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Posted by: Lawrence914-6 Mar 11 2003, 12:50 PM

it was a pretty long day yesterday... and I posted to Rennlist, but not here. Sorry bout that, as I know some folks don't frequent both groups.

I was accepted to the Army's rotary wing flight school. (Helicopters for you Texas people!) I don't have a school date yet. but I think that I'll probably end up there this summer. Flight school is in Alabama.

I am very excited. In fact, I'm so happy that I'm going to sign my name with that little stupid dancing banana.

-Rusty

Posted by: StratPlayer Mar 11 2003, 01:12 PM

Wow, congrats on this, helos, I had some experience with them, some in the military but mostly in civilian life. I run a heliportable drill crew, we do shot hole seismic work in rough terrain (mostly mountains) we use helicopters to take apart and move our drills. French helos Lama's. So I indeed have a lot of respect for the chopper pilots, funny thing is the only pilots we find that can do this job is the X army vietnam pilots, we've tried them all, AF, Navy, Mar. etc,, the vietnam pilots were the only ones that could take apart, move and put back together these drills, without tearing them apart, we use Deutsch 6 cyl, air cooled, turbo charged diesel engines on these rigs, no headgaskets in these engines, finely machined I'd say. Unfortunately the pilots are getting old.

So it sounds like you have a lot of work ahead of you, good luck, and keep the tail rotar outta power lines.

Posted by: joea9146 Mar 11 2003, 01:31 PM

Congrats........ Good luck, sounds like fun

Posted by: Brad Roberts Mar 11 2003, 05:11 PM

Rusty,

This is GREAT news. a Whole new line of work for you. Maybe this time they can keep you in the states for a little longer.

Strat,

That has to be one of the "coolest" job stories I have ever read.

B

Posted by: Lawrence914-6 Mar 11 2003, 08:45 PM

Thank you... I'm pretty excited.

I talked to Aviation branch, and it sounds pretty positive that they'll send me to the maintenance course. I won't have enough flight hours to qualify as a Test Pilot, but that's probably the way I'll lean.

Quick question... did the pilots actually do the disassembly themselves?

-Rusty

Posted by: StratPlayer Mar 11 2003, 09:47 PM

Yes they did, I'll post some pictures have to scan them in first. The drill rig itself consist of 3 pieces, the engine package, the compressor pkg, the drill skid itself. How setup consists of 6 total pieces. The other three are the fuel or bulk tank 150 gal. The drill basket where the drillers keep their tools, the drill pipe is kept in the drill baskets, fluids, etc. and a rock box, 3'X3'X3' filled with pea gravel which is used to plug the holes once the dynamite is loading in the holes. So these pilots have bubble doors on their side so they can hang out and look straight down on the person on the ground who is going to put all this stuff back together. We use 100 ft to 150 ft long lines under the ship, no headache balls on the bottom of the lines. Think about whats its like in the snow cover mountains where your depth perception is the craps and you've got to disassemble then reassemble these rigs. We run 10 drills spead out 440' apart, when a rig is ready for a move they just leap frog over each other.. 12 shots to a mile, up an over the mountains.

No job like it The static electricty is always a morning boost

I'll post some pics tomorrow.

Posted by: 914gem Mar 11 2003, 10:19 PM

Great news, the best of luck to you. When you get out of school look me up and we will get a couple of my dads 47s and spray some bugs

Posted by: ChrisReale Mar 11 2003, 10:21 PM

Posted by: StratPlayer Mar 11 2003, 10:54 PM

Ok Rusty here are some pics

Posted by: StratPlayer Mar 11 2003, 10:54 PM

some more

Posted by: StratPlayer Mar 11 2003, 10:55 PM

this was taken sitting behind the pilot and looking down on one of the rigs

Posted by: StratPlayer Mar 11 2003, 10:59 PM

shots when I was in Greenland we used a Bell 212 there with lowran radar. This company was called GLACE helicopter, the pilots were Norweign, they all learned to fly where your headed I think Ft. Rucker Ala. The company wouldn't let them use a bubble door so they mounted a big mirror on the front right skid, the pilot would look over his right foot at the mirror, the mirror showed the belly hook all the way to the bottom of the line of course they only used a 15' longline,, when we arrived at our man camp they were out there practicing moving an engine in between to 4x4 post,, I look at my friend a told him I think we're gonna die here,, never moved drills in this manner before.

Posted by: StratPlayer Mar 11 2003, 11:00 PM

an another

Posted by: StratPlayer Mar 11 2003, 11:01 PM

ditto

Posted by: StratPlayer Mar 11 2003, 11:01 PM

driller loading a hole with dynamite

Posted by: StratPlayer Mar 11 2003, 11:02 PM

more

Posted by: StratPlayer Mar 12 2003, 12:27 AM

more

Posted by: StratPlayer Mar 12 2003, 12:27 AM

yours truly