follow-up to my thread about the boneyard. Cool stuff! :icon_smil

 

[Brett327]

From Navy News Online....

050809-O-0000C-001 Cherry Point, N.C. (Aug. 8, 2005) - U.S. Marines assigned to Marine Aircraft Group Sixteen (MAG-16), off-load a Navy MH-53 Sea Dragon helicopter from an Air Force C-5 Galaxy transport on board Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point. Three MH-53 Sea Dragons have been removed from the nation's war reserve, or "bone yard," at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., for upgrading and reconfiguration at Naval Air Depot Cherry Point, before being returned for service in the fleet. Photo courtesy of Larry Conley (RELEASED)

Looks like a tight fit. When I was a Helo crewman, we always wondered what it would be like to shove a -60 out the back of a transport with the engines running, and hope the blade spread system worked before you hit the ground. Probably a death wish.

Brett

 

[MIDNJAC]

thats awesome....cool to see aircraft come "back from the grave"

 

[rare21]

nice..more 53s for us nuggets to break.

 

[JIMC5499]

Resurrected from the Boneyard

Looks like a tight fit. When I was a Helo crewman, we always wondered what it would be like to shove a -60 out the back of a transport with the engines running, and hope the blade spread system worked before you hit the ground. Probably a death wish.

Brett

I think that you have seen one too many episodes of Airwolf. You would never get the blades to unfold because the locking pin holes would be out of alignment.

 

[ChuckMK23]

The picture is of a CH-53E (not an MH). The CH has small sponsons and jettisonable tanks, the MH-53E has one huge ass sponson.

 

[Cyclic]

The picture is of a CH-53E (not an MH). The CH has small sponsons and jettisonable tanks, the MH-53E has one huge ass sponson.

True, I wandered if anyone was going to notice...but!...did you know that those are A-4 Skyhawk wheels?

 

[highlyrandom]

"I think that you have seen one too many episodes of Airwolf. You would never get the blades to unfold because the locking pin holes would be out of alignment."

Then how do you get an "uncommanded blade fold in flight"? I could swear that was on the NATOPS exam...

 

[Schnugg]

Each aircraft that is in the boneyard was put there as a full up around jet (or helo). Having just flown a comprehensive FCF with all discrepancies signed off in the ADB. When we'd send a Tomcat there, it was typically one of our better jets.

 

[Brett327]

I think that you have seen one too many episodes of Airwolf. You would never get the blades to unfold because the locking pin holes would be out of alignment.

You think? I dunno, there was this one guy in my squadron that used to fly with a bunch of SPECOPS guys. He said they used to do it all the time as a way of inserting guys and a helo in places they didn't have any friendly airbases. On one particulary hairly insertion, they pushed the -60 out the back, but the spread system didn't work (shocking), so the crewman had to climb out and use the blade fold box as they were falling - barely made it in time.

Brett

 

[highlyrandom]

Haha. I'd leave the blades where they were and land on the "auxiliary rocket engines" under the sonobuoy rack. Arrest the drift, cushion the freefall.

 

[Brett327]

What is the fall rate for a -60 fully loaded? Hard to believe that it didn't work though...(completely shocked) :icon_mi_1

African or European?

Brett

 

[ChuckMK23]

What is the fall rate for a -60 fully loaded? Hard to believe that it didn't work though...(completely shocked) :icon_mi_1

G=9.8 meters/sec^2 for any falling object

 

[highlyrandom]

We all know from the last James Bond flick that helicopters' blades stop spinning if the engine quits. You would think this was some new-fangled technology, not falling seed-pods with an engine.