Comments for Special Delivery

Special Delivery

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 07:57:51 -0600

I know how I feel when I see the "delivery and destination charges" that appear when you're fighting your way through a car deal, after you thought you'd settled the price. Y'know all those little overhead things that the dealer keeps off the table until they're done haggling on the price, then you find out that he loads his overhead costs on you after you think you've already gotten your best price, which included the overhead costs. If you shop at a Commissary, it happens to you, too - the surcharge that is added to your total after the groceries are...

Comment from ChapWolfe on 2009-08-11

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 07:30:42 -0600

My rememberer glitched....not that it's all that important, but I basically got it backwards...

The load that flattened the pickup was a load of bladder pumps... a rubber backpack with a spray nozzle containing 4 - 5 gallons of water. I don't have any idea of how many there were, but a bunch.

Comment from BillT on 2009-08-11

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 04:12:18 -0600

That's what happens when you try to slingload anything heavier than a suitcase full of mice with a JetRanger.

Comment from ChapWolfe on 2009-08-10

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 22:28:20 -0600

Well, it wasn't a military ooops, but years ago when I worked for the US Forest Circus...I mean Forest Service, I was out on a few forest fires.

One time I was talking with one of the helitack crewmen after watching a Bell Jet Ranger take off with a sling load of .... gallon tin cans of drinking water, I think....

Anyway, this guy was telling me that the previous week they had done up a pretty heavy sling load of fire tools on the BJR and as the pilot started executing a fairly low altitude climbing turn the cargo hook jetisoned the load. It landed smack dab on top of a pickup. Fortunately there was no one in the truck at the time, 'cuz he said the truck was about 10" tall after the fact. :-)

Comment from Lamigra on 2009-08-10

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:18:27 -0600

Well ,_that_ doesn't seem to have worked too awfully well...hows about "Gay Deceiver Bounce"

Comment from Lamigra on 2009-08-10

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 19:13:58 -0600

Comment from Grumpy on 2009-08-10

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 16:33:22 -0600

@BillT, "*Parachutes*?" - Don't that take all of the fun out of it?

Okay -- I can see how that *could* work, a good imagination would be helpful.

The poor old, "Herc", she was one really constipated bird, I'm glad she was able to get a load off of her mind.

Comment from BillT on 2009-08-10

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 12:31:07 -0600

They're supposed to use *parachutes*?

Okay -- I can see how that could work...

Comment from KCSteve on 2009-08-10

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 10:59:50 -0600

I'm proud to be able to say I played an extemely infintesimal part in that mission.
Back in 1979-1980 I worked at the US Army Yuma Proving Ground and part of what I did was data entry / data reduction on these programs. That was when they were first working on dropping stuff on pallets so you got the whole load instead of just the gun or just the ammo.

Saw several fun things, some on high speed film (frrame by frame, entering the camera's azimuth & elevation, then centering cross hairs over the load and punching a card). Watched a HALO (High Altitude, Low Opening) drop where when the main chute opened, the chute release did do. Chute stopped, load continued unabated. Lessons were learned from that test.

Also saw (live) a LAPES - Low Altitude, Parachute Extraction System. Cargo plane dove at the ground, leveled off at about 6 feet. Little drogue appears at the back, then magically theres' a small tank bouncing up and down as the plane first pops up about 20 feet then climbs into the sky.

Now, all these years later, they can drop a 155 on target, on time, without major worries. Well worth the hours I spent in my little data entry cubbie.

Comment from fdcol63 on 2009-08-10

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 09:57:36 -0600

Air Drop Mishaps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1izGSMKqskY