Chinook Crew 'Chick' by Liz McConaghy

Author:Liz McConaghy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2011-07-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

The Times in Between

Now it has to be said, although I did spend a LOT of time at war during my years on the Chinook fleet it wasn’t always bullets and body armour. We actually went to some nice places too. Mostly in search of dust though as that is the one thing ‘we all loved or B …’ a term we used a lot to mean we hated it, but sadly dust training and learning how to safely land in it, is an essential part of our work-up training before deploying. I’d like to think of myself as a connoisseur of dust these days. Iraq had coarse dust that took much longer to pick up with our airflow and fell from the sky quickly once dislodged by our downwash. Afghan dust, however, was like talcum powder. Fine and light, therefore much more dangerous to us. As we come into land anywhere, from around 40ft on the approach, our downwash starts to pick things up off the ground. This can be anything from freshly cut grass, portaloos, tents and marquees, small children and even the odd granny. But we have the luxury, most of the time, to avoid these or overshoot if we do indeed start to create a wake of carnage as we come into land. Sadly though, this cannot be said for dust. We need to get on to the ground regardless but must learn to land safely as the lower you get to the ground the more dust you kick up, and the slower you make your approach, the quicker the dust cloud engulfs you. So basically, dust landings are a balancing act of outrunning the thing and the crewman keeping the pilot updated on the height below the aircraft versus the position of the cloud as it catches up with the cockpit. The key is to be ‘10’ or below before it’s a complete dust-out for them so they can actually see the ground they are landing on. May I add this doesn’t always happen as planned and many times we as a whole crew have surprised ourselves by walking away from a landing where we all, if being honest, had lost vital references before the wheels hit. There is always a ‘get out of jail free’ card to be played which is ANYONE on the crew can call ‘OVERSHOOT’ if they are not happy with how the landing is going. The pilot should always follow this command as the crewman or co-pilot may have seen something he has not that could damage the aircraft – such as a rock, a ditch or even some troops that are formed up below and who would be pretty upset if we landed on their heads. The very odd time, the pilot may call ‘references continuing’. Now although this is frowned upon as someone else on board may have seen something, in the worst dust or darkest nights to collect a Cat A casualty I may let them off – providing they are a safe set of hands.

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