Path: utzoo!dptcdc!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!osu-cis!att!cbnews!budden@manta.nosc.mil From: budden@manta.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg) Newsgroups: sci.military Subject: Re: air defense wires Message-ID: <5684@cbnews.ATT.COM> Date: 17 Apr 89 02:55:26 GMT References: <5480@cbnews.ATT.COM> Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM Organization: Naval Ocean Systems Center, San Diego Lines: 32 Approved: military@att.att.com From: budden@manta.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg) In the Coast Guard, we occasionally have gotten the hoist cable wrapped into the rotor blades, usually on night training exercises with motor lifeboats. Scares the ____ out of the flight crew. And usually the lifeboat crew too, but that's a delayed reaction 'cause they don't know how close they came until after they get back to port. The scenario usually involves a hoist cable getting hung on something solid -- like a 13 ton motor lifeboat -- at low altitude. Then a and enough backsnap to flip cable into the rotor blades. Hoists have a guillotine knife for shearing the cable in such situations, and it's a mite disconcerting taking that whirring back to a landing somewhere. Not sure whether we've lost helos doing this, but I know we've had some damaged blades. Customs also had one of their aerostats (balloons with a radar on a string) cut loose a couple years ago. Nobody sure, but the FAA records indicate that one of our H-3s was the only thing in the area and the coincidence points to it flying thru the fiber optic umbilical. Yes, barrage balloons may be an old idea, but I'd estimate that they could still be pretty effective in situations -- power lines get Army birds all the time. Rex Buddenberg -------