Naval Classifications

[SparrowHawk62]

Originally posted by Tamaroa
Yep you ol' airdale. It did. Great guys there. My son was given several awards from that group while he was a cadet at North Rockland NJROTC. I was a snipe myself. Just call me "chips".
Hoyers is a couple hundred yards north of me.
Bill

Well, I take it you are a Hoyer's fan? Hard to find someone who isn't.
Nice to hear the NR NJROTC has done some good. I went to car wash they were running at NRHS a few years back. They had a splittail Sr. Chief running the show.
When that new AL opens up give me a shout, I'll buy you what ever you like to toss back.

[BLUEHAWK]

Yup, the C-5... quite a LARGE piece of machinery ain't it :-), but nothing compared with the equipment you seafaring ones move around the world! Was reading a Tom Clancy novel the other night, having to do in part with our ships at war... he wrote about how one of your big ones was approaching the dock after a tour, easing up to it, and the captain of the ship just let a gust of wind nudge his vessel to the mooring... a gust of wind mind ya!

I was AF right at the very end of the recip era... we had jet fighters and our beloved B-52 of course by then, but the C-5 and C-141 were in prototype stages, or maybe final check outs. If memory serves, our beautiful SR-71 was either up and running (in total secret) or just about to be. We did at the time begin using the KC-135 for a tanker, which was a jet... but our cargo was mostly hauled by 123s, 130s and 47s still then.

Believe me, I honor the choppers a whole lot... the work they did and do is astonishing, and cannot be done any other way. I just get goofy sometimes, roostering for no good reason at all :-)

[SparrowHawk62]

Well, you'd think the wind wouldn't effect something as large as a carrier. That's not the case at all. Mind you they are floating, with a thousand feet of sail. (The broad side of the ship)
Yup, they "swing" on the anchor when moored due to winds.
The Indy was blown into shallower waters enough that one of her screws got stuck in the sand. This was down in GITMO, and we bent a shaft getting unstuck! They use to move carriers into the piers in Japan by using the aircraft that were on the flight deck! Strange thing the wind can be.
As for the C-5, that is one big target! I've had the opportunity to get real up close with this beast. Always thought it was pretty cool when the put them on display and let the crowd walk through them from one end to the other. I might like them a bit more if they didn't rattle every window in my home when flying over head. Yeah, I'm that close to them at times. Night ACLS is lined up with a major road that runs behind my home, lucky me. We've also had a few loose parts fall off those things over the past few years. A flap, damned thing would have taken out a house but it wound up in the street instead. A few antennae, nuts and bolts, some frozen blue stuff and now and then a spray of fuel.
Having been in one or two Helo's I wouldn't trade them for a single fixed wing A/C! Saw some crazy Jar Heads do things with an H-46 that would put any ride at any amusement park to shame.

[BLUEHAWK]

62 -
Helos sure have changed a fair dinkum since I was in the garb, that IS for sure... but even when young, those few pilots could do some acrobatics to make the eye smile, like I am now.

I was just trying to picture it in my mind, a whole huge multi-ton Naval vessel, coming into dock mighty slow, then being allowed by her commander to be "nudged" to morring by God's own breeze... lovely image for the heart ain't it.

Us on the fixed wings, a whole different sense of how to go up and down from helo's, and basically, I'd rather float than drop like a rock if it could be helped.

[SparrowHawk62]

Originally posted by BLUEHAWK
Us on the fixed wings, a whole different sense of how to go up and down from helo's, and basically, I'd rather float than drop like a rock if it could be helped.

Come on now, there a bunch of A/C that have no glide scope with out power. They fall pretty hard. Saw an F-8 punch out, that bird went into the wet stuff nose first, ouch. At least with a fixed wing you have a chance of punching out.

[BLUEHAWK]

Yup, you are surely right... gotta have some WINGS, or maybe a second engine.... just wishful thinkin' is all :-)

It has been said around that my beloved Provider was "designed" to be a glider... never had an opportunity to test that concept personally, but we did have some wing span, and a fair amount of weight beneath the span, so maybe it seemed plausible... dunno.

I don't like the idea of single engines on anything (they have a tendency to fall fast and hard), and teensey wings make me nervous... so do helo's with two full time rotors one on either end; not a good sign from the git.

As usual, I have exaggerated :-) and am too dang old to be brave enough to dare fly anything single or teensey they're putting out (not that anyone would allow me in a seat anymore :-)

62, have ya ever been party to a recip run up, your own self? No offense meant or intended...

Man oh man, what a feeling... it starts out so weak, rumpada rumpada rumpada rumpy, rump, rump rummmmmmmmmmmmm, phablooey blooey blooey, whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Smoke, oil snot, more smoke... and then she's ready to work (IF my job was done right.)

[Tamaroa]

for choppers and their pilots. Then I witnessed something that left me speechless. It was in June, 1968 and we were in the atlantic assisting in the search for the submarine Scorpion lost at sea. Now my old barge the Tam was an ATF (Auxilary Tug Fleet) we had no flight deck. The newer cutters called medium endurance had a flight deck. We are talking about 35 feet by 45 feet area to land on.

the new MEC's were top heavy and rolled alot. When the weather got sporty, they really commenced to rolling wildly. Well, during the search party, I witnessed a chopper pilot land on the pitching/rolling flight deck. I had no idea how he was able to control the darn thing but I watched him start to tilt the copter in time with the roll of the cutter. Simultaneously he began his descent. With just about 10 or 15 feet left (hard to tell from where we were) he gunned into the flight deck and a bunch of the crew ran out and tethered it down with steel cable.

As my father would say "you coulda steered my knees with a spoon." What a performance.

Bill

[SparrowHawk62]

Originally posted by BLUEHAWK Y
62, have ya ever been party to a recip run up, your own self? No offense meant or intended...
Man oh man, what a feeling... it starts out so weak, rumpada rumpada rumpada rumpy, rump, rump rummmmmmmmmmmmm, phablooey blooey blooey, whirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Smoke, oil snot, more smoke... and then she's ready to work (IF my job was done right.)

Now if you're talking about working with Prop A/C, well I've come close the E2-C is a trubo prop, that count? C-2 is the same thing only it's configured quite a bit diffrent.
The C-1, that old bird sounded like a Chevy big block with open headers. Yeah, they'd back fire and do a few other things that would but a skid mark in your skivvies. Love the sound of those machines. Another great bird that's gone to the bone yard!
Here's a photo of Indy's own little gal Miss Belle, I took this photo while we were in the Med in 1980. Sorry I'm not having any luck shrinking my attachments lately. If you take a good look at 602, she's an E2-C, a Hummer, the Navy's AWAC's bird. Yeah, it's hard to see the whole bird but you can make out the tips of her props.

[BLUEHAWK]

62 -
Turbos definitely have those VERRRRRRRRRY dangerous thingeys whirling around out in front, absolutely...

Hell, it was ALL amazing as far as I'm concerned... I just dumb-lucked myself into coming in at the tail end of the recip era... kinda gave me a special (not very much deserved, really) relationship with those who flew recips in prior wars, especially off of moving/rolling ships... which to me is THE definition of pilot craft and skill, helo or otherwise... especially when your folks do all that in the dead of night... cripes. Just amazing...

[SparrowHawk62]

Originally posted by BLUEHAWK ... especially when your folks do all that in the dead of night... cripes. Just amazing...

Amazing is not quite the word I'd use. Yup, dead of night, add a bit of rain and wind, worn skid from being out for a few months.
Wouldn't find me doing that today!
Some times think how I was that stupid to have done it at all.