# Extreme Chinook Helicopter Landing **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 6, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210 "2010-12-06T23:04:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/1 "2010-12-06T23:04:56Z")
This is pretty cool. Watch this chinook pilot carefully maneuver his chopper into position in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan to pick up some troops. Look how close the rotors are to the ground and look how he finally decides how to best put himself into position to load up the soldiers! :eek: > **[Chinook Helicopter Landing](https://biggeekdad.com/2010/10/chinook-helicopter-landing/)** > > The pilot of this CH-47 Chinook demonstrates his flying skill as he successfully extracts these troops off the side of a mountain in Afghanistan. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/2 "2010-12-06T23:16:32Z")
Not that I’m criticizing the cameraman or anything (he probably had a lot more important things on his mind), but you can’t even really tell what horizontal is in that clip. It _looks_ like the ground is mostly flat (at least, on any given terrace) and that the helicopter is tilted back about 30 degrees, but if that were the case, it wouldn’t be hard at all. I’m guessing that the heli actually stays horizontal? ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2010, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/3 "2010-12-06T23:24:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Not that I’m criticizing the cameraman or anything (he probably had a lot more important things on his mind), but you can’t even really tell what horizontal is in that clip. It _looks_ like the ground is mostly flat (at least, on any given terrace) and that the helicopter is tilted back about 30 degrees, but if that were the case, it wouldn’t be hard at all. I’m guessing that the heli actually stays horizontal? It looks like the pilot had no choice but to land the copter in a depression in the land, and that in order to keep the rotors from chopping turf, he had to tilt the rear end of the thing down while keeping the nose in the air so the soldiers could enter through the back door. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/4 "2010-12-07T05:45:02Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Not that I’m criticizing the cameraman or anything (he probably had a lot more important things on his mind), but you can’t even really tell what horizontal is in that clip. It _looks_ like the ground is mostly flat (at least, on any given terrace) and that the helicopter is tilted back about 30 degrees, but if that were the case, it wouldn’t be hard at all. I’m guessing that the heli actually stays horizontal? I think the Chinook can change its attitude. The rotors have independent collective controls to account for changes in the center of gravity, and independent cyclic controls that can counteract torque differences in the rotor. So it could be tilted down a fair amount, and there isn’t a way to tell what horizontal is in the video. Still some pretty good piloting skills there. ---
**Author:** ![Arrendajo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Arrendajo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arrendajo)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/5 "2010-12-07T05:49:50Z")
Helicopter pilots are really amazing. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/6 "2010-12-07T05:52:56Z")
> [@Arrendajo](#): > > Helicopter pilots are really amazing. I agree. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![scootergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@scootergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scootergirl)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/7 "2010-12-07T06:11:05Z")
Just watched this with my 14 year old boy who has been fascinated with flight for as long as I can remember. I am so impressed! I loved this! Glad it was caught on video. While we were watching, my boy told me more about Chinook Helicopters than I thought I would ever know. These guys rock. At the end of the video my son said proudly and with conviction, “Yep! That’s how we do it.” ---
**Author:** ![scootergirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e99b99/32.png) [@scootergirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scootergirl)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 6:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/8 "2010-12-07T06:24:11Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > This is pretty cool. Watch this chinook pilot carefully maneuver his chopper into position in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan to pick up some troops. Look how close the rotors are to the ground and look how he finally decides how to best put himself into position to load up the soldiers! > :eek: > [Chinook Helicopter Landing - Big Geek Daddy](http://biggeekdad.com/2010/10/chinook-helicopter-landing/) Thank you for posting this. My son is putting the link on his facebook page 🙂 . It made my night. I know people in my neck of the woods that are so anti anything to do with the military forces. Always bitching about it. I can’t stand it. I see something like this and I just think to myself…these guys are truly talented , and I’m grateful for them. Every single one of them. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/9 "2010-12-07T06:46:24Z")
It looks to me like the terrain was more or less bowl shaped and he hovered inside the bowl and set down the rear wheels on the ground, and never completely landed. I wonder why he couldn’t do the same planting the rear wheels at the top of the bowl. Wind? ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/10 "2010-12-07T18:49:54Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > It looks to me like the terrain was more or less bowl shaped and he hovered inside the bowl and set down the rear wheels on the ground, and never completely landed. > > I wonder why he couldn’t do the same planting the rear wheels at the top of the bowl. Wind? and i’m guessing elevation? that was some slope he was flying over. these guys have ice water in their veins. if anyone’s seen the f-35 untintentional loopover off a carrier deck vid that’s been ‘flying’ around the internet, you know what i mean. i once saw a medivac pilot land his chopper between \*\*power lines and trees \*\*in an ordinary **CUL-DE-SAC** across from my house. a car had struck and nearly killed a pedestrian, and the guy was beyond critical, so they’d called in for wings. i was a newspaper reporter back then, and, utterly blown away by what was one hell of a spectacular show of the pilot putting that medivac dead quare center in the circle, i pursued that angle for a story. i wanted to know who this guy was. turned out that he was a former viet nam chopper jockey - and beyond good at what he did. he held some kind of world-class military record for successful dustoffs in 'nam. whole lotta guys are alive today because of him. these guys not only rock, they roll, baby! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/11 "2010-12-07T19:12:15Z")
> [@Arrendajo](#): > > Helicopter pilots are really amazing. Especially when the rotors go back and forth or stop moving completely, or even reverse direction. How do you maintain lift like that? You MUST be amazing! 🆒 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/12 "2010-12-07T20:24:44Z")
> [@Scubaqueen](#): > > i once saw a medivac pilot land his chopper between \*\*power lines and trees \*\*in an ordinary **CUL-DE-SAC** across from my house. Pfft. Try it in a hot air balloon. ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [December 7, 2010, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/13 "2010-12-07T20:54:02Z")
> [@Scubaqueen](#): > > … these guys have ice water in their veins. > > if anyone’s seen the f-35 untintentional loopover off a carrier deck vid that’s been ‘flying’ around the internet, you know what i mean. You know that video is from a video game, right? (Funny thing: I was tipped off not because there’s a tag floating above the F-35, but because I happen to know that the F-35B hasn’t done shipboard testing yet.) ---
**Author:** ![Scubaqueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@Scubaqueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scubaqueen)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/14 "2010-12-08T12:58:34Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > You know that video is from a video game, right? > > (Funny thing: I was tipped off not because there’s a tag floating above the F-35, but because I happen to know that the F-35B hasn’t done shipboard testing yet.) :eek: no, i didn’t. a friend sent me the link. details, please? ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/15 "2010-12-08T13:57:35Z")
> [@Scubaqueen](#): > > :eek: no, i didn’t. a friend sent me the link. details, please? [video here.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQb02O2CG9w) In addition to **Ravenman’s** hints, notice the health/speed/ammo indicator gauges at the bottom of the screen. Also, given that [it’s not yet operational](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II), the flight in the video would be a test flight; it seems unlikely they would have other aircraft on the deck anywhere near the F-35 during test flights (as opposed to ordinary operational flights). ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/16 "2010-12-08T14:52:21Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > In addition to **Ravenman’s** hints, notice the health/speed/ammo indicator gauges at the bottom of the screen. > . I didn’t even notice those. :o ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/17 "2010-12-08T15:10:07Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > [video here.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eQb02O2CG9w) In addition to **Ravenman’s** hints, notice the health/speed/ammo indicator gauges at the bottom of the screen. > > Also, given that [it’s not yet operational](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II), the flight in the video would be a test flight; it seems unlikely they would have other aircraft on the deck anywhere near the F-35 during test flights (as opposed to ordinary operational flights). Also note that the extremely flexible rotor blades of the parked helicopter don’t move or quiver by the slightest amount - not even a single camera pixel - despite the _massive_ jet blast that would be spreading out from beneath the nearby F-35. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/18 "2010-12-08T15:37:46Z")
Sometimes, [even Chinook pilots screw up](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8jJls6Wujo&feature=related). While searching for this one I came across several others that were very cool. Try searching youtube for “chinook water landing”. ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/19 "2010-12-08T15:53:22Z")
> [@UncleRojelio](#): > > Sometimes, [even Chinook pilots screw up](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8jJls6Wujo&feature=related). > > While searching for this one I came across several others that were very cool. Try searching youtube for “chinook water landing”. That sucks. His left rear wheel got caught in the netting at the edge of the deck, transforming a liftoff into a rollover. ☹ “Chinook water landing” gets another sim video, but “chinook water extraction” [gets you something far cooler.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7rqcKFcaBI)🆒 ---
**Author:** ![Ravenman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ravenman/32/2929_2.png) [@Ravenman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ravenman)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2010, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210/20 "2010-12-08T18:08:20Z")
> [@UncleRojelio](#): > > Sometimes, [even Chinook pilots screw up](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8jJls6Wujo&feature=related). I like this one. No screw ups here. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/ISvmLcJ3atA/hqdefault.jpg "Chinook recovery of Navy Seal Team") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISvmLcJ3atA) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/extreme-chinook-helicopter-landing/563210.md?page=2)