What it’s like under a coastguard helicopter…

[Jerbro]

It’s a little old now, and sorry for the crappy video quality, but I thought you may like to hear what it’s like being boarded at 22 knots.. a once in a lifetime experience.. I hope!

Coastguard Helicopter

Cheers,

Jeremy

 

[HopCar]

Pretty impressive. Why did they board and why not stop the boat first? There must be a story to go with the video.

 

[Comodave]

I have been under an HH60 for training . It is almost like a hurricane, about 100 mph wind roughly. Lots of spray.

 

[Jerbro]

Pretty impressive. Why did they board and why not stop the boat first? There must be a story to go with the video.

Same as comodave, it was an opportunistic training session… I saw a light on the horizon behind us approaching fast, they contacted us on the vhf and asked if they could come aboard…asked us to maintain heading and speed. Apparently you need to keep moving so the downwash doesn’t knock you about, and boats are steadier landing platforms when they are moving.

 

[psneeld]

It's easier on the helo pilot and the helo requires less power if the boat keeps moving.

22 knots is pretty fast but certainly doable for hoisting. The rotor wash would still reach the boat unless the hoist was done from much higher altitude than what I was used to. The smaller USCG helos tended to hoist from pretty close to the boat, the larger ones from higher altitudes.

With the old HH-52s (the ones with big floats that look like mini Presidential helos but with only 1 engine) , many a hoist was done to the USCG 41 foot utility boats. The helo's floats were often right up against the boat's VHF antenna and you knew you were tucked in just right when it was tapping that float.

This would be the more modern version....

 

[slowgoesit]

Never been under a Coast Guard helo, but have done helocasting from a CH-47, both as the guy jumping in the water as well as the guy flying the helo. We generally kept up a fwd airspeed of 10 to 20 kts ground speed while doing the actual drop. One lesson learned, was if dropping a liferaft, don't inflate it until the helo moves a good distance away from the helo, or you'll have some serious swimming to do to reach the raft!