sobo Posted June 5, 2012 Author Posted June 5, 2012 Your image is not showing up.I posted a YouTube link.That's it, then. YouTube and other streaming video/audio sites are blocked here because they take up way too much bandwidth, which is at a premium, as you might expect. I can't even listen to NPR over here... Quote
sobo Posted June 5, 2012 Author Posted June 5, 2012 Did you ask the owner of that truck what some of the various designs stood for if anything (what about 'ranger' or is it part of the original design showing thru)? I did not, but he comes by twice a week to take away the plastic water bottles, so if I get a chance and have an interpreter handy, I'll ask him. The "Ranger" is something that he painted on it. Everything you see is top layer decoration, so he wanted that on there. I was curious why he did that, but not curious enough to ask him about it. Mebbe next time I see him... Quote
sobo Posted June 5, 2012 Author Posted June 5, 2012 So I took another trip last week, this time to Ramrod. The contractor birds weren't fitting into my schedule at all, so I asked the Army boys if I could hop a ride with them. They said, "Hell, yeah! Jump in, sir!"  "Now, who the hell is this guy???"    "Oh, that's just Herb, the Electrical Foreman. Don't worry, he's only slightly crazy..." He came up to the flight line to see me take off. He almost took off himself...    Couple of Big Birds outbound...    Presenting the CH-47D Chinook tandem rotor heavy-lift helicopter...   Rare view of the inside of a can of Whoop-Ass...   Darth Vader the Door Gunner...   Featuring the 1/200 AC system (1 open door, 200 mph) And yes, that’s an M240 7.62mm (.30 cal) between his legs, covering our 6 o’clock...  Next trip, I'm aiming for the Blackhawks... Quote
JosephH Posted June 5, 2012 Posted June 5, 2012 Christ, still working the Chinooks hard forty years later I see. They were the workhorse in Vietnam and I logged quite a few hours in them at the time and they felt creaky as hell then. Well, at least we're getting our money's worth out of them. Hopefully the army pilots try to do less batshit crazy aerial tricks with them than the marine pilots bitd. Somewhere I have a sequence of shots out the open back ramp as one nutjob tried to see if he could barrel roll one - not fun as an occasional rider. Definitely go for those Blackhawks if possible... Quote
sobo Posted June 5, 2012 Author Posted June 5, 2012 I think the pilot on this hop might have been the same guy that was behind yours ~40 years ago, Joe. He was banking the shit outta the thing, then pitching the nose up and down, and at one point we were flying sideways at about 100 mph. It was an incredible ride! Â I think they were trying to impress the civy (or get him to throw up, which of course didn't happen), cuz when I got off, they asked me if I liked the ride. I told them it was totally righteous! Â And I certainly am going to catch me one of them Blackhawks some day soon. Quote
sobo Posted June 7, 2012 Author Posted June 7, 2012 Our HLZ was the busiest it's ever been in a helluva long time yesterday... Â Two pair makes a full house at the FOB Walton flight line... Â Â Â The Huey takes the lead in clearing out the gridlock... Â Â Â The pair of Bell choppers takes their leave of us... Â Â Â Russian Mi-8... These things are real clunkers, but they're practically bulletproof! Quote
Pete_H Posted June 7, 2012 Posted June 7, 2012 I can't even listen to NPR over here... Â But I bet you can get FOxx. Quote
dougd Posted June 7, 2012 Posted June 7, 2012 I think the pilot on this hop might have been the same guy that was behind yours ~40 years ago, Joe. He was banking the shit outta the thing, then pitching the nose up and down, and at one point we were flying sideways at about 100 mph. It was an incredible ride! Â I think they were trying to impress the civy (or get him to throw up, which of course didn't happen), cuz when I got off, they asked me if I liked the ride. I told them it was totally righteous! Â Or, maybe, just standard evasive maneuvers to avoid potential shoulder fired projectiles en route? Â Â Quote
rmncwrtr Posted June 30, 2012 Posted June 30, 2012 Add me to the list of those wanting an update. Hope all is well. :kisss: Quote
sobo Posted July 7, 2012 Author Posted July 7, 2012 Holy Shi'ite, muslims! Have I not been here in a month already??? OMG, I've been hella fuq'n busy in the last few weeks. Lots of hops to outlying FOBs (got lots of aerials that I need to post up), and now we're in the midst of "R&R Season", wherein most folks take their leave of this place for a few weeks to a month. My Contracts Manager is on R&R, and the Project Lead in my new HUB (Pasab) is also on leave. And my No. 1 in HUB Walton, Curtis, is about to go on leave next week, while my Pasab No. 1 is still out on his R&R. This is going to make things even busier for me than they've been in the past month! Crikey! Â That's right, peeps, you heard me right. I now manage all of the construction projects on not just one, but two hubs worth of bases, so my area of responsibility (AOR) more than doubled, from 8 bases with 12 active projects to 17 bases and a total of 30 active projects. But I just finished closing down one base and turning the ground back over to the Afghans, so I'm down to 16 bases and 29 projects now. And I have two more base closures on the near (3-month) horizon for my AOR. We're still building up some bases in my AOR, but as you all know, the Grand Plan is to turn it all back over to the ANA by the end of 2014. Â Thanks for all the well wishes. And Couloir, that new avatar is the best pr0n that I've seen in the past 3 months. Keep it up, man! :tup: Â Oh yeah, summer's arrived here now, and with a vengenace! Quote
sobo Posted July 7, 2012 Author Posted July 7, 2012 Here's a little news snippet for ya. This happened about 2 weeks ago, a few miles from here, at another base. Â Â Â Â Nobody that spoke English got hurt. Put people on edge for a few days though, that's fer sure... Quote
akhalteke Posted July 7, 2012 Posted July 7, 2012 Wish work would have had me out there SOBO. Sounds like you are doing well but forgot the first rule of dealing with the military; never do anymore work than is necessary to keep your job or you will be given more work than you can handle. Keep kicking ass and keep your head down. Those assholes always hit the chow halls! Quote
akhalteke Posted July 7, 2012 Posted July 7, 2012 Christ, still working the Chinooks hard forty years later I see. They were the workhorse in Vietnam and I logged quite a few hours in them at the time and they felt creaky as hell then. Well, at least we're getting our money's worth out of them. Hopefully the army pilots try to do less batshit crazy aerial tricks with them than the marine pilots bitd. Somewhere I have a sequence of shots out the open back ramp as one nutjob tried to see if he could barrel roll one - not fun as an occasional rider. Definitely go for those Blackhawks if possible... Â They are quite the bird. I don't see them getting rid of them anytime soon. Same with the Blackhawks. They are just too good at what they do. Thankfully, some of those pilots still do batshit crazy stuff; I have seen a couple MEDEVAC's that were only possible because of the 10lb balls of the pilots. Quote
sobo Posted July 7, 2012 Author Posted July 7, 2012 (edited) Scott!!!1 D00d!!! Thanks for writing! I never got that SIPR connection, but if you can write to CONUS-based email addresses, gimme a shout. Cool stuff to tell ya about over here, but you probably know all about those kinds of stuff already. Â Speaking of Chinooks, one crashed on landing at one of my bases the other day. I wasn't there to see it, but my No. 1 on that base got some pics of a Mi-26 totin' the thing back to KAF. Those 26's are fuq'n HUGE choppers! Made that Chinook look like a trout in the claws of an eagle! When I get the pics loaded up, I'll post 'em up here. Edited July 8, 2012 by sobo Quote
sobo Posted July 7, 2012 Author Posted July 7, 2012 Here ya go... Not the best pictures, but then I didn't take them myself. First, some data on the Mi-26. Check out the stats at the bottom of the page. All I can say is, HUGE! 105-foot rotor diameter, 8 blades, and 22 tons of cargo capacity! With that capacity, this puppy can carry two Chinooks! Crikey! Â So the story I got was that the Chinook was coming in, and it put up an especially large cloud of dust this day. The pilot apparently thought he was a lot closer to the ground than he really was, and he cut back on the thrust for landing as usual, thinking he would touch down nicely. Well, he was still a couple dozen feet or so above the ground, and when he hit the tarmac, the landing gear suspension gave him (and everybody in the helo with him) a little pushback for a joyride they wouldn't soon forget. The bird bounced back up into the air, the pilot lost control, and the thing tipped over sideways and fell back down on the ground on it's side. Took all the rotors off slicker than scum off a Looziana swamp. Nobody was hurt, cuz those Army boys all strap themselves in and wear their full battle gear while in the air. Gives me pause to think how casual I've become with my seatbelt and helmet (dis)use, what with all the air time I've logged over here without a hishap... Â Â Â Â Quote
rob Posted July 7, 2012 Posted July 7, 2012 44,000 lbs cargo capacity! That's almost as much as NASA's Super Guppy Quote
akhalteke Posted July 8, 2012 Posted July 8, 2012 Scott!!!1 D00d!!! Thanks for writing! I never got that SIPR connection, but if you can write to CONUS-based email addresses, gimme a shout. Cool stuff to tell ya about over here, but you probably know all about that kinds stuff already. Speaking of Chinooks, one crashed on landing at one of my bases the other day. I wasn't there to see it, but my No. 1 on that base got some pics of a Mi-26 totin' the thing back to KAF. Those 26's are fuq'n HUGE choppers! Made that Chinook look like a trout in the claws of an eagle! When I get the pics loaded up, I'll post 'em up here.  Wait till you hear where I was, I will send you a NIPR blast. Holy boondoggle batman! Quote
AlpineK Posted July 8, 2012 Posted July 8, 2012 I didn't know helicopters got this big. Â [img:center]http://acidcow.com/content/img/new02/481/06.jpg[/img] Quote
sobo Posted July 8, 2012 Author Posted July 8, 2012 Yeah, they do, and I've been up close and personal with one. Fuq'n huge is all I gotta say. And impressive... Quote
sobo Posted July 8, 2012 Author Posted July 8, 2012 Scott!!!1 D00d!!! Thanks for writing! I never got that SIPR connection, but if you can write to CONUS-based email addresses, gimme a shout. Cool stuff to tell ya about over here, but you probably know all about that kinds stuff already. Speaking of Chinooks, one crashed on landing at one of my bases the other day. I wasn't there to see it, but my No. 1 on that base got some pics of a Mi-26 totin' the thing back to KAF. Those 26's are fuq'n HUGE choppers! Made that Chinook look like a trout in the claws of an eagle! When I get the pics loaded up, I'll post 'em up here. Wait till you hear where I was, I will send you a NIPR blast. Holy boondoggle batman! Spill it, Robin! All of Gotham City wants to know. Quote
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