« Reply #3 on: April 04, 2014, 11:36:43 AM »
Reminds me of the time when I was in the Air Force with a helicopter squadron (CH-3 Jolly Green) and we went on a cross country flight.
Our mistake was trusting that the Army guys at the base we flew to that they would put some chocks around the landing gear of our aircraft. The aircrew had set the parking brakes and we maintetance guys double checked them before we secured the aircraft and departed.
So we left the base to go to the hotel and a night out on the town. The AC on this trip got a wake up call at 0200 with the news that his helicopter had rolled of the ramp and was down in the grass. The next morning we arrive at the base to see the Jolly Green sitting at a nose up angle with the main gear in the grass and the nose gear still up on the edge of the ramp.
The rotor blades were just inches from the top of the fuselage above the cockpit overhead observation windows and pitot tubes. The aircrew did a did a great job of hovering that thing out of the position it was in with rotor blades just inches from shearing off the pitot tubes, which would have grounded the aircraft until repairs could have been made.
After the recuse manuver by the aircrew the rest of us maintenance guys boarded the aircraft and we flew on to our next destination. Thinking we were home free until the CO back at our home base contacted the AC and wanted to know how his helicopter rolled off the ramp in the middle of the night. Appearantly the Army installation CO contacted our CO to inform him of what happened. Needless to say there was a whole lot of explaining to do when we RTB and a whole lot of ass chewing followed.
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