I got to be the cool kid.......

[Ransom]

So........ I was at Childress, TX and starting my third solo flight in my new to me Tango2. During my pre-flight a couple Chinooks landed so I watched them come in and let my heart beat fast. As the crews left the big, powerful, multi-million dollar military birds..... almost all of the crew came over to see and geek out a little bit over my gyro. Delayed my start for about 45 minutes.
Then I got to take off and fly patterns low passes while they watched. My little girl seemed a bit jealous as they left.
AWESOME DAY!!!!

 

[Tyger]

They say Chinooks are always leaking a little hydraulic fluid inside. This is considered "normal".
The advice is, if you ever get in one that's not leaking, you should get out immediately because it's almost run dry!

 

[Sv.grainne]

They were in awe of you....

 

[Tyger]

Helicopter guys are often pretty fascinated by gyros, in my own experience. To them, autorotation is an emergency procedure... maybe it seems like we gyro guys are flying in a sort of constant state of emergency!

Here's an amusing (but informative) video by Paul Salmon about his encounter (flying a gyro) with Blackhawks training at Leadville, CO:

 

[Sv.grainne]

Talk about leaking. Used to watch the SR-71 launches while I lived on Okinawa. Very interesting aircraft!

 

[Capt'n Gator]

Talk about leaking. Used to watch the SR-71 launches while I lived on Okinawa. Very interesting aircraft!

I was on Okinawa 71-74, used to watch the Blackbird fly out of Kadena AFB, along with F-4 Phantoms and OV-10 Broncos out of Machinato MCAS. Loved living on The Rock.

 

[Sv.grainne]

I loved it to. 85-94

 

[Brian Jackson]

Helicopter guys are often pretty fascinated by gyros, in my own experience. To them, autorotation is an emergency procedure... maybe it seems like we gyro guys are flying in a sort of constant state of emergency!

Here's an amusing (but informative) video by Paul Salmon about his encounter (flying his gyro) with Blackhawks training at Leadville, CO:

Great video, and I learned some things I didn't know before. Thanks for posting, Tyler.

 

[schmoe90]

I had a helicopter pilot friend ask me "how does it autorotate?" I had to explain that that's how it flies

 

[okikuma]

I have always told helo pilots that even though a gyroplane cannot hover, it can climb in autorotation. Can you?

Wayne

 

[Martin W.]

I was on Okinawa 71-74, used to watch the Blackbird fly out of Kadena AFB, along with F-4 Phantoms and OV-10 Broncos out of Machinato MCAS. Loved living on The Rock.

.

Kelly Johnson was lead engineer on the SR71 and said the titanium fuselege was assembled like loose fitting overlapping boiler plate and leaked fuel when on the ground .... so they would take off with minimum fuel and once supersonic air friction warmed the metal it would tighten up , then they would filler up via airborne tankers and then head out on a mission.

Most flights were out of groom lake and done at night because of Soviet spy satellites looking down. After the Iron curtain fell snippets of Soviet intelligence indicated a curiosity they could never figure out .... it appeared the Americans had painted an outline of a strange aircraft on the airport ramp .... but then it would disappear and the outline would be in a different spot a couple days later.

Turns out the SR71 would leave a wet fuel stain on the concrete and that is what the Russians were seeing.

 

[Sv.grainne]

Cool plane, the locals called it the Habu after the local snake, plane way prettier than the snake. Nothing cooler than watching it takeoff, turn up at a very steep angle and watching the blue exhaust till it went out of sight!

 

[querist]

They say Chinooks are always leaking a little hydraulic fluid inside. This is considered "normal".
The advice is, if you ever get in one that's not leaking, you should get out immediately because it's almost run dry!

 

[Tyger]

Definitely Australian humor. I'm glad they were finally able to figure out which Chinook was female...

 

[BEN S]

HA!!!!!
Let me tell you about the highest fastest helo cast I ever did!
You know the black and yellow painted areas on the corners of the ramps do not have non skid on them...we were ramp open approaching the mark for a helo cast 10 for 10 on a floating mine. I steppped out a bit far on the ramp to spot and the dripping hydo fluid was all over the black and yellow....in my dive booties....WHOOPS! AAAARRRGGHHH!!!!
"Hey, whered Ben go?"
Fell out of that sucker like a 30 for 40, skidded across the water like a stone ....

Yeah they leak....

 

[loftus]

They say Chinooks are always leaking a little hydraulic fluid inside. This is considered "normal".
The advice is, if you ever get in one that's not leaking, you should get out immediately because it's almost run dry!

Ha,ha. Like the old Landrover joke - how do you know when there is no oil - when there's none on the ground.

 

[querist]

Ha,ha. Like the old Landrover joke - how do you know when there is no oil - when there's none on the ground.

That Landrover is not leaking oil, it's marking its territory.