Has USCG gone nuts?

TyBoo

TyBoo

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Staff member
We were coming across the Youngs Bay bridge out of Astoria this afternoon and we saw a CG helo hovering above the airport with something hanging from a cable. I told Tiffany they were probably practicing their rescue skills or something. As we got closer, whatever was hanging from the cable looked more and more like a car. A real car - automobile type car. I slowed down so we could study it a little better, and all of a sudden it dropped to the ground, cable and all, from a good 1/4 mile up. The helicopter hovered for another few seconds and then moved up and off.

Huh? You want to take a stab at explaining that, 416Rigby?? I told Tiff the CG does not routinely drop cars in their rescues, but I sure don't know what the deal was. Maybe there was a miscommunication from Washington D.C. and they were Crashing Clunkers. IDK, but it was weird.
 
OK - I also asked the question on ifish.net and on my Twitter, so there will be an answer soon. Let's see if whatever BS Rick comes up with is true. It is probably some deep secret something or other so old 416Rig will have to lie...

It's too bad the trees and brush are high enough around the air station to hide the ground where the thing hit. We were too far away to really see anything anyway, but it would have been cool.
 
It was probably an American-made gas guzzler (purchased with tax dollars by the way) and they were on order from his highness, The Supreme Leader to make a BIG show of it so as to convince the masses of the evil of their ways. They'll drop a gas guzzling, anti-global warming, CO2 spewing boat next. :P
 
Not your fault. I would've run with it anyway; I mean a car dropping from a Fed Gov't helicoptor...come on! It doesn't get any easier. I just couldn't resist....JK. :wink:
 
Best guess here is that they were weight testing the sling load strength of the aircraft. I'm pretty certain every six months or so the aircraft has to sustain a specific weight for a specific amount of time as a safety check to ensure the airframe performs as designed.
 
Was there an airshow of some kind going on at the field?
I have seen this as part of an "act" at a show. "would the
person who parked their car in the no parking zone please
move your car or it will be towed." this goes on for most
of the show, then you see helio pick up car and fly away,
ha ha, then they drop the car, oh no!
What I saw was not CG, but I think NG or Army.

Robbi
 
Just looked up and there was an Airshow at Astoria yesterday. Press release
mentioned car drop "act" done at last years show.
In context of an airshow, entertainment. Driving across bridge,
would cause a major "what the......." moment!
 
Thanks, Robbi. Come to think of it, I did see some signs on the road advertising a Hangar Dance and Pancake Feed or something at the airport. You probably nailed it. It's kind of cool that C-Brats is now the premier place on the web for information. We beat Facebook, iFish and even the mighty Twitter with the best answer.

It's also cool that the CG guys east of the Mississippi gave up their bonus pay so the west coast guys could afford such foolishness. Thanks, Rick!
 
I've done a lot of external cargo ops...navigation towers out on the jetties, big spare parts for broken boats...all kinds of stuff....but I can honestly say I've never slung a car...and to pickle it off and have it crash to the ground would be so cool!

Those 60 guys have all the fun...
 
Article in the Daily Astorian

Last paragraph reads: "Another HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter hoisted a car from a nearby parking lot high into the air above the pavement, and then moved it over above the main runway. For a few minutes, it swung like a pendulum, then settled. The helicopter hovered for a brief moment, appearing to calculate position, and then let the cable go. In just seconds, the decades old Volvo sedan plunged into bushes separating the runway from Youngs Bay with a muffled clang."
 
I can recall a couple of cars, probably a precursor to the clunkers program, being launched from a catapault on a carrier. And then there was the time when the Khaki uniform went away for a time, and along with that, the brown shoes too. We collected all the brown shoes on the ship (USS Independence) , put them in a big crate, and launched them into the North China Sea.

Bet Dusty will remember that time! Where the heck are you Dusty? :love

Charlie
 
Captains Cat":10ebeitn said:
We collected all the brown shoes on the ship (USS Independence) , put them in a big crate, and launched them into the North China Sea.
Click to expand...

Gasp! Charlie, that is just SO wrong! :cry:

Background trivia for those non military folks...back in the day, Navy/Marine/Coast Guard aviators wore brown shoes...the rest of the fleet wore black. Hence we aviators use the term "blackshoe" to describe a non-flying sailor.

Rick
 
Us blackshoes also wore brown shoes when we wore Service Dress Khaki! That was one of the better looking uniforms IMHO, I was sorry when it went away, along with my brown shoes!

Charlie
 
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