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My Son In Law Had A Bad Day (Helo's Damaged In Norfolk Storm)

RetiredUSN

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I was sitting on a sailboat just across the water at the Willoughby Spit Marina watching this go on as the storm passed through and we already had been under a severe weather alert. I didn't realize that all the helo's got damaged until the sun came back out and I saw sailors running around like rats afterwards. :oops:

My SIL is about to retire in very soon and belongs to this squadron.

He was livid about the lack of concern up chain of command about getting the helo's into the empty hangars hours earlier.

10 helo's in all badly damaged and they are talking about two of them.

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This picture is pretty close to what it actually looks like looking over from the marina on a nice day.

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Looks expensive! Particularly the third shot, where you can see the drive shaft has been bent.

They had hangars but didn't use them? Why the hell not?
 
Not a problem. The military gets free money to fix them. Great leadership.

If it was me going up in them, I'd prefer a helo that never got broken in the first place.

Maybe they'll get brand new helicopters?
 
That's insane.
 
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For those not in the aviation field, the things in the red boxes are called "pad eyes" or tie down points. Military aircraft have attachment points for tie down chains which prevent accidental air craft movement and and aircraft being turned over due to high winds.

So regardless of the availability of hangar space, the helo's could have been secured with tie down chains. The Maintenance Chief and Line Chief are going to be in deep shit, let alone the rest of the chain of command.

WW
ATC(AW/NAC)
USN Ret.
 
Wow! I just returned from Virginia Beach yesterday. Our daughter is in the Navy and we were there visiting the grandbaby. It was hot and humid as Hades, but rained the last two days.

I don't understand why those birds weren't tied down. Somebody's ass is going to be shredded.
 
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View attachment 67403966

For those not in the aviation field, the things in the red boxes are called "pad eyes" or tie down points. Military aircraft have attachment points for tie down chains which prevent accidental air craft movement and and aircraft being turned over due to high winds.

So regardless of the availability of hangar space, the helo's could have been secured with tie down chains. The Maintenance Chief and Line Chief are going to be in deep shit, let alone the rest of the chain of command.

WW
ATC(AW/NAC)
USN Ret.


That is what my SIL spoke to me about. They didn't even chock the ****ing things down. He was at Portsmouth Naval Hospital for his retirement physical when this all went down.

The command didn't bother to make the kids take their noses out of their cell phones long enough to secure the aircraft, or even better........................pull them into the empty hangers that were a few hundred feet away.

I was a 1/4 mile away sitting on a friends sailboat watching this as I was helping him with a fuel problem on his boat at the Willoughby Spit Marina. The storm passed through and it was short but powerful. All the boats in the marina were being tossed around. When the sun came back out, all we could see across the water was sailors running back and forth around the aircraft.

The entire area was under a severe high wind thunderstorm alert for hours before this happened.
 
Willoughby Spit Marina.

[OFF TOPIC]

Brown shoe or black shoe?

I'm up on the Yorktown area.

Hadn't been south side for a couple of years and had to go pick up my daughter at ORF who was able to come in from Germany after going to Maxwell AFB for some training. Was amazed on the construction progress on the 3rd tube. In the AF's infinite wisdom when she went back she had to fly from DC to Frankfurt to touch ground in Germany so that she could get on a flight to England so she could take a deposition. Couldn't fly from DC to England directly or they would have refused to pay the air fare for the return. :rolleyes:

WW

[/OFF TOPIC]
 
My SIL was in 3 carrier squadrons and 4 shore based commands during his career. ;) San Diego - Virginia Beach Oceana - Norfolk - Pensacola - USS Nimitz CVN 68 - Washington CVN 73 - Reagan CVN 76

24 years and a damn fine airman.

Your daughter was lucky to get to fly into ORF. It seems the only way to get back to CONUS for me in my heydays was McGuire AFB on MAC flights.

I have owner operator dump truck friends making a nice living hauling sand to the 3rd tube.
 
That is what my SIL spoke to me about. They didn't even chock the ****ing things down. He was at Portsmouth Naval Hospital for his retirement physical when this all went down.

The command didn't bother to make the kids take their noses out of their cell phones long enough to secure the aircraft, or even better........................pull them into the empty hangers that were a few hundred feet away.

I was a 1/4 mile away sitting on a friends sailboat watching this as I was helping him with a fuel problem on his boat at the Willoughby Spit Marina. The storm passed through and it was short but powerful. All the boats in the marina were being tossed around. When the sun came back out, all we could see across the water was sailors running back and forth around the aircraft.

The entire area was under a severe high wind thunderstorm alert for hours before this happened.

When I was in the Pacific we used to do evaluations on what tie downs were required for a Typhoon.

MCAS Futenma Okinawa lacked the needed tie downs for a Typhoon so we "ran away" to either Korea or Philippines depending on the route of the Typhoon. Either was preferable to Okinawa on lock down.
 
When I was in the Pacific we used to do evaluations on what tie downs were required for a Typhoon.

MCAS Futenma Okinawa lacked the needed tie downs for a Typhoon so we "ran away" to either Korea or Philippines depending on the route of the Typhoon. Either was preferable to Okinawa on lock down.

It's a little confusing how you capitalize "Typhoon" since that's also an aircraft.

It's the same basic thing as an Atlantic cyclone, except moving West from the Pacific rather than the Atlantic ... I think?

(BTW in school I was taught that cyclones only occur in the Southern hemisphere, and because they rotate the opposite way in the Northern hemisphere, those should be called anti-cyclones. I'm not wedded to the idea though: does it really matter whether a big blow is to the North or to the South coming in? It's just as bad.)
 
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