Now there IS a pilot

[Bluescaster 21]

This was sent to me, it needs a caption ONLY because it's so difficult to believe you are seeing a real event - Military pilot picking up on a steep mountain slope from the top of a shack!! Probably someone who desparately needed the help of these skilled and courageous aircrew!I dont see the picture - perhaps I'm doing something wrong - sorryRegards Blue.Seems to be there :-)

[Dark Moment 0]

Awesome shot, Blue. You only have to watch the current news from Afghanistan to see those Chinook jockeys in action ... they fly them like Robinson R22s. And that's one BIG chopper.Mind you (and since you are posting under MAAM-SIM) the venerable C-47 can do some pretty fancy things, too. Like picking up gliders off the ground with a hook almost like you would lift a waterskiier off the beach. "Puff the Magic Dragon"s fearsome gunnery technique is well documented. It's all down to being able to fly slow enough, I suppose!My favourite C-47 (actually, Dakota) story is that of Jimmy Edwards (later to become the very famous English comedian of the same name) of 271 Squadron, UK, who was involved in the disastrous supply drop over Arnhem. Badly shot up, with oil spraying all over his windshield glass, he went back to tell the cargo dispatchers to jump as he was going to abandon the aircraft. They couldn't, as their legs had been badly lacerated by anti-aircraft fire from the ground. He promptly returned to the cockpit (single pilot in these raids) and, unable to see a thing through the screen, knocked out the cockpit roof escape hatch, stood up on his seat with his head out of the roof, and in the full blaze of German gunners and all the chaos and difficulty of flying a badly damaged aircraft, he brought her down to a soft landing in trees. Astonishing stuff.MarkMark "Dark Moment" BeaumontVP Fleet, DC-3 AirwaysTeam Member, MAAM-SIM[a href=http://www.swiremariners.com/cathayhk.html" target="_blank]http://www.paxship.com/avsimlogo.jpg[/a]

[Bluescaster 21]

Mark, You're quite right my own countrymen also perform incredible feats of skill, discipline and courage as you point out; not only in those far off days of WWII but in many wars since. However it is never wrong to wonder at the bravery of todays young men and women when such evidence of their dedication is available.Most of my flying has been in peacetime - not that it hasn't had it's moments! and I DO know how difficult flying in these conditions can be..... how do they manage it day after day?Regards, Blue.

[Guest pbn]

I have witnessed a similar operation at very close range once. We were at port with a small container ship. The danish "hunter force" asked for permission to do a helicopter based training landing of troops on the ship. Permission was given. :-)Two choppers came by in the day time to take a look at the ship. Later after it was dark, a single Chinook (USAF I think)approached us from the aft and landed two platoons (I'm not to sure about the "english" military terms) on top of "Monkey Island". The Chinook didn't land, but hoovered at a very low altitude while unloading. The deck on Monkey Island can't support a chopper of that size and is way to cluttered anyway. It was quite impressive how fast such an operation can be achieved. The Pilot approached us at a rather high speed, he used about 75-100 meters for braking with a pitch up at around 20-30 deg. The timing was perfect and he just levelled of in a perfect hoover a few meters over the deck.I guess it took around 25-30 sec from we could hear the chopper untill the first platoon was on the ship. This was a quiet night, and we were expecting the chopper, imagine if the ship was sailing there would most likely be some wind to disguise the sound and the braking would be alittle shorter (the ship moving forward at 15 knots), the surprise would be nearly complete. An Observer from the hunter force told us, that in his experience it's only the US Chinook pilots who are capable of doing this at that pace.It was quite an experience to witness.CheersPeter