Another Erickson Air Crane get's shipped away

[Rotor-Head]

Gotta love my job. Today I got paid to film and take pictures of the Antonov AH-124 land and pick up another air crane. I was hired by the Fuel and ground support team for some of their PR stuff. I usually go anyway, so it was a bonus to get some gyro cash for it.

The Air Crane had a nice glass cockpit. AND THAT'S ONE BIG ROTORHEAD!!!

The Antonov made an interesting landing. It landed nose wheel first and rolled on if for a few hundred feet before the mains touched down. I've never seen that before. Interesting. I'll put video of it on later.... (if anyone cares).

 

[Rotor-Head]

Here is the Antonov Landing (nose wheel first) http://www.rotor-head.com/misc_stuff/

 

[route66]

Shawn,
My whole life I am amazed at the people who tell me, I have to go to work tomorrow! It is so refreshing to see you want to go to work tomorrow. You found you’re calling by following your heart and it shows. I would love to see the Antonov land and the Air Crane in person. What impressive machines. Thanks for sharing, you made my day!

 

[Timchick]

I saw a documentary on Howard Hughes on either the History or Discovery channel awhile back and they showed footage of one of the first crane type Helicopters that Hughes Aircraft was developing back in the 50s or 60s. It only had 2 rotor blades and they looked like they were 5 feet wide and the rotor speed looked really slow for it to be flying. Imax has a Helicopter movie they show at the Imax theaters and it shows a skycrane doing some logging up in the Northwest with a big grappling hook. Very cool. Those big machines are always amazing.