Royal Navy "lost" a Merlin for a week...
Discussion
ecsrobin said:
Crossflow Kid said:
Whatevs.
So I’m guessing that’s a yes 
I mentioned the pylon, you then replied “it also went through the pylon”
The repetition of what had already been said made it confusing.
If you were simply trying to add that it was the same incident that damaged the 27 Sqn bar tat why didn’t you just say that?
Jesus. Are you a QHCI perchance?
Crossflow Kid said:
You guess what you like Treacle.
I mentioned the pylon, you then replied “it also went through the pylon”
The repetition of what had already been said made it confusing.
If you were simply trying to add that it was the same incident that damaged the 27 Sqn bar tat why didn’t you just say that?
Jesus. Are you a QHCI perchance?
It was you that seemed to suggest it was a separate incident to the one I mentioned? I mentioned the pylon, you then replied “it also went through the pylon”
The repetition of what had already been said made it confusing.
If you were simply trying to add that it was the same incident that damaged the 27 Sqn bar tat why didn’t you just say that?
Jesus. Are you a QHCI perchance?
Anyway we’re detracting from the post and I’m happy to leave it as that.
ecsrobin said:
It was you that seemed to suggest it was a separate incident to
Same incident, just coming at it from different angles I guess and at first I genuinely wasn’t sure if we were talking about the same cab or not.Slightly lost in translation.
Either way, the Taliban never had much luck against Chinnies despite it being their No. 1 aviation target.
I’m not aware of any RPGs that actually detonated on impact as intended - they all either ricocheted off or punched right through and kept going.
I dont know if the BP on the Herc was of the same strength than that on the Chinny but it looked like ballistic kevlar and was about as thick...
However, I was in the centre hatch watching an underslung load when we took a round (7.62 iirc) through the floor. It struck about 1m aft of me and I felt the impact through my left knee, like a mallet hitting the underside.
Anyway, afterwards we were shown the damage, it had gone through the underskin and a transverse beam like they were chocolate but only made a scratch on the BP. Literally only a scratch, I was pleasantly surprised and reassured.
After, they showed the ‘other’ impact that had punched a fist sized hole in the no1 (port) nosebox, emptying the contents of oil. No indications on the flight deck and we flew back none the wiser. We were lucky.
Chinook.
Best battlefield helicopter, bar none.
However, I was in the centre hatch watching an underslung load when we took a round (7.62 iirc) through the floor. It struck about 1m aft of me and I felt the impact through my left knee, like a mallet hitting the underside.
Anyway, afterwards we were shown the damage, it had gone through the underskin and a transverse beam like they were chocolate but only made a scratch on the BP. Literally only a scratch, I was pleasantly surprised and reassured.
After, they showed the ‘other’ impact that had punched a fist sized hole in the no1 (port) nosebox, emptying the contents of oil. No indications on the flight deck and we flew back none the wiser. We were lucky.
Chinook.
Best battlefield helicopter, bar none.
Crossflow Kid said:
Same incident, just coming at it from different angles I guess and at first I genuinely wasn’t sure if we were talking about the same cab or not.
Slightly lost in translation.
Either way, the Taliban never had much luck against Chinnies despite it being their No. 1 aviation target.
I’m not aware of any RPGs that actually detonated on impact as intended - they all either ricocheted off or punched right through and kept going.
Slightly lost in translation.
Either way, the Taliban never had much luck against Chinnies despite it being their No. 1 aviation target.
I’m not aware of any RPGs that actually detonated on impact as intended - they all either ricocheted off or punched right through and kept going.
Slightly off topic I believe warships are now designed with thin skins to allow missiles to punch through as it’s less damage than the old armoured hull that it would detonate on.
ecsrobin said:
Slightly off topic I believe warships are now designed with thin skins to allow missiles to punch through as it’s less damage than the old armoured hull that it would detonate on.
Tony1963 said:
100SRV said:
Chinook needs both rotors for lift, pitch and yaw control, they aren't there for redundancy.
Just so you know, I've been working on helicopters for the last ten years, and fixed wing for 28 years before that. So my smiley was in acknowledgement of a witty comment.Oilchange said:
they showed the ‘other’ impact that had punched a fist sized hole in the no1 (port) nosebox, emptying the contents of oil. No indications on the flight deck and we flew back none the wiser.
How’s that work then?Did it also take out the oil pressure sensor? Even if it did the gauge should’ve defaulted to zero and flashed up on the CAP.
DuraAce said:
Crossflow Kid said:
I’m not aware of any RPGs that actually detonated on impact as intended - they all either ricocheted off or punched right through and kept going.
One got ZA709 in 2009.https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=6...
Crossflow Kid said:
Oilchange said:
they showed the ‘other’ impact that had punched a fist sized hole in the no1 (port) nosebox, emptying the contents of oil. No indications on the flight deck and we flew back none the wiser.
How’s that work then?Did it also take out the oil pressure sensor? Even if it did the gauge should’ve defaulted to zero and flashed up on the CAP.
Oilchange said:
Crossflow Kid said:
Oilchange said:
they showed the ‘other’ impact that had punched a fist sized hole in the no1 (port) nosebox, emptying the contents of oil. No indications on the flight deck and we flew back none the wiser.
How’s that work then?Did it also take out the oil pressure sensor? Even if it did the gauge should’ve defaulted to zero and flashed up on the CAP.
The advantage of a remote reservoir
Max_Torque said:
Oilchange said:
Best battlefield helicopter, bar none.
These old things were pretty tough back in the day (esp for an early turbine rotary!)
They would deliberately fly very low (tree top) and slow to entice the Vietcong to open up on them. They would then call in the big gunships and coordinate fire whilst also co-ordinating there own rocket and gun fire. It’s a brilliant read. Almost as good as Chickenhawk (tales of a Vietnam Huey pilot) if not on a par.
MB140 said:
Very true. I recently read a book called Low Level Hell about the 1st infantry scout pilots flying tiny little OH-6 Loach over Vietnam.
They would deliberately fly very low (tree top) and slow to entice the Vietcong to open up on them. They would then call in the big gunships and coordinate fire whilst also co-ordinating there own rocket and gun fire. It’s a brilliant read. Almost as good as Chickenhawk (tales of a Vietnam Huey pilot) if not on a par.
It was Chickenhawk that prompted my question back along, particularly the bit about using the Huey's rotor blades for ad hoc arborial work.They would deliberately fly very low (tree top) and slow to entice the Vietcong to open up on them. They would then call in the big gunships and coordinate fire whilst also co-ordinating there own rocket and gun fire. It’s a brilliant read. Almost as good as Chickenhawk (tales of a Vietnam Huey pilot) if not on a par.
Yertis said:
MB140 said:
Very true. I recently read a book called Low Level Hell about the 1st infantry scout pilots flying tiny little OH-6 Loach over Vietnam.
They would deliberately fly very low (tree top) and slow to entice the Vietcong to open up on them. They would then call in the big gunships and coordinate fire whilst also co-ordinating there own rocket and gun fire. It’s a brilliant read. Almost as good as Chickenhawk (tales of a Vietnam Huey pilot) if not on a par.
It was Chickenhawk that prompted my question back along, particularly the bit about using the Huey's rotor blades for ad hoc arborial work.They would deliberately fly very low (tree top) and slow to entice the Vietcong to open up on them. They would then call in the big gunships and coordinate fire whilst also co-ordinating there own rocket and gun fire. It’s a brilliant read. Almost as good as Chickenhawk (tales of a Vietnam Huey pilot) if not on a par.
The trick with dropping the engine to idle, then picking it up, rotating it 360 degrees and then putting it back down before the rotor rpm drops off and you crash back to earth sounds bloody impressive (as described in chickenhawk). I’m not sure on the Huey min rotor rpm is but I would imagine the rpm decay would be quite rapid in most other helicopters. I was learning on an R22 back in 1996/7 and if you shut the throttle and tried to lift you got nowhere. Sadly I couldn’t continue my training as it was far too expensive. I regret not continuing.
I wouldn’t like to see the state of the blades after he chopped down a load of small tree saplings with them so he could land. Or that they would still be in balance.
I’m also not convinced on the entire truth of the book. Especially doing a beer run and climbing all the way out with low rotor rpm warnings constantly sounding.
Having said that I know one of the guys that flew in to rescue the Irish Rangers that got kidnapped by the west side boys in Sierra Leone. He told me they were literally flying so fast he could barely read the instruments as the airframe was shaking so badly, so I am well prepared to believe that most military helicopter pilots often push the envelope especially in the heat of battle.
Let’s face it I wouldn’t want to be a helicopter pilot in war (unless your talking Apache, Cobra etc), you low and slow and generally not very quite.
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