Cruising the state in a blackhawk 'copter

[Mad1]

I had a lot of fun today on the job. Spent a few hours crisscrossing Tennessee in a national guard blackhawk helo with my director (a ret. general three years away from being in charge of the TN air guard), a major from the Tenn. Highway Patrol and the deputy director of the governor's office of homeland security.

I spent a lot of time hanging out the crew chief window (best seat in the house) taking pictures and keeping an eye out for light poles as we landed in parking lots. (I wasn't too concerned until after our second landing when the pilot told me that we could blow those poles over if we got to close.)

After riding in one of these bad boys all day ... it feels like I was put in a bag and beaten with rubber mallets.

My hats off to guys who do that for a living. (Even to guys like Tom, who fix'em.)

I spent most of my time trying to convice the THP guy (second-in-command) they needed marauders with superchargers. It didn't hurt that he'd seen my car that morning ... he'd noticed the custom plate (MARAUDR) too.)

Jeremy
Mad1

[CRUZTAKER]

Landing in rest areas?

Nice!

Also nice to hear from you old friend. We have missed you.;)

[MM2004]

Dude. That is very cool!

Flew in a chopper once as a kid.

I would do it again in a heartbeat. Especially with the troops.

:beer:

Mike.

[Mad1]

We were traveling to check points, where all commercial, rental, overseas containers or hazardous truck traffic was being stopped and inspected. So we were flying into weigh stations. (REALLY SMALL PARKING LOTS!)

This was, I'm told, the largest simultaneous state-wide all-hazards inspection that any state has done. Our people, from Tennessee Emergency Management Agency, were on-hand to provide radiation monitoring and other support functions. It was really a THP and homeland security show as far as motor carrier enforcement. I'll be really curious to see exactly what travels through a state on a given day on the highways and I should have a full report tomorrow.

We did have some pretty funny incidents.

One check-point had a vehicle register as radioactive. Upon inspection, the contents of a box containing cremated :fire: human remains was the source. (The person had undergone some sort of chemo treatment shortly before death, so the radioactive material was still present.



Another checkpoint opened up a tractor trailer to find it was hauling a stolen backhoe inside. I heard the driver had "no idea how that got in there." :bs:

Another radioactive item was a bulldozer that had been used to clean up a demolition site. Not uncommon, but still got flagged.

On a previous inspection checkpoint, they even found a load of shrimp bound for Nashville restaurants traveling in an unrefrigerated truck. We turned that one around to the shipper in Georgia and had it met at the border by health department officials who oversaw the immediate destruction of that cargo. (Nasty, eh?) :censor:

Never a dull moment in emergency management. We finally found a plane (and deceased pilot) that had been missing since Monday morning. And add to that, right before our press conference this afternoon ... I got the call from our operations center about the plane crash in NY. The PIO from THP thought I was just joking when I told her to kiss goodbye any press coverage from our event ... then I think she wanted to strangle me after I said I was serious.

On a related note, I had a reporter ask me "What Tennessee was doing to make sure things like that didn't happen here." I replied ... you mean accidents? Not deterred, the reporter continued, "No, so that planes don't crash into buildings?" In all seriousness, I answered, "Yeah, big nets around the buildings, like the ones they use to keep foul balls from going into the stands."
Here's your sign. :stupid:

:) I told him it was the FAA's jurisdiction, not our problem.


Jeremy
Mad1

[MM03MOK]

Way Kewl, Jeremy! That's one of my life-long dreams....fly in a copter!!

[Bluerauder]

I had a lot of fun today on the job. Spent a few hours crisscrossing Tennessee in a national guard blackhawk helo ...

Jeremy
Mad1
I always enjoyed flying in helicopters. The best is flying at about 120 knots at 50 feet or so running Nap-of-the-Earth (NOE). Another thrill is staring straight down to the ground (no doors of course) from 1000 feet when they lay 'em on their side to do a quick 90 or 180 degree turn. :D Sounds like you had a great day out joyriding. :up:

[Petrograde]

Pretty cool Jeremy,.. I'm suprised they let you sit in the crew chief seat, you're right ... it is the best seat in the house. :up:

[Jeffh]

Pretty cool stuff. I took a couple rides in helos while in Iraq this past summer. I was a contractor over there, and flew in Chinooks and Blackhawks. I also got a ride in C-5 and C-130 fixed wing when I flew in and left the country.
I flew into the Green Zone in a Blackhawk, that was awesome. Those boys fly anything but straight! My Chinook rides were at night. We take off, go black, and hope for the best!

[Mikeenh]

Years ago I got my private pilots license. I decided I'd take a few lessons in a helicopter after that. All I can say is I have a HUGE amount of respect when I see a helicopter doing precision moves and landings. It's hands on 101% of the time. Very sensative, but fun :)
They don't get much better than our USA military pilots :flag:

[mrjones]

That's pretty cool. I got to ride in one last December. I have an employee in the Guard who was being sent to Kosovo in January of this year. In December they had an employer's appreciation day, and gave us rides in Blackhawks. I expected a 10 minute up and circle around kind of thing, but they actually gave us about a 40 minute ride, with some low, fast, swooping through the canyons kind of thing over at Fort Hood. It was great!