Mr. HUSKIE
When
I was very young, an early “Hiller” helicopter came to apply insecticides to
the bean field on our family farm in rural western Oregon. This was shortly after WW2 when helicopters
were new and few. I remember awaiting
its arrival with great anticipation.
When it finally arrived the pilot landed near the bean field where I got
a close look at it while my dad and uncle helped load the side hoppers with the
bags of insecticide. The pilot
maneuvered this strange, fascinating and very functional flying machine back
and forth across the field and over the power lines with the greatest of ease. All too soon the job was finished and the
little Hiller headed back to its home base.
I remember standing there, watching and listening to its unique sound
until it was out of sight. So began my fascination with helicopters.
More
then a decade and a half would pass before I had the opportunity to become a
helicopter pilot, courtesy of the USAF.
I enjoyed the helicopter training at Stead and especially liked the
H-21. I really wanted to stay at Stead
as an instructor or go to Alaska and fly the H-21, but neither was to be, our
class got named assignments, no “pick and choose” based on class standing as
had been the custom. My assignment was
to Brookley AFB, Alabama; a base that I didn’t even know existed. I would be
flying this strange new Kaman H-43. I
didn’t want to live in South East US and I didn’t want to sit on alert, I just
wanted to fly. I arrived there without
having even sat in a Husky. H-43
transition training was done by the LBR instructor pilots, then back to Stead
for the H-43 transition course later. Most of the “real” missions were civilian
rescue or support, such as the Martin Luther King Peace March. Just over a year there and it was off to Ubon
AB, Thailand where we did the strip alert, mostly at night for the F-4's (no
out of country missions). That was a
long year. Then back to Luke AFB, AZ. Good
assignment, good flying, some “med-evac” missions supporting the Havasupai
Indian Tribe in the Grand Canyon, We also did some miscellaneous civilian
support flying and a lot of scrambles for the fighters at Luke and trips to the
gunnery range. I passed the 1000 hour
mark in H-43 on a VIP mission, my passenger in the co-pilot seat was US
Secretary of the Interior, Stuart Udall. A short time later I separated from
the Air Force to become an Airline pilot.
That was all well and good until the recession of the 1969-1970, when I
was furloughed
As
luck would have it another pilot and friend with the same airline was
furloughed just before me and he had contacts with a new company, Command
Helicopters of Medford, Oregon. Command
was operating surplus H-43A’s, HUK’s and HOK’s KAMAN helicopters and they
needed a couple more pilots for the fire season of 1970. I got checked out in all three models and on
the fine art of water pick ups and drops using short cable water buckets. The cables were less then 4 feet long which
resulted in a hover height of less than two feet above the water while filling
the bucket.
I
worked out of Sedro Woolley, Washington for two fire seasons, my territory, the
North Cascades and the San Juan Islands.
That first summer was fairly busy with a lot of fires. As soon as fire season was over we got right
into spreading fertilizer on the tree farms of Northwestern Washington State. The old Kaman’s did a real commendable job;
they carried a descent load and took the punishment fairly well. They stayed in the woods until the jobs were
finished. We just added fuel, changed the engine oil often and kept the vital
parts well greased and would go day after day like that. We were making full power lift off’s and
climb outs every 3 or 4 minutes. Pratt
and Whitney made very good engines.
After 2 years of this seasonal work I returned to my airline
career. A couple years later Command
helicopters shut down and the old piston powered Kamans more or less
disappeared.
Now
fast forward to the Spring and Summer of 2003.
I became interested in the status of the remaining civil H-43B/F's. I found that there were 5 or 6 still active,
in Northern Idaho and one in McMinnville, Oregon, just a short distance from my
home. Some phone contacts were made and
my interest heated up. Just before flying to Northern Idaho with a bunch of
touring airplanes in July 2003 I made contact with one of the H-43 operators
with the thought of maybe being able to arrange a short visit with him. As luck would have it he was operating his
Huskie in a logging operation only about 5 or 6 miles from one of our over
night stops. He seemed very interested
in showing his ship to me.
En-route
to the layover airstrip I flew over the area and spotted the ship sitting in a
clearing, apparently finished for the day. Then in the early evening after
getting settled in our lakefront cabin at the end of the airstrip I heard the
unmistakable sound of a turbine engine and the thrashing of those intermeshing
rotors.
It
didn’t take long to make my way down the airstrip to where it was parked and
being shut down. There it was, a real
live working H-43 wearing a very attractive paint job and an FAA registration
number. It was shinny and clean and in excellent condition nearly 30 years
after the last one made it final flight in USAF colors.
After
introductions, photos and a walk-around I was offered the opportunity to go
look at another working Huskie ‘up at the other end of the lake’. How could I possibly turn down an offer like
that?
After
settling into the right seat my host pilot started the engine and rotors and in
no time we were doing a vertical take off and climb the likes of which I had
only dreamed of. This was an ‘F’ model
minus all of its military gear and other unneeded equipment, much lighter then
the military ever flew them, now powered with a -13 engine, 1300 horse power.
It
had been over 31 years since I had flown a Kaman and nearly 36 years since I
had flown a turbine powered Kaman.
I
was given the controls and flew ‘up to the end of the lake’ where; sitting in a
large abandoned gravel pit was another beautiful Huskie resting from a day of
‘picking logs’. We landed next to it for
a quick look.
This
was very special for me because this ship was one that I had flown at Brookley
AFB, Alabama in 1964-1965. It was the
former 60-0286. This ship had
participated in the Martin Luther King Peace March. I last flew it in June 1965 when I ferried it
to McDill AFB where it would have the floatation gear fitted. I would not see it again until this visit in
the gravel pit ‘up at the end of the lake’.
The
visit ended all too soon, but now it was my turn to do the takeoff and fly back
to the airstrip where I got to make the approach and landing, and then just for
grins another liftoff and some hovering around and over some trees and another
landing (I didn’t break it or even scare any one too much, I don’t think)
The
next morning I flew my airplane ‘up to the other end of the lake’ to show my
wife Judy where old 286 was parked. We were delighted to see her in action
earning her keep ‘picking logs’ off the forest floor in a tree thinning
operation. A few minutes later we were
over the working site of the ship that I had flown the evening before and got
to see her ‘pick some logs’ too.
A
couple of days later I was treated to a tour of the shop where the old
airframes are being restored/repaired to ‘like new’ condition.
As
part of this tour I saw the hulk of 60-0261 which I last flew at Luke AFB just
the day before I separated from the Air Force in 1967. This old unrestored airframe belongs to the
same company that owns and flies 60-0286 which I saw at the ‘gravel pit’. This
was one of the highlights of my summer getting reacquainted with these two
survivors of the past. No one knows how
long these old birds can continue to fly, but it was quite apparent to me that
the operators I met with were very enthusiastic about ‘keeping them flying’.
The
H-43 based at McMinnville Oregon has been very active this summer dropping
water fighting fires in Northwest Oregon.
It has appeared in on scene TV news coverage several times. I have stopped by several times at the hanger
to visit with the owners and look at this very well maintained ship. For anyone reading this–if you are in this
area, the owners are great about showing it to interested parties, especially
old crew members. The Evergreen Museum,
which houses Howard Hughes 8 engine ‘Spruce Goose’ flying boat, is just across
the street. It’s a great place to
visit.
Now
for some name dropping; H-43 pilots I have been associated with: Herb Gates,
Nate Greene, Harve Chappell, Frank Wilton, John Flournoy, Henry Fogg, Jay
Strayer, Izzy Freedman, Joe Sprague, Ron Tubbs, Carl Layman, Gene Wallace,
Jerry Luttinger, John Paterson, Gary Beson, Mark Schiebler, Ralph Vick, Glen
Passey, Willie Wirstrom, Dave Weber, Tom Brown, Gene Graham, Louie Pottschmidt
and Bill Wall.
Jerry
VanGrunsven
Editor’s
Note: I have the unhappy duty to report that at
1600 hrs local, 21 November 2003 in Priest River, Idaho, N286M (60-0286) crashed during a Logging
Operation fatally injuring the Pilot.