Monkey Man gets a fly over!

Sorry, Ghrit, I wouldn't be able to fly to DC as it is considered a hostile fire area and I haven't been issued my body armor yet Actually, the furthest east I have been is Hershey Pensylvania. There is rumor we may have to go to North Carolina in the next week to pick up a couple aircraft, we will see about that. If I ever do make it that direction though, I will make it a point to at least give you a MM style fly-over!

 

Well, kind of hard to judge accuratly but would say under 100 feet as you came over the house, even in the dark and with bad eyes could clearly see the landing gear and even the seams in the metal on the belly of the birds. As to speed you were going slower than the trafic usualy dose on the highway out front so under 50 MPH ground speed anyhow would be my guess.

 

Thats why your AA was ineffective! Bruuhaaaaaa (in my most evil laugh) We were at 500' and doing 120 knots! That equates out to about 135 Mph! Truely, that is why the insurgents have a hard time taking aircraft down with small arms, they can't figure out how much lead it takes to hit us where it hurts. Also why the tail booms are full of holes! The size of the Blackhawk throws most people off in their distance estimation.

 

Those must be some huge ass seams on the bottoms of those things too, or are there bars or something going across the bottom? I know I could see lines on the bottom of the birds that I figured was where the plates/sheets bolted togather, that was one of the main reasons I figured was that low and compareing that height to how quick you passed woud explain being that far off on speed.
Say was also wondering, do the birds have armor now? I know from what I understood the older ones were just sheet metal and didnt stop anything from coming through the floors and was just wondering if they had ever managed to overcome the weight problem and fig that. Knew or knew of more than one guy from Vietnam that got hit through the floor of a chopper when they didnt bother to sit on their helmets like they were supposed to...one of them lost one of his testicals that way.

 

Actually, we just brought them back from desert mod, they got the aircraft ready for the B kits and that is when they will put the Kevlar floor matting down. Right now, the armored seats are all we have.
The lines you saw were the rivet lines of the aircraft. They can be very noticeable from some distance.

 

Ok, I figured thats what they were, I just didnt think they would be that noticable especialy at night that far away, also havent been up close to the birds enouph to know what the actual size is on most of them...I mean you start talking shinook (sp?) and I know you are talking something the size of a semi or bigger but was thinking the black hawks were more like the hughey or some such.

 

Sikorsky Blackhawk

 

Ha! They don't eve list the A model on their website anymore! That makes me feel all warm and fuzzy!

 

Melbo, your turn. I just got assigned a mission to go to Salisbury NC to pick an aircraft and bring it home next Wednesday. Looks right now like we are going to refuel in Knoxville. Don't know where the sugarloaf mountains are, need directions or close proximity so that I can effect your fly over if possible.

 

Don't you ever have to go to Jax?


Oh yeah...that's a Naval Air Station down there, isn't it?



Very cool , what you did!

 

Looks like Melbo is going to get a fly over now! By the way, while researching your place, I now know where knob creek is!!

 

Hope your visit doesn't look like this.

 

Depends...do I get to be one of the guys repelling? I enjoy it so as long as it was me comeing down or friends and not 'unplesant' folks then could be cool.

 

No, these won't be our aircraft, so will probably just be another fly over and some light flashing!