Navy Helicopters do a $500K wash dip in Lake Tahoe

mikea

mikea

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SAN DIEGO -- Two Navy helicopter pilots from North Island Naval Air Station have been grounded over a YouTube video that allegedly shows them dipping the $33 million aircrafts into Lake Tahoe.

In the video taken Sept. 14, both helicopters hit the water and one seems to spin out of control and crash into the water before its pilot apparently pulls the craft back into the air.

A Navy spokesman confirmed that the video was genuine footage of two MH-60 Romeo helicopters from North Island's Helicopter Maritime Strike 41 squadron, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.
...

Damage to the helicopters was estimated at between $50,000 and $500,000, according to the newspaper, which reported that the grounded pilots had to land at Lake Tahoe Airport following the incident and a different set of pilots eventually flew the helicopters home

http://www.10news.com/news/25143106/detail.html.
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It's good thing that the jet turbine intakes are as high as they are. Can you imagine what would have happened if they sucked up water?
 
Quite the training evolution...good thing they kept the tail up
 
The word was that one helicopter was talking pictures of the other. If the one that got wet was the photo subject, it's gonna be some bad evidence.
 
...and I thought I was a rebel for drinking a 12 pack of Warsteiner while on guard duty and taking a 5 ton truck for a joy ride in the desert. :dunno: :dunno: :dunno: :dunno: :dunno:
 
Water in the intake results in a HUGE plume of steam and a ruined turbine.

Every so often some knucklehead would fire a water cannon (in the "Bird bath" wash racks) at a running M-1 Abrams intake. Was never good.
 
I see a little youthful exuberance and lack of judgment here. I am having trouble convincing myself that this is the crime that should be focused on.

It's that thirty three million dollars per copy our government has paid out for a helicopter that bothers me the most. There is no youthful exuberance, no youthful lack of judgment involved in that criminal act. We are talking massive corruption from top officials of both government purchasing, probably even congress, and the officials of the companies that sell them to us. These are not children looting our nations treasury, they are adult, calculating people.

How in the heck can anyone in their right mind justify spending $33,000,000.00 on one helicopter?

It is these same people who want to crucify these young pilots. Not for risking the helicopter, but for bringing public attention to what has been spent to acquire them.

John
 
John Baker said:
I see a little youthful exuberance and lack of judgment here. I am having trouble convincing myself that this is the crime that should be focused on.

It's that thirty three million dollars per copy our government has paid out for a helicopter that bothers me the most. There is no youthful exuberance, no youthful lack of judgment involved in that criminal act. We are talking massive corruption from top officials of both government purchasing, probably even congress, and the officials of the companies that sell them to us. These are not children looting our nations treasury, they are adult, calculating people.

How in the heck can anyone in their right mind justify spending $33,000,000.00 on one helicopter?

It is these same people who want to crucify these young pilots. Not for risking the helicopter, but for bringing public attention to what has been spent to acquire them.

John
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How much can you build one for? MILSPEC has nothing to do with corrupt politics either, but meeting MILSPEC as a supplier is not particularly cheap. That money figure also includes the weapons systems that a typically equipped unit will cost. Miniguns aren't cheap, the avionics package isn't cheap. Is there a profit on all the components as well as the final product? Of course there is. That's what our military is there for, to protect our ability to make a profit because that is a fundamental part of our societies ability to remain what it is. Is there some graft money in that $33million? Of course there is, but I bet you it's a lot less than you may think.

The real question though is are we getting a value for our money? Does the machine have the capabilities to meet its mission in an economic fashion? From what the machine demonstrated in the YouTube video, I give it a "favorable" rating, it performed above and beyond what would have happened to other helicopters. It also showed good pilot skills. It wasn't good that he got into a vortex ring state that low, but hey, that's why you have training evolutions. He did however react properly and drove the machine out of it, and the machine gave him the umph and ability to do it, not all would. On top of that, he and it maintained control/controlability and pulled the machine out of the water. This is almost priceless experience for a combat navy pilot.

I'm just going to drag the rest of my sentiments on this from the other thread:
I don't see why anyone should get grounded over this, it was a training flight and this is stuff a navy helo pilot may have to contend with on a combat mission where infinitely more could be a stake. They've all learned a lesson and had an experience they won't soon forget. Grounding them just wastes that, besides, he pulled it out which means he has some skill and ability. That's the kind of person you want on a mission, skill, ability and experience. He's not the only person to have dipped a helo into the water either. IIRC it's a normal part of some Seal team extraction methods where they drive their inflatables straight up the ramp into the back of of a helo.
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John Baker said:
We are talking massive corruption from top officials of both government purchasing, probably even congress, and the officials of the companies that sell them to us. These are not children looting our nations treasury, they are adult, calculating people.

How in the heck can anyone in their right mind justify spending $33,000,000.00 on one helicopter?

John
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Hunh?

Contracting is rife with overcharge -- but the costs of military hardware is higher because it's one-off, R&D, first-of-its-kind stuff.

Early cell phones were ridiculously expensive (and only a few could afford them) because each buyer was carrying the R&D and tower and hardware costs among a few other buyers. Now cell phones are ubiquitous because the market expanded. GPS units went through the same evolution.

Think of military purchase as bleeding edge, before-its-common, rich guy stuff and you'll understand why it costs so much.

There's plenty more to debunk here, but this isn't SZ.
 
John Baker said:
How in the heck can anyone in their right mind justify spending $33,000,000.00 on one helicopter?
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Knowing the prices of some new airplanes I don't think that's out of line at all for a military helicopter.
 
Watching that video, I'd say the people on that helicopter are lucky they're not injured or dead. Is that inaccurate?

With that in mind, while the pilots might have been goofing around (can you think of a cooler backdrop for pictures to put on Facebook - "here I am, flying my helicopter at Lake Tahoe, I bet all of you random internet girls totally want to bang me now"), if it wasn't intentional I'd say that there was a valuable lesson learned. In terms of both piloting skills and along the lines of "experience makes for good judgment, and living through bad judgment gives you experience."
 
Henning said:
How much can you build one for? MILSPEC has nothing to do with corrupt politics either, but meeting MILSPEC as a supplier is not particularly cheap. That money figure also includes the weapons systems that a typically equipped unit will cost. Miniguns aren't cheap, the avionics package isn't cheap. Is there a profit on all the components as well as the final product? Of course there is. That's what our military is there for, to protect our ability to make a profit because that is a fundamental part of our societies ability to remain what it is. Is there some graft money in that $33million? Of course there is, but I bet you it's a lot less than you may think.

The real question though is are we getting a value for our money? Does the machine have the capabilities to meet its mission in an economic fashion? From what the machine demonstrated in the YouTube video, I give it a "favorable" rating, it performed above and beyond what would have happened to other helicopters. It also showed good pilot skills. It wasn't good that he got into a vortex ring state that low, but hey, that's why you have training evolutions. He did however react properly and drove the machine out of it, and the machine gave him the umph and ability to do it, not all would. On top of that, he and it maintained control/controlability and pulled the machine out of the water. This is almost priceless experience for a combat navy pilot.

I'm just going to drag the rest of my sentiments on this from the other thread:
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Agreed. Give the guy two weeks of KP peeling potatoes and forget about it.

Oh. Wait. They can't do that anymore. :confused::frown3:
 
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