Funky Surplus Helicopter seen

I see plenty of milspec rotary wing AC in transit over home and work, being adjacent to a SOCOM base will provide that entertainment.

A few odd occasions included an AH64 Apache dipping down into my meadow one afternoon maybe 8 yrs ago. I was out in the front yard when it set in, and I came to attn & saluted the crew, who returned it by dipping the nose, and then they showly creeped off. (Was like Hell Yeah! :us: ) Another time at the old AAF Maxton, an Aerospitale gunship set in, and the pilot came over to STS with the mechanics at an AC boneyard out there. It was a DoE AC. Don't piss em off at the local power plant whatever ya do. I even got to see a flight of AH6 fly over the meadow last summer... those are rare and elusive little birds, usually nocturnal. Nothing too odd though, if ya live near an AAF or an AFB.

The other day at work I heard that distinctive rotor thomp, so went out to peek and I saw a CH46/47? painted red, white & blue flying over. Very wierd, as I didn't think we surplussed any of those (unlike the UH1 )

Anyone else see any funky (ex?)mil AC in their doings? (besides the surplus UH1s, restored fixed wings at airshows, demilled stuff like C- and PBY- in private or corporate hands etc...)

I have seen a CH-47 doing lifting duty here. They put the AC unit on top of the new high school with it.

Not necessarily mil-spec, but I live about 10 miles (line-of-site/flight) from the main Sikorsky factory, and I'm under the flight path for testing forays. I see all sorts of interesting stuff fly over, from the little whizzers to the ones whose rotors really go WHUMPA - WHUMPA when they fly over.

Man, I hated the CH-47s. I know the crews will tell ya the oild dripping everywhere is normal. Ok, maybe on a Harley... but not something that flies. They always worried me.

Glenn- those old birds are just like our jeeps " if it stops leaking start worring"

hows this

Live by Wright-Pat in the late 80's, remember seeing an SR71 once. It took off during the daytime, think it was for some sort of ceremony or something.

Live by the Air Force Academy now. There's flyovers for every home football game, and during the summer for the incommming freshman's training. One time I was at a football game and they had a B2 with a pair of F117's flyover right as the National Anthem was over. They couldn't have timed it more perfectly.

Got a dentist here in allentown that has a korean war vintage Navy Panther jet that I'd see every once in a while. My dads boss bought a P51 and the first time out while waiting to taxi out he blipped the throttle, the mustang nearly flipped over, scared him so bad he sold it and went back to his beach barrons...

I saw quite a few Chinooks in Heli-logging outfits when I worked for the Forest Service. Outfits like Columbia fly 'em. With a full load of logs in a steep canyon it sounds like they're tearing the very air apart!
One time out duck hunting I saw and SR-71 take off out of Beale AFB. Spooky! That thing had some getty-up-and-go!
Saw a gutted Catalina in a boneyard in Anchorage. Haven't seen one fitted out and flying.
And one time, at band camp...

The best PBY I've seen is on display at the air museum in San Diego's Balboa park. I've seen a few working PBY's back in the 70's at some of the islands we visited during a westpac. Beautiful aircraft IMO.