THE SC SKIES ARE BUSY …
By WILL FOLKS || Moving my family out of downtown Columbia, S.C. was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made … something I’m reminded of every time I’m compelled to visit the old stomping grounds. South Carolina’s capital is increasingly a city “of thugs by thugs,” none more infamous than its mayor Steve Benjamin who was cleared of ethical wrongdoing after taking this little jaunt with a convicted felon.
Oh well …
Columbia simply isn’t safe, but then again where is “safe?”
Seriously, to hear our politicians tell it the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) isn’t just in Iraq and Syria … it’s everywhere. Ready to blow us all to smithereens.
I moved my family out of Columbia for business reasons – and because I no longer believe the downtown area is a safe place to raise a family.
Of course my recently acquired rural hacienda may not be safe either – at least not judging by the avian diversity I’ve witnessed over the last few months. I’m not talking about cardinals, wrens, hawks, turkey vultures or hummingbirds, either … or any of the other winged creatures that flitter through my woods and waters.
I’m talking about the Boeing AH-64 Apache attack helicopter that buzzed my compound this week … which I was able to photograph just before it disappeared behind a tree line.
That was the third one of the day, too.
In addition to the attack choppers, there have been a number of other military helicopter flights this week … including several higher-altitude flights by Boeing CH-47 Chinook transport helicopters.
Seriously … I knew my website wasn’t exactly on the best of terms with Boeing, but come on guys!
Kidding, kidding …
UPDATE: Well, well … looks like I mislabeled this particular chopper. Turns out this was a Bell AH-1 Cobra helicopter, not a Boeing AH-64 Apache. Thanks to FITS’ learned commenters for correcting my error!
62 comments
1/151 Aviation Regiment SCARNG burning the last of their 2104 flight hours.
And ?
And they’re now out of funds for a while so they’ll leave you alone – Fiscal year ended 30 September.
That means the money is turned “back on.” However, funding is drastically reduced from prior years.
You would think it would be turned back on but it usually takes a couple of weeks. I forbid the scheduling of any training between 15 September and 15 October for that reason.
There is truth to that. Usually, in Aviation, the money runs out earlier than the end of the FY. Additionally, flight training money can usually get turned back on fairly quickly, since flights were culled back in late August (historically)
One of my bidness associates is a pilot in the 151.
That would mean I know him/her
The Colonel’s pussyhawk has arrived, can’t believe he even made it !!!
Youse’ guys weren’t involved in that really, really big chemical dump on Alabama earlier this year? (BTW: Aluminum Oxide powder exacerbates Altzheimers … and since no one on the Joints Chiefs lives in ‘Bama, the target got designated.)
Not familiar with the event, details por favor.
June 2013: http://www.sott.net/article/262460-Unexplained-mystery-blob-on-weather-radars-over-militarys-Alabama-Redstone-Arsenal … “… military “chaff” – a substance sprayed by aircraft to produce false radar echoes designed to confuse the guidance system in attacking missiles. …” … http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x12ki38_tvcs-in-the-news-military-chaff-investigation_lifestyle … “… http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-blogs/weathermatrix/3d-radar-image-of-military-chaff/58849 … Now mostly covered up = few results from search engines (Google = no reports, but DuckDuckGo.com has several related stories cited. Reports are that the huge Aluminum Oxide chaff clouds drifted mostly into Georgia and Florida over several weeks. Reports I read at the time indicated that several air force wings dumping tons and tons were involved.
Wellll, okay – couple of problems with the story at sign of the times:
We don’t use “aluminum oxide” for chaff, we use pieces of aluminized Mylar foil or fiber. A little bit make a huge mess on commercial radar and might make a trashy mess on the ground but that’s about it. Chaff dispensed anywhere near the radar transmitter would make it totally unreliable for as long as the wind currents kept it aloft and in the right updraft, that could be hours.
(Most anti aircraft weapons that can be defeated by the aircraft themselves use heat seekers so the normal countermeasure US arcraft use is flares here’s a great picture of a C-130 demonstrating the capability: http://avioners.net/wp-content/uploads/blogger/_ja676MG45Zg/TSZH-ajsHWI/AAAAAAAAE1g/yhwa-uV0bGs/s1600/c-130-hercules-flares.jpg)
Even the SOTT story links to a story at a local news agency that says it’s no big deal. SOTT just never checked back…
http://valleywx.com/2013/06/04/mystery-blob-over-west-huntsville/
“… A little bit make a huge mess on commercial radar and might make a trashy mess on the ground but that’s about it. …”
Of course it does, otherwise the airborne military would use something else. … BUT that still does not justify The Big Dump. … A rose by any other name is still a mighty big pile of aluminum CRAP (Carbon, Radiation and Particulates).
BTW: Do you have a line on which western airbases (or wings) are departure points for the big Boeing refueling tankers that dump the high altitude CRAP just off the coast of Taxifornia in the Pacific? This has been going on for more than two years, apparently, and may be aggravating the drought …
One would hope so.
Reminds me of the same kind of “problems” here in the west: military refueling tankers need those hours and budget burn up to qualify the pilots (stick time on big Boeings = aviation jobs post military retirement), justification for flight time on the log books to qualify the airframe for “upgrades” (a $multi-Billion$ dollar military budget line item that’s gotta be spent or they lose it) … and to deliver the air dropped chemicals for chem-trail killing of global warming (because its now poli-correct). (Talk about pissing into the wind.)
Dude, you were only slightly nutty until you hit the chemtrail jackpot of tin-foil hattery. Craaaaaa-zeeee.
I guess that big Alabama military airdrop/chemical dump didn’t get any press at all in SC. … And you guys are down wind of it!
On second glance (at home on my big monitor), it’s a super cobra so it’s not from 151 Aviation
So that would be a Jarhead, unless SLED’s finally been blessed with a AH-1 or two or three, (but, I’d not expect it to come to a “red state”)
Else could be a joy ride for an unnamed JAG officer running for re-election.
Hey, I heard you can’t call them jarheads anymore… the DOD has recently confirmed you can put a brain in a jar.
At least they weren’t black helicopters. We’d start worrying about you if that were the case.
At least they weren’t black helicopters.
[looks around furtively]
*They* paint the black helicopters different colors now…
That’s a good ‘un!!!!!!!!
Be sure to pass that along to the right wing nuts on talk radio!!!!!
that section 8 project you live near ain’t safe dude…..
No. Flights are not limited to a certain area. While there is a “local flying area” (which is several hundred miles) as long as a proper flight plan is filed, you can take the aircraft wherever you want, generally.
No limits on taxpayer funded fuel, either. …
Be advised: the average payout for a g’ment owned or operated helicopter crash, rural or residential, is US$20 Million Bucks. And every slip and fall in your state is ready. … Talk about unsafe and deadly? There are no antique flying helicopters. And those g’ment choppers are all at the end of their airworthiness.
I guess that sucks for me.
The helicopter you saw today was a Marine Cobra attack helicopter. The others that you have seen belong to the SCANG and are part of their “re-deployment” to a facility in the Greenville area. That should reduce the helicopter traffic that you see. Unless the drones start to visit.
While it certainly could have been a Cobra, there is a significantly greater chance that it was an Apache. There are no Cobras stationed near here.
Yes. Cobras and Chinooks are more common over my Greenville house.
In the greater Columbia area? No, sorry. There are no Cobras “commonly” here. There is an Attack Recon Battalion (ARB) of Apaches at McEntire in Eastover, SC. That’s about a 45 minute flight +/- to the greater Greenville area.
I’m pretty sure the Cobras are not closely located near Greenville.
As for Chinooks, yes, the CH-47s recently relocated to the upstate flight facility at Donaldson Center.
Will:
You do realize the aircraft are never armed when they are doing flights such as this (state side, of course).
Never armed? Wanna bet?
What good would they be if we were attacked by giant scorpions and stuff?
The pilots carry OC, two large cans of Raid and an M9 just in case.
Will, This is weird bc I live in Greenville off of Augusta Road and yesterday there were 3 silent helicopters flying over our house. It was so weird bc you could see them but not hear them.
“I no longer believe the downtown area is a safe place to raise a family.”
The fact that you ever believed downtown Columbia was a safe place to raise a family makes me question your judgment.
That’s not an AH-64 Apache in the pic. That chopper is a twin blade (does look like a Cobra)
Apaches are 4 bladed helicopters
Confirming that the SC NG helicopter squadron is active at Donaldson Airfield in Greenville so you can expect more flying in the GSP area. I’ve already seen a few CH-46 “Shithooks” flying around.
Like the mighty C-130 hercules, they are still making the “Shithook” after a shitload of years (since mid 50’s for the Herk) The Herk has been in constant production longer than any other aircraft made in the US (and maybe the world)
**********Speaking of helicopters,Sheriff “Chuckie” Wright’s “Rolling Thunder” is still on so watch I-85 in Spartanburg County!!!!!!**********************
The CH-47s that were previously based out of McEntire have repositioned to the new upstate flight facility.
As to the picture, it does appear that the main rotor system is that of a Cobra. However, I didn’t realize that this picture was what he saw. Will likes to use stock images, or something similar.
Being in the Columbia area, if you see an attack helicopter, you have an exponentially greater chance that it is an AH-64D rather an an AH-1Z.
Betting that Sheriff Chuckie’s chopper is flying uninsured = The county is liable = “self” insured. This would put a ++$20 Million++ Dollar liability crimp in the county budget if there were an accident. There are slip n’ falls waiting for this opportunity.
I doubt it…….
Spartanburg County and the state of South Carolina “squelched’ on the Cleveland Park train tragedy so if “Chuckie’s” chopper landed on some elementary school, odds are that he would say “the max you can sue the state of South Carolina and it associated entities (i.e. Spartanburg County) is $350,000” (or whatever it is) so after that: “Too bad” PLUS you’ve got to split it up among the whole lot of you sorry SOB’s whose kids were killed or hurt when my precious helicopter crashed into your school house”
FAA and NTSB keep their own records and no matter the local “laws” the average payout, federal, state and local civil courts combined, for any helicopter crash is US$20 Million. The lowest in the last ten years, a “traffic ‘copter” in the Hudson River (New Jersey) with no one underneath, was for $6 Million to the estate of the news reporter.
The “Shithook” (Chinook) is designated CH-47. All Army helicopters except the Cobra (that we no longer fly) are named for Indian tribes (for a reason no one seems to know). The Chinook and Blackhawk are the only ones that anyone calls by their proper name, though “Shithook” is heard about half the time.
The AH-1 “Sea Cobra” or”Super Cobra” depending on the model is flown by the jarheads as is the CH-46 Sea Knight. The cobra has a 2 blade main rotor and a much thinner profile. The Sea Knight is about 4/5s the size of the Chinook.
So I missed a digit. You know what i was talking about
Besides what’s this “We” shit
Are you rated?
Nope, not rated, closest I got was crew chief on a Shithook as a specialist for about six months and a job as the S-3 air as a 1st lieutenant for about the same length of time. That was the plurals of majesty “we”, as in “we are not amused”.
I crewed on OH-58’s back in ’73 for a bit (1/17th Cav-82nd Abn)
We had Hueys for utility, Kiowas for scouts and Cobras for killing.
The Cobra was a baaaaaaaaddddd bird.
I love how anything aviation brings out the desk pilots spewing out their knowledge that nobody asked for.
I’ve been accused of being a vast storehouse of trivial knowledge – you’re welcome.
That is a Cobra…..not an Apache. The Chinooks you thought you saw were probably CH-46 Sea Knights…….I’d bet the Marines are doing training in your area.
@FITS – good for you. I HATE living in the city limits of Columbia. The mayor/government is corrupt to the core. Property taxes must dramatically increase to support the Bull St Project. And the Columbia Police are a joke. Just drive through Five Points at 11:30pm on a Sat. night and see all the young black men dressed like gangstas. And you will also see pairs of CPD stationed at every street corner chatting it up with each other, oblivious to there surroundings.
Having close proximity to Benning, Pope, Parris Island, Bragg, Cherry Point, Sumter and Jackson may be a strong point. Our little FEMA Zone IV could very well become Sparta if push comes to shove and allegiance to our Constitution prevails no matter what. I suggest SC lavish praise and hold annual parades for the folks based in our state.
We had Apache’s buzzing around NE Columbia and Western Kershaw County today. Had 3 make a couple of low maneuvers over the Elgin compound and forested are and the adjoining pasture land.
PRO TIP:
In the old days if you irritated the “Powers That Be”…they would bust you for cocaine possession/distribution, costing you your job and 10 months of freedom.
Now they send attack choppers.
Ravenel must be bringing all of his military expertise to bear as your aircraft spotter too…that’s no Apache. It’s not a great pic, but grey paint and two rotor blades generally means Cobra, not Apache. Minor detail, I know…
Sic has a compound? Only thought those existed overseas and in the rich peoples area.
called “W” good for verruca et al.
Probably an acre next to swampland, or he is staying in touch with Andre and/or T-Rav.
If you’ve moved out by McEntire, the Army National Guard’s aviation assets were there first, tho SC IS within Ft. Stewart’s training area of operations, ditto MCAS Beaufort, NAS Jacksonville and NAS Penisacola…
Anybody who willfully lives in the Midlands must love heat AND humidity. There is a breeze in the Lowcountry, and the Upstate is legendary for its moderate temperatures and aridity. Slime, flying things, ill humours live in humidity.
Did anyone notice the freeze warnings for western SC hill country tonight?