You heard of cow tipping, this is copter dipping. Two Navy helicopter pilots from North Island Naval Air Station have been grounded after this video showed them “copter dipping” with $33 million aircrafts in Lake Tahoe.
The vehicles used were MH- 60 Romeo helicopters from North Island’s Helicopter Maritime Strike 41 squadron. The damage to the helicopters was estimated at between $50,000 and $500,000.
Source: 10News
Boys will be boys!
Ltc col Penny, my AFJROTC commander used to say
“there are old pilots
and there are bold pilots
but there are no old, bold pilots”
wait . . . doesn’t the Navy involve . . . water? Why would a little water do a hundred billion trillion dollars of damage to one of their toys? Heaven forefend it ever rain on one of these poor delicate dears.
Yeah, it was pointless showing off but the Navy needs to dial back the hysteria a bit.
“Everybody, sooner or later, sits down to a banquet of consequences.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
Telephoto lens sure helps…
AY, on a SAR flight, you want pilots who can hold a steady hover while the basket is lowered for the rescue. Not a clown who dips the aircraft into the water and damages it. The MH-60 is the same as the Army Blackhawk and is not flotation equipped as is the SH-3 Sea King. It is one thing to put a float plane in the water and quite another to dunk a land craft.
Attributed to a Captain Lamplugh around the time of WW-I, came this famous caveat:
“Aviation in itself is not inherently dangerous. But to an even greater degree than the sea, it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity or neglect.”
Bud, we have all done dumb stuff, especially when young and brave. And heck no, I will not admit to any of it on the record!
Looks like fun to me…But a do have a query…if I was on a life rescue flight and a chopper was coming to save me who would I want? The one that has the experience……
Otteray Scribe 1, September 25, 2010 at 8:18 am
As for our intrepid naval aviators, they need to be sent back to flight school, but I do not think there is a cure for immature and stupid.
Sad part about it is that when I was younger and less bright I did some pretty stupid things when I was learning to fly as well..
You are right about the AT-6. I guess it is quite similar to hydroplaning, but I would be guessing that their speed is to high for hydroplaning.
Bud, those guys in the T-6 Texans are really good, but an inch or two more into the water surface and they end up like the pilot in this video. They are awfully close to digging in a wheel or two, and if that happens, the end result will not be pretty.
As for our intrepid naval aviators, they need to be sent back to flight school, but I do not think there is a cure for immature and stupid.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0DJn6KJGF8&fs=1&hl=en_US&rel=0]
Maybe they learned it from these guy