Chock
10-12-07, 10:45 AM
No doubt some of you saw the 'One Life' BBC TV programme the other night, which followed RAF 27 Sqd as their Chinooks deployed to Afghanistan. And I wondered what anyone who saw it thought about this.
At one point in the programme, the scrambling of a medevac chopper to a combat zone was covered. The crew were shown awaiting the call and then rushing to the aircraft where it was stated that they did the pre-flight in around 12 minutes as opposed to the much longer normal time it takes, they then took off, flew to a combat zone and picked up a soldier who had a serious chest wound, and flew him to a field hospital. During the flight, the medics were trying to save the soldier, but unfortunately he was pronounced DOA. Now here is the question:
I was reading about medevac choppers in Vietnam the other day, and learned that the pilots would pre-flight the aircraft right up to the point of switching on the fuel and pulling the start triggers, and then leave the aircraft standing like that. When the call came to do a medevac, the co-pilot and gunners would run to the chopper, start it up while the P1 pilot checked the route out on maps, then he would run to the aircraft. He would then strap himself in and put on his chest armor while the P2 pilot was running up the engine, then the P1 pilot would take off while the P2 pilot finished strapping himeself in and put his chest armor plate on. Thus they would be airborne in about 1 minute and 30 seconds, the US Army demanding that they be airborne in no more than 3 minutes.
Now, obviously a CH-47 Chinook is not the same as a UH-1D Huey and the checks and systems are different, not to mention there are two engines to start up, but it struck me that the Chinook crew on the TV programme ought to have done something similar, as they might have made it to the field hospital a few minutes sooner, which may or may not have saved the soldier's life, but certainly would not have hurt.
I must say it concerned me that this seems a rather obvious thing to do, as opposed to sitting on the ground for over ten minutes running through a bunch of checks which you could have done hours ago. The only thing I can think of is that they may possibly have been waiting for the INS to align itself, but I would think that this is unlikely to be needed with GPS available.
:D Chock
At one point in the programme, the scrambling of a medevac chopper to a combat zone was covered. The crew were shown awaiting the call and then rushing to the aircraft where it was stated that they did the pre-flight in around 12 minutes as opposed to the much longer normal time it takes, they then took off, flew to a combat zone and picked up a soldier who had a serious chest wound, and flew him to a field hospital. During the flight, the medics were trying to save the soldier, but unfortunately he was pronounced DOA. Now here is the question:
I was reading about medevac choppers in Vietnam the other day, and learned that the pilots would pre-flight the aircraft right up to the point of switching on the fuel and pulling the start triggers, and then leave the aircraft standing like that. When the call came to do a medevac, the co-pilot and gunners would run to the chopper, start it up while the P1 pilot checked the route out on maps, then he would run to the aircraft. He would then strap himself in and put on his chest armor while the P2 pilot was running up the engine, then the P1 pilot would take off while the P2 pilot finished strapping himeself in and put his chest armor plate on. Thus they would be airborne in about 1 minute and 30 seconds, the US Army demanding that they be airborne in no more than 3 minutes.
Now, obviously a CH-47 Chinook is not the same as a UH-1D Huey and the checks and systems are different, not to mention there are two engines to start up, but it struck me that the Chinook crew on the TV programme ought to have done something similar, as they might have made it to the field hospital a few minutes sooner, which may or may not have saved the soldier's life, but certainly would not have hurt.
I must say it concerned me that this seems a rather obvious thing to do, as opposed to sitting on the ground for over ten minutes running through a bunch of checks which you could have done hours ago. The only thing I can think of is that they may possibly have been waiting for the INS to align itself, but I would think that this is unlikely to be needed with GPS available.
:D Chock