commgrp@silver.bacs.indiana.edu (BACS Data Communications Group) (04/18/89)
From: BACS Data Communications Group <commgrp@silver.bacs.indiana.edu>
A helicopter pilot who flies a Bell JetRanger for a coal company in
eastern Kentucky told me that he doesn't fly below the ridges for fear
of becoming entangled in open-wire television feedline. It looks like
tiny rope-ladder for squirrels; miles of it are strung to mountaintop
antennas, and across intervening valleys. Satellite dishes have made
open-wire line obsolete but lots of it is still in place.
Wire-cutter accessories are available for helicopters; a unicorn-like
horn is attached to the top center of the cockpit, along with a
reinforcing ridge along the centerline, and a shorter hornlike
projection below. There is a V-shaped cutting blade at the base of
each horn. I don't know how effective they are; I've seen them on
civilian and military helicopters.
I have heard of another hazard to low-flying helicopters in Vietnam:
Claymore mines with pull-type fuzes or improvised pull-switches were
mounted face-upward in trees along known helicopter routes. The trip-
wires were attached to other trees or branches. When rotor downwash
swayed the limbs, BOOM!
I've also heard that some F-111's in Vietnam were lost because the
enemy jammed their terrain-following radar. Either they crashed, or
the autopilots flew them up into antiaircraft fire.
--
Frank Reid W9MKV @ K9IU reidgold.bacs.indiana.edu
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