Most interesting chopper ride I ever had was in a UH-1H belonging to the Hawaii National Guard.
"Pohakaloa Training Area", ("PTA"), on the "Big" Island (Hawaii proper), is mostly a nasty desert of swirling volcanic ash and razor-sharp, solidified lava, called, appropriately enough "Aa' Aa'. Charming place to spend a couple of weeks. Much of the area is designated as a "high explosives impact area", being where the local "live-fire" mortars, artillery, anti-armour stuff and air-strikes are directed. NOBODY goes in with their "demolition kit" in the event of a "blind"; the next lot of lava will just roll over the jagged rocks and cook it off.
For some days after we arrived, there had been a decidedly "pink" glow in the sky, off outside the boundaries of the training area. Turned out that Kilauea, a local, quite active volcano, had opened up a new and fairly lively "vent".
Being excellent hosts, the local troops organised some ""volcano familiarisation" flights for the visitors from Oz.
With a full passenger load, including a couple of lads sitting on the floor, we "wokka'ed" away.
The incredible sight of slow-moving lava consuming the lowland scrub as it headed for the outer suburbs almost pushed aside the nagging question about how one deals with an emergency landing / auto-rotation onto molten rock.
To add to the "entertainment", it started to rain lightly as we circled. The hot, rising volcanic gases were causing some interesting turbulence, but once the rain hit the lava and became "instant steam", it got decidedly lumpier.
Another quaint way to spend a day is abseiling from a helicopter, into the trees, in full battle-order including rifle / machine-gun .
Wildest ride ever in a “civvy’ chopper was in the passenger seat of a Robinson 22 (I think that as the model), mustering water-buffalo in the Northern Territory. Half the time we were whizzing along BELOW the tops of rather tall Eucaypts, trying to convince the cantankerous beasts that they should run towards the big buffalo trap, and soon after, get a nice ride to the meat-works.
There is a REALLY good reason the there is a long, metal bar or hoop mounted below the tail-boom. Sadly, this piece of gear is of no avail when some over-enthusiastic chopper-jockey forgets his altitude whilst concentrating on moving some animals, and dips the tail into a croc-infested “billabong”. Scratch one Bell 47; bonus points for seeing the pilot try to go one better than JC and RUN on water.
PM
Originally Posted by Sarge
