Palmer and Joice are pulling equipment out of the avionics closet. Just about anything that isn't used on a F model and that we can use here is coming off. We figure it is a whole lot better than just crushing it all.
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OK...I have some questions: When I first read your comments I thought "F" model was military speech for "junked"..not longer servicable. But now I think I am wrong. There is a model F Chinook? The parts that are crushed...can these be described without a list? Are the crushed parts mainly what would be described as the "body" if the Chinook were a car? And what about the parts that you (meaning everyone) have removed? Is there a tracking system that allows you as a maintenance pilot to know, using a dumb example out of my ignorance, (: "windshield wipers, used, replaced 4/3/08"? Does the military ever sell its helicopters (like the Forest Service used to sell its fleet of used vehicles) at public auction?
The Chinook we are currently flying is the D model. Most of these were converted from C models in the mid-late 80s and early 90s. As a result a lot of the airframes are over 20 years old, in addition to all the wiring (which gives us most of our problems). With the new F models that are coming out (a couple of units already have them) we are getting brand new airframes but they are reusing the drive components (transmissions, engines, blades ect). So 081 will have these components removed and the rest of the aircraft will be crushed. The parts we remove are added to our supply of parts here to be used as needed. That saves us from ordering new ones. The military does sell its helicopters but as you can imagine there are all kinds of restrictions. The last time they did that on a large scale was when they got rid of all the Hueys. A lot of them were sold to police departments, border patrol and the like. With a Chinook it is a different story. There are so few of them (relatively) that everything about them is more expensive so no one can afford to operate them and it is too much aircraft for most uses.
By the way, every time anybody writes a comment on the blog I get an email telling me where it is, so you can post a comment on any entry and be assured that I will read it :)
Just watched a NG chinook fly over abt 1M'. Hope you don't look so BIG & slooow flying around Iraq. Thanks for the info abt your ships - interesting. Cheers!! ART
Isn't a C47 a Boeing built & don't they use them a lot in civilian activities, i.e. logging? ART
Dad,
A CH-47 is built by Boeing but the actual civilian usage is relatively limited due to their expense. Columbia helicopters is the biggest user of Chinooks on the civilian side and I'm not sure of the exact numbers but they don't run more than 20 or so.
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