Monday, April 14, 2008

Chinooks at 3000 feet

For the second time in two weeks we have had a fly-by of a CH-47 here at the Aerie. Last week it was a solitary Chinook flying east to west at about 3000 feet. This morning it was a formation of four, also at approximately 3000 feet flying east to west. Since the deck of the Aerie is at approximately 2100 feet, these babies were pretty low and the drumming from their twin-rotors vibrated the house. They were moving fairly slowly as they passed overhead, but dummy me didn’t think to grab the camera. Here’s a link to a photo of what I’m talking about. Chinook Helicopter. (UPDATE: This link doesn't seem to work in all browsers. I can get it in Firefox but not AOL or Safari or IE. Aaarrrrgh!)

So I'll have to do it this way:
F_Model_b

(There are lots more pretty pictures and history at this site. )

I did manage to get the field glasses on the last two but could not see any markings.

Last week I thought the flight might have been related to the wind farm construction scheduled to begin any day now. After today’s flight I’m not so sure.

I’ve experienced these sorts of flights up at the Bolt Hole prior to their shutting Griffis Air Force Base in Rome, NY. Occasional flights from/to Fort Drum in the northwest corner of NYS still pass over. (My area of the Adirondack Park has little Wilderness designation so it’s a good place for them to fly.) The thwump-thwump-thwump of the helicopters’ engines always makes me think of the opening to MASH.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

chinook link is dead......i used to see the huey's all the time for chairlift construction and large building mechanical unit lifting.

joated said...

They both work for me in Firefox.

Teresa said...

My son is a Flight Engineer on a Chinook so I'm always happy to see them flying around. *grin*

If you want some more pics, here's a link to some he took back in 2005 when he was in Afghanistan.

http://technicalities.mu.nu/military/pictures

He always flys at night in Iraq - so he says he hasn't got any pictures to send this time round.

joated said...

Thanks for the link teresa. Some really nice pics there.

Tell your son thanks for his service. My boy went to Iraq with his Marine reserve unit for six months back in '04. Heck of a 21st birthday trip. At least they had "easy" duty as guard detail at al Asad Airbase.

JihadGene said...

Thanks Joated! BIG THANKS to Teresa for raising such a great kid! BIG RUV HIM LOOONG TIME HUG TO Teresa's SON!!!

Cool pic's of the Big Windy's!

JihadGene

Teresa said...

Glad you like them. I think they're pretty cool. Sadly he lost a ton of pictures when his computer died after he got back to Germany in 2006.

He's been in Iraq since last July staying until October and is due home on leave beginning of May (you know those 15 month tours... oh joy)

I wish he would get more into photography - he seems to have inherited his father's eye for it. *grin*

JDP said...

Great pictures Teresa, I really liked the one of the guys legs hanging out the door looking down at the ground a long ways down there. Not sure I could do that.

JDP

Teresa said...

JDP - that's my boy. Of course the crew are tethered, and that would be off the back gate I think which is always open in a war zone. They have a seat there and a gun - although I don't know if they always sit in the seat during the middle of the flights. Also open sidedoors and guns on each side that are manned during flight.

For some idea of Chinook crews in action, Brian Delaplane (who sadly passed away this last year) had two excellent Chinook posts back when he was in the 'stan.

In the blink of an eye


and

On Break from the War


(yay, my tags worked this time!)