External Loads-what Have You Dropped?

[downwash]

Cap, you had to go and remind me about the bucket that wandered off, undemanded, on fires south of Blairmore back in '99, dammit! That makes 5, even if 3 were 'mechanical.'

[Blackmac]

DW: Darn those mechanical fingers.

[Hogie]

HV, Another one for the books. You must be a magnet for this kind of stuff!!! Woodstock and I are killing ourselves right now. :up: :up:

 

Hogie

 

P.S give me a shout when you get home.

[cap]

Downwash ------now I'll "date myself" again. You remember that the first Bambis didn't have the "umbrella"........they had those staves that everyone cursed.....or at least I did. That bucket that I dropped was one of those with the staves and three firfighters carried it out of the timber for me and other then a few scratches on the fabric, was 100% operational. IF it would have been the new umbrella Bambis, then I'm afraid that "operational" wouldn't have been the operative word.

 

The only thing remotely funny about the whole thing was the 3 firefighters. They were doubled-over laughing as they dropped it at my feet. I asked them what was so darn funny. They said that they backed-of from the fire-line a good distance as I had asked. I made my run and the bucket went south at about 60-70kts forward speed. They said it tore through the branches and snapped off the tops of large trees and broke some smaller trees in half just like it was a raging dynasaur tearing though the timber. When it finally hit the ground at a very shallow angle, the loon-sh*t exploded out of it like massive diarrhea and with the appropriate sounds to go with. I asked them how the fire was doing and they said that if I had fired a guided missile I couldn't have hit it anymore on the bulls-eye than I did and it was a great drop because that loon-sh*t sure puts out a lot of fire real quick when it spreads that far.

 

Every once in a while a guy screws-up big time and comes out of it "smelling like a rose" and that was my occasion.....saying nothing about the sound of all the horseshoes exiting my behind either. Never even come close to loosing a Bambi, Water-Bucket or Chadwick other than that time.

[Harmonic_Vibe]

Hogie... I should be home no later than the 2nd... and I think I need to go to Penticton for a bit... and I need to see that **** eye doctor in Kelowna... so I think you and I have a date at Friend's Pub to see if we can kill that "Big Friendly Burger" that they brag no one can eat... and we have to do the wings and see the girls at Whisky Jack's... they probably think I'm dead...

 

HV

 

P.S. What the heck is Woodstock up to?

[Hover-Pig]

Just read through all the posts, some very comical incidents for sure.

 

I had to pickle a gun, that is an artillery howitzer, and I can tell you the gun crews were not very amused. It only fell about 25 feet but the thing has to be repaired and x-rayed before it can ever shoot again. It is very uplifting feeling when that heavy a load plops off the hook.

 

Also had to let go of two of those single ski snowmobiles the Army used. Those babies fell 150 feet onto a frozen lake. They came down like a greased piano and exploded on the ice, it was beautiful. We had several slung load incidents on this particular exercise and 80% of slinging was done at night way before we ever had NVG, very challenging flying.

 

Lastly, I lost two practice slung loads while we were in the Sinai desert. We were having problems with static electricity and our hook release. One of the loads crashed right in front of and bounced over a Bedouin hut. It could have killed the family that was in there so it wasn't funny at all but we did solve our problems and eluded further incidents.

[jullian]

RDM,

Surely you have a story?

[RDM]

Is that you RICKY??!!

 

Stories...........holy shat man, Kyle does not have enough room on his server for the stories.

 

 

Punched off a Aerodat bird "once" after a engine failure. It was serial no# 1, they said the R&D on the thing was around 750,000++.........should have saw the look on the face of the VP of design at Aerodat (who was on the job with us) when myself and the operator stepped out of another aircraft that evening............ :shock: :shock: #### happens

[Kryptonife]

just wana say, these are some awesome stories!

keep them coming please!

[jullian]

De mobing a drill, last load after about 9 hours of hanging out the door.

It's pretty gusty but not to worry-- It's only a de-mob.

All I have to do is put this here 800lb. generator in the back of that nice new Ford pick-up over there. Then it's back home and miller time. Just in time too because it"s starting to rain.

Piece of cake-- after all I'm getting pretty good with this line.

Right on the money--well it is a bit out on the tailgate. Not to worry I'll just pull it ahead a bit.

Major gust of wind.

As I'm Looking down through the floor, I realise that this is even better..... it won't even get wet now because it's inside the truck in the passenger's seat.