 Bittersweet 50th anniversary for Canada's Sea King helicopters Canadian helicopter pilots have been flying Sea Kings for 50 years, a testament both to the talents of those who have been operating and maintaining the old aircraft and to a series of governments that has been trying and failing to replace them since at Commentsview comments in forum Page 1 2 You need to be a member of CKA and be logged into the site, to comment on news. |
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"Flying Yesterday's Aircraft Tomorrow" is damn accurate.
We, the taxpayers of this country, should be deeply ashamed of ourselves.
Why? I am not ashamed, because if I made the buying decisions they'd have the best kit available to them.
It is a testament to the mechanics who keep those birds in the air. Last I heard they took 4 hours to maintian for every 1 hour in the air. That's a lot of wrenching.
I will never forget or forgive crooked face for this mess....
Ditto ... cynical old bastward.
... because we elect this clown show ...
If defending our shores were a priority of our populace, these would be election issues.
It doesn't seem to matter much which party is in power, either. Unless there is some traction among the electorate for defence issues, they will never come up and the forces will be stuck with making bricks without straw ... over and over. It's the royal "we" who are to blame in this country.
Last I heard they took 4 hours to maintian for every 1 hour in the air. That's a lot of wrenching.
Actually, if you wish to believe a CBC report from 2006, it's 30 maintenance hours to each flight hour.
Having been an aircraft maintainer, I would suspect the actual number is quite a bit higher for this particular airframe for a multiple of reasons of which age, scarcity of parts and need to train younger techs being prime factors.
When we got rid of our first batch of Chinooks, one of the reasons bandied about for ditching them was the 33 to 1 ratio and the beancounters thought that was too much. Of course, that was just hangar floor scuttlebutt.
Meanwhile in the USA we're still flying B-52 bombers that are older than the fathers of many of their current pilots. And the B-52 may well end up being the first military aircraft to stay in service for 80 years when it is finally and completely retired.
They do a very good job though, They are a credit to Curtis LeMay.
Meanwhile in the USA we're still flying B-52 bombers that are older than the fathers of many of their current pilots. And the B-52 may well end up being the first military aircraft to stay in service for 80 years when it is finally and completely retired.
They do a very good job though, They are a credit to Curtis LeMay.
Correction on what I said there: The B-52 has been officially extended into the 2040's - given that it first flew in 1952 that'll make it the first NINETY year old airframe in service.
True, they're workhorses, but it's bloody well time to replace them!!!
Meanwhile in the USA we're still flying B-52 bombers that are older than the fathers of many of their current pilots. And the B-52 may well end up being the first military aircraft to stay in service for 80 years when it is finally and completely retired.
I was thinking that very same thought, yesterday.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4MbCu_Y ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ggy1CGmE ... re=related
I will never forget or forgive crooked face for this mess....
In fairness, it was a campaign promise - and one of the few he kept.
I didn't like the decision either, but had Mulroney not screwed the pooch while he was in office, we would already have had them and there wouldn't have been a damned thing Chretien could do about it.
Further, if the DND had been willing to accept a smaller helicopter (like say the NH-90), we'd already have them and for far less too. I seriously question the need for such big helicopters AFTER the Cold War has ended and the threat of submarine attacks are so low.