Flying on Blackhawks

originally posted 06 NOV 2014

One of the best parts of my job in the military was having the opportunity to fly numerous times on Blackhawk helicopters. Perhaps my shared memories are one of the reasons my son hopes to fly Blackhawks one day. Not sure how I feel about that but that is likely another bubble for another time.
A couple specific memories come to mind.

One of the first times I was flying on one, the pilots knew it. We had our headphones on so we could hear everything they were saying up front. At one point, I heard, "Do you have the key?" along with the response, "No, I thought you had it!" Of course, a few of us were listening attentively by that point. Then, I heard something like "Uh oh!" and we dropped suddenly. Of course, that was them just having fun with the newbies. Later on, when I'd flown quite a bit more, I learned to ignore the hi-jinks.

Another time, we were flying in a massive storm. We couldn't see anything, it was pouring rain and dark out. I wasn't overly concerned but I looked over to a chaplain who was with us and you could see him praying with tears on his cheeks. I remember thinking, "Oh no, this is it. We're going down!" We were fine though. Never did find out why he was was crying.

I also have memories of flying nap-of-the-earth where, with the back doors wide open and us strapped in, we flew very close to the ground for quite a while. What a ride that is.
I have even more Blackhawk memories, perhaps another day.