JUST ANOTHER DAY AT THE OFFICE
I had just returned from leave in Feb 70 and came back to find the squadron deployed to Northern Laos. After a day and half, I was fragged to take a ship just out of phase up to L-98 to meet with the others. When I arrived Roger Penny and Bill Morey briefed me that we needed to have all ships flying that day and next.
One of the birds was having a compressor stall problem at max power, so they said I needed to take that bird, instead of the one I had brought, because I would know how to handle that situation. So I said sure, no problem, I'll try to get another days work out of the bird.
So Lt Waldo was my copilot as we went out to a site to pickup a load. Guess what, a load of HOGS! They had given these big gunnysacks to the Muong for their pigs and hogs, and with the hog inside, sewed up the end. Perfect for controlling the animal, but now the locals and FE had to manhandle these "packages" without handles.
First the family got on, seven with big backpacks and hands full of all their belongings, then as many hogs as the FE thought we could handle. Picked it up and could just barely get wheel clearance. I said to crew we will be doing a rolling takeoff on the nose wheel to get lift as quickly as possible, and to the copilot Waldo, we are going to have a big torque split, but I am going to pull until the #1 starts to pop, then back off a little. Okay here we go.
As we were breaking ground, the #1 did its popping, and Waldo comes on intercom and says in his C-141 voice "KEEP GOING -- IT's ONLY A COMPRESSOR STALL!!l!!". As we climbed out, Waldo comes back on the intercom and says "Boy, that was a dumb thing to say----we can't fly on the remaining engine!!"
I think that was the heaviest internal load I had ever carried in an H-3 up to that time.
(Harold Brattland~ROTORHEAD contributor)
One of the birds was having a compressor stall problem at max power, so they said I needed to take that bird, instead of the one I had brought, because I would know how to handle that situation. So I said sure, no problem, I'll try to get another days work out of the bird.
So Lt Waldo was my copilot as we went out to a site to pickup a load. Guess what, a load of HOGS! They had given these big gunnysacks to the Muong for their pigs and hogs, and with the hog inside, sewed up the end. Perfect for controlling the animal, but now the locals and FE had to manhandle these "packages" without handles.
First the family got on, seven with big backpacks and hands full of all their belongings, then as many hogs as the FE thought we could handle. Picked it up and could just barely get wheel clearance. I said to crew we will be doing a rolling takeoff on the nose wheel to get lift as quickly as possible, and to the copilot Waldo, we are going to have a big torque split, but I am going to pull until the #1 starts to pop, then back off a little. Okay here we go.
As we were breaking ground, the #1 did its popping, and Waldo comes on intercom and says in his C-141 voice "KEEP GOING -- IT's ONLY A COMPRESSOR STALL!!l!!". As we climbed out, Waldo comes back on the intercom and says "Boy, that was a dumb thing to say----we can't fly on the remaining engine!!"
I think that was the heaviest internal load I had ever carried in an H-3 up to that time.
(Harold Brattland~ROTORHEAD contributor)
posted by Jim Moore at 10:50 AM
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