Tundras live: Dumb Dad Jokes, Incorrect Opinions, Relationship Advice, and grammar lessons

I did not... That's a great story though and a huge team effort

Most folks don't realize the amount of power it takes (engine load on the helicopter) to maintain an extended hoover at those kind of elevations...

Those engines will often spend the entire hover in an operation like that in the high of the yellow (within the power band)... meaning there's really not much more left if they need to pull more power and climb out, etc... Sling loads and elevation put the greatest loads on the helicopters engine(s).... In an open area if you need to reduce power requirements, you can simply reduce altitude, gain forward momentum and recover; whereas in a narrow canyon, sometimes there's really no where to go w/o slamming your load or clipping a rotor if you try to push forward to gain speed and reduce engine stress....

One of their EP responses is to 'cut the load'... Seriously screwed up contemplation to have to 'drop' your human sling load to save the entire crew, but those 'outs' are constantly floating in the pilot's minds through those operations as contingencies. Talk about stress and why some of those dudes are crazy superstitious and follow checklists to a T!!!!

Add to all that winds that become extreme through the narrows or as they pass over the peaks of the mountains and can easily exceed 100mph w/o warning (especially in the sierras)... The precision to not clip a rotor blade against a rock when you only have a few feet of clearance in those narrow passageways is freakin' crazy. All of that requires highly trained, skilled and confident teams of at least 2 pilots, a crew chief, plus hoist operators and ground crew!!!

Also serious props to her for fighting for herself and surviving... Not the best of decsions to hike alone like that, but satelite garmin gave her comms to get help, and then it sounds like she was able to triage herself and remain out of shock until they got boots on the ground which is


Training photo from our guys doing an operation when the H-145 was relatively new to us. Pilots and crews were all going through familization and re-certs w/the new equipment. The H-145 was our first dual engine bird, prior to that all of our rescue missions were done in the Hueys...




We've lost a couple of dudes doing SAR work; one in training op, and one on a live op (equipment failure during a sling hoist)... definitely dangerous work for those dudes!!!!

DC: 2018



DVB (David Van Buskirk) RIP...



https://www.lvmpd.com/about/police-memorial/fallen-officers/police-officer-david-vanbuskirk

 

Looks like one of the pics you can see where she wrapped the injured lower leg (kinda looks to be close to the ankle w/the protusion pointing forward on the lower shin), but you don't really see the injury....

 

that's freakin' hilarious

 

On the lighter side of life...

Wife and I were having an early (for us) dinner on the coast a few nights ago, and they had a seasonal cider Water Wings from 2 Towns that she hasn't seen before. Wife likes a lot of the tart or sour based ciders, but will try some new ones here and there...

Anyhow, this seasonal one was a clementine orange, but I think it was the pic on the front of the can that won her over

 

Kinda sounds like Linkin Park in the background...

 

Crazy stuff and Mt Williamson is no joke. It's a much better adventure than trying to climb Mt Whitney which is like Disneyland.

My brother had a freak accident in Joshua Tree about 8 years ago. He likely would have died. The story goes like this.
He had just finished a large project at work and needed some "away time", so he decided to go to Joshua Tree to camp and unwind. He did this trip solo as he had recently broke up with a girlfriend. I think on the second day he woke up and decided to go for a hike. He was walking around the desert (off trail) and decided to climb up one of the many rocks in the area to get a good view. While he was up there he went to take off his backpack. His arm got caught on the strap and in a freak series of events he lost his balance and fell off the rock. He free fell for about 25 feet and landed on a lower rock then the momentum rolled him off that rock and another 15 feet or so to the ground. It's unclear to us what happened in the moments following the fall but when he got his wits together he had a compound tib / fib fracture with both bones sticking out the front of his leg and a broken radius and ulna in one of his arms. He immediately checked his phone but he had no service. He was in and out of shock and doesn't remember if he was losing consciousness. He was yelling for help for quite awhile but no one was around. So he used a flannel or hoodie and a stick and made a splint for his leg just to immobilize it. He could not stand and he hurt everywhere. So he started crawling through the desert. He crawled for hours. Finally he came to a road and by then it was starting to get dark. Luckily he was able to get the first car that came by to stop. And from there was able to get transport to a hospital. Several surgeries later he was able to fully recover. But what an ordeal.

 

I've seen them several times over the last 20 years. Always a good show. Not quite as good now with their new singer, but still not bad by any means. I may go see them Aug 10th.

 

Holy shit! He’s lucky to be alive! That’s some toughness there to get out of there. Wow.

 

Whenever I’m thinking about doing something outside solo, I’ll look at some motivational posters to psych myself up.