~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ More water dropped on more fire today....This would be a nasty place for ground firefighting too, (like the Yosemite fire) but for different reasons. Same steep terrain, bears, rattlesnakes and poison oak, but there are streams that cut through old mining areas that are highly toxic hazmat superfund cleanup sites. There are also vertical mine shafts all over the place. A fire crew tried to escape the fire heat in an old mine, just to find boxes of dynamite that were dated 1955....Back at the relative safety of the helibase, things are working like they should. To the far left of my panorama shot try, you'll see the HEMTT that fuels the Chinook. 8 wheel drive, 4 wheel steering. Military knows the importance of moving fuel no matter what; I bet Byrin could make a helluva cool RV out of one. Here's my crew waiting for a mission in the Chinook. (We'd never just hang out in the back of our copter back home. Our Teeny tiny copter back home) Any guess why you never approach a Chinook from the front with rotors turning?
6 comments:
i'm going to guess "you'll get your head chopped off." if you approach from the front. From the looks of those blades, I'd be crawling on my tummy to avoid them.
I would also guess something along the lines of keeping your head and torso connected.
It would make design sense to tilt the rotors so that they are higher in the back since that is the loading area. That would therefore tilt them down in the front.
However, there are probably some helicopter aerodynamics that invalidate this assumption -- something like tilting forward tends to make the machine rotate forward and change from a flying machine to a digging machine. Anyway, looking forward to the answer!
Both correct. Rob gets extra credit. You approach from the rear side (If you approach from the aft, you get cooked by the engines) The rear is higher so they miss the front blades, tough they are supposed to mesh....The forward tilt helps you fly, well, forward. It's an amazing machine. No elegance whatsoever. If you put enough horsepower into anything it'll fly.
Good to know.
I really dislike flying - another reason why I would be really bad at your job ;)
The one & only time I flew in a helicopter was at San Pedro, with my uncle from Germany. It was one of those little bubble-shaped cockpits, and it didn't have doors so when we banked, you had nothing between you & the ocean straight down. Ugh.
Two weeks later that copter fell off the pier & sank. Bad landing.
Really enjoying your blogs. Thanks.
I should amend my comment - that little helicopter was trying to land on a very small pier. No one was hurt :)
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