Helicopters over Portland?

[bikerinNE]

Originally Posted by Tait

The Department of Defense. Y'know... the ones who manage all that military stuff.

Oh, duh, sometimes my brain doesn't work... if at all.

[Donald]

I was a rotary wing pilot back in the days of the first Bush war.

The techniques these pilots are practicing and the familiarzation routes the D-boys are running make sense to me.

Landing a machine that beats the air into submission on top of a building that juts 20 stories up into the windstream with 4 or 6 very heavy humans hanging off the side is not something I'd want to do under fire for the first time.

And like it or not, when the chips are really down, these overzealous boys and their toys are the first ones that are called.

Many of these pilots go on to lifeflight duty or better. And some go back to being cyclists.

As for the D-boys, well, they just fade away.

[wyeast]

Sadly, I didn't even notice them flying around. Whether from being sick, or too many years in grad school living in the flight path of a Marine Air Base.

Like Donald's said, unfortunately this isn't the sort of thing you can simulate or train well for w/o actually going out and doing it.

Besides, I actually miss when we had our Mountaineering Helicopter unit flying around. I'm still agitated the powers that be felt they were better utilized as refuelers on the Gulf Coast.

[SeaBike]

Originally Posted by Donald

I was a rotary wing pilot back in the days of the first Bush war.

The techniques these pilots are practicing and the familiarzation routes the D-boys are running make sense to me.

Landing a machine that beats the air into submission on top of a building that juts 20 stories up into the windstream with 4 or 6 very heavy humans hanging off the side is not something I'd want to do under fire for the first time.

And like it or not, when the chips are really down, these overzealous boys and their toys are the first ones that are called.

Many of these pilots go on to lifeflight duty or better. And some go back to being cyclists.

As for the D-boys, well, they just fade away.

What scenario are they training for exactly? The life flight service seems to be doing just fine - these folks seemed to be practicing for civil war.

[wyeast]

Originally Posted by SeaBike

What scenario are they training for exactly? The life flight service seems to be doing just fine - these folks seemed to be practicing for civil war.

I think that's basically what it was. Some sort of counterterrorist training, so they were practicing (more or less) doing a rooftop assault on a building in an urban center. (wind, darkness, etc)