U.S. National Guard Helicopter in Dramatic Mountain-Top Rescue

For the third time in four weeks a U.S. military aircraft has participated in the rescue of a civilian in life-threatening circumstances. This time it was in the United States and the incident was a direct rescue of a 27-year old male victim from a dangerous, high altitude location on Oregon’s 11,249-foot Mt. Hood.

Two helicopters including an Oregon Air National Guard CH-47 Chinook heavy lift helicopter responded to an emergency 911 phone call from the mountain at approximately 14:30 LT on Friday, July 13, 2018. According to reports, one of the aircraft that initially responded was a single main rotor UH-60 Blackhawk. Because of the altitude of the rescue, well above 10,000 feet in thinner air where rotary wing aircraft can have difficulty maintaining lift, the larger twin-rotor CH-47F Chinook was used for the rescue.

The CH-47F belonging to the 168th Aviation Regiment, based in Pendelton, Oregon, performed a so-called “Pinnacle Landing” or “Pinnacle Maneuver” (often seen in theaters like Iraq or Afghanistan) making the rescue possible.

In addition to the thin air at high altitude, dangers in alpine helicopter rescues include unpredictable mountain winds with powerful up and down drafts on steep terrain and unstable glaciers with common avalanche, crevasse and icefall risks. In the alpine region of the Pacific north west, high, glaciated mountains including Mt. Rainier in Washington state at 14,410 and Mt. Hood in nearby Oregon account for a disproportionate number of alpine fatalities because of their close proximity to large urban populations and their easy access for recreational use.

Rescuers prepare to airlift the victim from Mt. Hood. (Photo: CBS/via Associated Press)

The dangers of helicopter rescues on Mt. Hood were underscored in a tragic May, 2002 attempted rescue of four injured climbers on Oregon’s Mount Hood, when an HH-60G Pave Hawk of the Air Force Reserve Command’s 304th Rescue Squadron crashed on live television, rolling down the mountain after losing lift in shifting mountain winds. During that 2002 incident, three people died and four others were critically injured after they fell into a crevasse on the mountain near Timberline Lodge. One member of the rescue team was also critically injured when the helicopter rolled over him as it tumbled down the mountainside after crashing.

This is already the second helicopter rescue from Mt. Hood in 2018. The first rescue took place on Tuesday, February 13, 2018. A climber fell approximately 1,000 feet into the Hogsback area on Mount Hood and did not survive. Rescuers guided down two others who were stranded and rescued a third by sled evacuation that Tuesday night. In that rescue, a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter was used.

Lifelong mountain guide Brent Okita of Rainier Mountaineering Inc. (RMI) told us, “These are the only high mountains with glaciers in the world that have a freeway exit. Because of that, you get a lot of inexperienced people in a situation can deteriorate quickly.”

In a potentially tragic twist to this latest story, the man rescued reportedly climbed Mt. Hood to commit suicide but later reconsidered and then phoned 911 emergency responders. “The Clackamas County Sheriff notified us that [the climber] had gone to the summit of Mount Hood because he was going to end his life up there, and then he changed his mind,” Scott Lucas of the Oregon Office of Emergency Management told media on Friday.

The man was initially thought to be lower on the mountain following the 911 emergency call, but Army National Guard search and rescue crews located him closer to the summit of the mountain.

Top image: an Oregon Army National Guard CH-47 Chinook rescues a climber and recovers rescue team from Mt. Hood, Oregon on Friday, July 13, 2018. (Photo: CBS/via Associated Press)

Too close for comfort.

A reporter with the Russian The Caucasus Post media outlet risked being decapitated while filming a news segment featuring some low-flying Mi-24 helicopters in anticipation of the celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces.

The scene speaks for itself: you can crearly see the journalist presenting her report from the runway as several Hind gunships fly close to her. As many as 14 Mi-24s can be seen in the footage with the second one literally buzzing the journalist with the stub wing endplate missile pylon missing her head by a few inches…

Take a look:

Brave or reckless journalism? You judge.

Image credit: The Caucasus Post/Youtube

Air Centric Personal Recovery Operative Course 2018 was held at the Dutch base of Gilze-Rijen, in the southern part of the Netherlands.

The 12th iteration of the Air Centric Personnel Recovery Operatives Course (APROC 2018) took place from May 23 to Jun. 7 at Gilze-Rijen, in the Netherlands, home of the Defense Helicopter Command (DHC) of the Royal Dutch Armed Forces.

Along with 577 personnel from 12 countries, several combat planes and helicopters supported the exercise: Dutch F-16s and Italian F-2000 Typhoons in the Fixed Wing RESCORT role; French AS555, Dutch AH-64 and Polish Mi-24 helicopters in the Rotary Wing RESCORT role; Dutch CH-47, Spanish AS332, French Navy NH-90, Royal Navy Merlin HC4, Italian Air Force HH-101 and ItNavy EH-101, Swedish Hkp.16a in the Extraction Vehicle role.

Spanish AS.332B

The photographs in this post, showing some of the participant aircraft, were taken at Gilze-Rijen airbase by Marco Ferrageau and Corne Rodenburg.

An Italian Air Force HH-101 Caesar of the 15° Stormo during APROC 2018. (All images credit: Marco Ferrageau and Corne Rodenburg)

The exercise was also supported by the Italian Air Force G550 CAEW (Conformal Airborne Early Warning and Control) aircraft belonging to the 14° Stormo (Wing) from Pratica di Mare airbase to Gilze-Rijen, that undertook the AMC (Airborne Mission Coordinator Role). The two Italian aircraft, MM62293/14-11 and MM62303/14-12 proved to be crucial as all the NATO E-3 AWACS jets that were supposed to support the drills from their homebase at Geilenkirchen cancelled their missions due to aircraft availability issues. Also Extraction Forces from Italy, Spain, UK, France and Sweden joined APROC 2018 as members of the primary training audience.

The ItAF G550 supporting the exercise on May 30. (Screenshot by Hugo Fonteyn).

“The course aims to educate and train Aircrews and Extraction Forces in the implementation of internationally agreed techniques and procedures for Personnel Recovery operations as a member of a combined and joint force contingent,” says the European Personnel Recovery Center in a release published after the course. “The result of this kind of training will be an interoperable force that will be able to provide a viable PR capability for future contingencies. The course aims were achieved by planning and conducting 26 missions in 9 flying days, resulting in more than 140 sorties and 300 flight hours of the participating 20 aircraft. This training opportunity enables the participants to train the Personnel Recovery mission profile in a realistic and international environment that uses the processes and structures found in international operations. The APROC is currently the only European opportunity that focuses entirely on this mission set and attracts great interest in many countries.”

French Navy NH-90-NFH

More than 30 aircraft (including support assets) took part in exercise APROC 2018. Next year’s iteration will be hosted by the Spanish Air Force at Zaragoza airbase.

“Green Tops” MV-22 osprey tilt-rotor aircraft fly the President’s supporting staff and Secret Service agents.

On May 23, Donald Trump traveled to New York City in one of the Presidential VH-3D helicopters operated by the U.S. Marine Corps HMX-1 (Marine Helicopter Squadron One).

Here’s a video of the Marine One helicopter flying over NYC the POTUS shared on his favorite social media:

Great to be in New York for the day. Heading back to the @WhiteHouse now, lots of work to be done! pic.twitter.com/w3LUiQ8SWh

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 23 2018

The clip was probably filmed by one of the escorting U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. In fact, “Marine One” (when President of the U.S. travels aboard the VH-3D or any other chopper operated by HMX-1, the helicopter uses the radio callsign “Marine One” by which the aircraft is known) was escorted by green-painted MV-22 Ospreys (also referred to as “Green Tops”) that fly the White House Staff during the President’s travels.

The tilt-rotor aircraft fly also the Secret Service agents that follow “Marine One” and take care of its valuable passengers in case the helicopter goes down due to a failure.

Usually, at least two or three Ospreys accompany “Marine One”. For instance, when last year Trump traveled to Virginia’s Newport News Shipbuilding facility to visit pre-commissioning unit USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN78), the two VH-3Ds were escorted by three MV-22s.

Both the “White Tops” (VH-3Ds and VH-60Ns), that usually fly the POTUS and accompanying VIPs at home and abroad as part of the Executive Flight Detachment, and the “Green Tops” (12x MV-22 Ospreys) that fly the supporting staff, are based at Quantico, Virginia, south of Washington DC.

The helicopters of Executive Flight Detachment actually operate extensively out of an alert facility at Naval Support Facility Anacostia, in Washington DC, much closer to the White House than Quantico.

A stunning WH photo (the top one in this article), taken by photographer @AndreaHanks, showing two VH-3Ds and two escorting MV-22s (a third Osprey was probably the camera ship), was shared on Twitter by CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller.

Top image: WH photo by Andrea Hanks

Second Milestone in 30 Days as New Light Tiltrotor Progresses to Max Speed Test.

Bell’s V-280 Valor light tiltrotor aircraft has flown in level flight with its tiltrotors in the horizontal/cruise mode for the first time this week. The aircraft reached 190 knots (218 MPH) during the flight.

The new Bell V-280 Valor is a medium, tactical tiltrotor aircraft designed for the U.S. Army Joint Multi-Role Technology Demonstrator (JMR-TD) program. The JMR-TD program is a precursor for the Army’s overall Future Vertical Lift (FVL) co-development and evaluation of possible replacements for existing rotorwing aircraft in five different roles. The V-280 Valor is a proposed candidate for a new JMR-Medium utility and attack helicopter to potentially replace the UH-60 Blackhawk utility helicopter and the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter.

The V-280 Valor is intended to carry up to 14 troops in a tactical personnel transport configuration with a crew of four including two flight crew and two gunner/loadmasters. It may also be developed with the capability to be an attack helicopter with various weapons onboard as depicted early in the program in a concept video showing an animated assault on a high altitude insurgent camp during hot weather. High altitude/hot weather flight conditions, called “High and Hot”, are challenging for most existing rotor wing aircraft. The V-280 will be optimized for high and hot operations.

While similar in visual configuration to the existing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor in service with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Marines, the V-280’s engines remain in a fixed position on the wing while only the tiltrotors change geometry from vertical flight to horizontal flight. One advantage to this system is that both tiltrotors on the V-280 can operate off a single engine. On the V-22 Osprey both of the entire engine nacelles rotate during the transition from vertical to horizontal flight and the engine drive systems are fully segregated from each other, but joined by a complex gear box so the aircraft can operate on one engine.

The wing section of the V-280 is a unique single-piece composite construction. (Photo: Bell Helicopters)

Another unique feature of the V-280 Valor is the one-piece carbon fiber composite wing section. The one-piece composite wing uses Large Cell Carbon Core technology, reducing costs by over 30% compared to the construction of the V-22 Osprey wing. The one-piece wing is also integral to the ability of the twin tiltrotors to operate off power from only one engine if needed.

The Bell V-280 Valor competes with the Sikorsky-Boeing SB-1 Defiant aircraft in the JMR-TD program. The SB-1 Defiant uses two contra-rotating rotors and a “pusher” style tail rotor in a more traditional helicopter configuration as compared to the Bell V-280 tiltrotor design.

As the V-280 program advances through flight testing the aircraft has now flown 27 hours with approximately 90 hours of time turning the rotors in ground and flight tests. The aircraft has demonstrated its ground taxi and hover capability as well as low-altitude maneuvers including 360-degree pedal turns and forward/aft/lateral repositions along with 60 knot roll-on landings.

The next phase of flight operations for the V-280 will include maximum speed flights scheduled for some time within the next 90 days according to Bell. “During the summer, we plan on reaching most of the required performance parameters that were part of the test program,” said Jeffrey Schloesser, Bell’s executive vice president of strategic pursuits, during an interview last month with Aviation Week.

An interesting part of the advancements in the test program is that now the Bell V-280 is accompanied during test flights by an Aero L-39 jet chase plane because of the V-280’s increasing speed in testing.