What are these helicopters up to?
I was out snowshoeing off of the Foxfarm Road on Friday (March 15), and two helicopters and a fixed-wing aircraft passed overhead, flying in sort of a formation. The lead helicopter was a huge twin-rotor thing, with some sort of device hanging from it which almost seemed to be emitting some sort of vapor trail. Strange. Did anyone else see this, or better yet, does anyone know what they were up to?
They are doing airframe icing testing.
Thank you, Vicarious.
They are also dropping mind-altering vapors into the local biosphere in order to make us all happier and sexier.
The real mystery is how one can fly a twin-turbo King Air 200 airplane slow enough to not outrun/run into a bulky and slow helicopter. Good piloting, I suspect.
Those H-46 helos are a scary ride…I don’t envy the poor soul that has to ride in back. The one bringing up the rear is an H53…it’s a big burly beast of a thing. You could feel the rotor wash vibrations on the deck when they idled…never got a chance to hitch a ride in one…would have been fun.
Off topic, where does the term “jackpine” originate? My first stepdad was in a jugband called the Jackpine Savages.
Even further off topic, My stepdad cut the wheat wheel for the first Whole Foods Co-op.
The more you know.
Jackpine is a tree, common east of the Rockies, related to the lodgepole. Nearly clearcut outside the BWCAW (before it was established).
Thanks.
Funny. I had the same question 7 or 8 years ago–they’ve done it on and off for years. I’ve never seen the H53 before.
Here’s a description via an ’07 article from the DNT.
U.S. Army conducting icing tests in Minnesota
There’s a stand of jack pine on the Superior Hiking Trail in Central Park, I think between Third and Fifth Streets (between Point of Rocks and Enger Tower).
To go further off-topic, I just noticed that Google Maps now shows the Superior Hiking Trail.
I don’t remember seeing it before.
By “shows the Superior Hiking Trail,” I think Lithis just means that Google Maps shows a pin at Enger Park for the trail. I don’t see the trail on the map. The line around the pin (shown above) is Skyline Parkway.
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Paul: Switch to satellite view and zoom in.
Ah, yes. In retrospect, I feel like I should have been smart enough to figure that out.
It shows up in map mode too. It’s pretty faint at the zoom level I linked to above, but there are grey lines indicating the path. If you zoom in twice, it is labeled. Zoom in a third time and it becomes a dashed line, much easier to see.
I guess this explanation makes sense. But bear in mind that Obama does have death squads roaming the country killing defenders of the 2nd Amendment. And I’m sure they may be in helicopters too, so be vigilant.
Vicarious – that Chinook is actually one of the faster helicopters around. I believe (at least at one time) it is the fastest non-experimental military helo. Still slower than the King Air but I am sure they can find some overlap.
Drone pilot training … you have to fly the drone within the moving rectangle while targeting someone dumping trash on Skyline Parkway. See … drones can be used for good purposes.
That chinook is a death trap that should have been retired thirty years ago…they’re fast, but they ain’t *that* fast…and the age of the airframe makes it hazardous to push speed too far.