The thud of a Chinook

[lazyitus]

Just passed over the house with the windows shaking.



What a machine!

[Twincam16]

Yes, it is a great sound...














...but not when you're in the middle of an International Relations exam and the local wing of the RAF decide to fly their entire squadron of Chinooks about 5" over the roof of the exam hall!

[sotons2]

We have a field at the bottom of our garden where one parked last year midway through a local air display. It was an awesome sight (and sound) to see it take off and hover less than 200 feet from the house

>> Edited by sotons2 on Tuesday 17th May 21:17

[anonymous-user]

At the moment there is a large excercise going on in South West England with Chinooks, Apache's, Hercules etc. I think they are staging from St Mawgan. 3 Chinooks arrived there in Formation the other day.

[FunkyNige]

We just had 2 Black Hawks (well, the English ones of the same model) fly over our house, does that count as one Chniook?

[DanBoy]

It's a bit of a pain in the arse when they do it every day, I tell ya!

What is nice is waking up to the sound of the army guys on the firing ranges - From the distance it sounds like the muffled snapping of twigs on an open fire. Ahhhhhh...

[puggit]

Quite often see them in my part of Berkshire - totally unmistakable sound

[bmgm3]

There always seems to be a pair flying North over Dartford Kent for some reason , every few days.
Anyone know why ?

[anonymous-user]

They are based at Odiham, Hants. I think they follow the line of the Thames up until about Tilbury then swing North Between West Horndon and Laindon.

I often see them here.

I think they either go to Colchester Barracks of Wattisham.

One misty morning about 3 years ago I was driving along the A127 when, at just above pylon height, this MH53 Pave Low goes hammering accross the road.

Quite a few people saw it in London aswell and remarked on how low it was flying.

[72twink]

Last year (and the previous year) our company was using Odiham as a transponder test site - saw some pretty fantastic stuff - like sitting in our car 30 ft from a Chinook 10ft off the deck whilst we exchanged hand signals with the pilot - the wash was moving our car about. On another occasion we were on foot as they were hooking up test loads, even at about 50 foot away you have to stand with your lead leg bent at the knee and your trailing leg straight out behind you digging into the ground and really lean into the wash to stop yourself being blown over .... Awesome Beasts !

[randlemarcus]

And if you are a wet bedraggled platoon commander,and ask really nicely,they might hover and blow dry the whole lot of you in 20 seconds. Fond memories

[towman]

One of my favourite pictures.....think it came courtesy of Wokkadriver.

[tinman0]

that picture needs an explanation?

[towman]

You ever tried getting a Wokka into a drive through car wash?

[moleamol]

tinman0 said:

that picture needs an explanation?

They can land the buggers in water, like that, then take off when they've done the do. There is a vid kicking around somewhere. Awesome machines.

[up-the-dubs]

towman said:

"Errr... Captain?"

"Yes Yes i know! Got the hang of it now! Down means up and up means down. Won't happen again"

[agent006]

towman said:

"Private.... get that broom and get scrubbing, can't you see it's filthy."

[mybrainhurts]

Aaaargh.....

Those bloody things scare the brown stuff out of me.

One of those rotors is shaft driven through a gearbox....

If something goes amiss inside those gubbins, it's going to HURT....

Remember the one that fell on an autobahn, full of skydivers....?

[wedg1e]

mybrainhurts said:

Aaaargh..... Those bloody things scare the brown stuff out of me. One of those rotors is shaft driven through a gearbox.... If something goes amiss inside those gubbins, it's going to HURT.... Remember the one that fell on an autobahn, full of skydivers....?

There was a famous one in Scotland, 'pilot error' apparently...

Anyway, what were a load of skydivers doing on an autobahn?

[towman]

wedg1e said:

There was a famous one in Scotland, 'pilot error' apparently...

the pilots were cleared eventually, but Messrs Blair and hoon refused an official enquiry.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/1800727.stm