NRALIFR

I spent some time recently going through my old photo albums, and some photographs I inherited from my parents looking for pictures from my time in the Air Force, and I actually found a few of 797. I thought I would post them on this topic since that was the reason I originally posted here in the first place. Just to remind you all, CH-3E 65-12797 is the helicopter that is now in the Sullenberger Aviation Museum’s aircraft collection. So, finding any historical images of it is of great interest to me personally, and could be of interest to the museum as well. All of the rel

Great article, Dutch! Thanks! Kevin

Rob, I’ve been enjoying reviewing the AQM-34 section of your homepage. I noticed in the serial listing on the MARS-equiped CH-3E page another tail number I recognized. 66-13285 was at Tyndall AFB when I arrived there in 1978. I also remember it being transferred to Keflavik Iceland in about 1979. I actually have a few pictures of 285 that I took at an on-base air show. 285 was one of the HH-3E rescue helicopters we had. It was never a MARS bird as far as I know. The guy in civilian clothes was a maintenance buddy of mine. We were off-duty at the time. T

Thanks Rob, I appreciate you providing links to those videos. Those are quite interesting. I have to admit that prior to posting on this forum, I wasn’t aware that the CH-37 was ever used for MARS missions. Those were way before my time in the USAF. Learning about the earliest years of mid-air retrieval has been fascinating. Cheers! Kevin

Thank you LD! Those are in fact all MARS drone recovery birds. On the two from DM, you can clearly see the fairlead “bulge” in the center of the bottom hull. Like the helicopter and MARS winch, the fairlead bulge design changed over the years and became bigger than the earlier generations. You can also see the nose wheel deflector plate on both of them. The picture of 12800 is actually taken at Tyndall AFB, FL where I was assigned for almost 4 years. Detachment 5, 39th ARRS. When I was just a newbie fresh out of helicopter tech school in 1978, I was first assigned to the fou

Ahhh, I get it now. I initially thought these were perhaps from your personal collection. But if I understand correctly, they are all from the Ryan files that can be accessed from the SDAM website, correct? If that’s the case I can just pass along a link to the Sullenberger museum staff., and include some of the images you posted. That’s perfect actually. I spent just a very few minutes doing some simple searching the archives myself, and one of the first links I got was to a YouTube video that IMHO is one of the best video descriptions of the MARS program I have ever seen. Despite t

Ahhh, I get it now. I initially thought these were perhaps from your personal collection. But if I understand correctly, they are all from the Ryan files that can be accessed from the SDAM website, correct? If that’s the case I can just pass along a link to the Sullenberger museum staff., and include some of the images you posted. That’s perfect actually. I spent just a very few minutes doing some simple searching the archives myself, and one of the first links I got was to a YouTube video that IMHO is one of the best video descriptions of the MARS program I have ever seen. Despite t

Awesome! Those are all new to me except for the third one. Thank you for posting those! Kevin

LD- The first pic is of 39690, which was in fact a MARS bird. They didn’t always leave the catch poles hanging out the back after a drone catch. But, the absence of a rear loading ramp, the way the drone is suspended from a single line, and the slight bulge visible on the bottom hull around where the cable is going through the bottom identified it to me as a MARS bird. All the MARS birds had a ~2 ft x 2ft well through the bottom of the aircraft that had a fairlead roller at the bottom and top of the well to guide the cable up to the MARS winch inside the cabin. The bot

LD, thank you for looking through your photos for me. If you do happen to come across anything later, remember that my email address is in my first post. Andy, those are great links you provided. I actually found both the rotorheadsrus and criticalpast sites a few years back when I first started looking for information about the helicopters I used to work on. It’s amazing what you can dig up on the web about a specific aircraft if you can remember the tail number. The rotorheadsrus site was actually how I learned of the 20th Helicopter Squadron and the Buffalo Hunters. I had never he

Greetings helicopter modelers. I’m not a modeler myself, but I found this topic while searching for some historical information about a specific USAF CH-3E helicopter. The helicopter’s tail number is 65-12797, and I worked on it at Tyndall AFB from 1978-1981 when I was enlisted in the Air Force. I hope it’s OK if I post on this old topic, as there appear to be a few members contributing to it of the correct “vintage” and background to have possibly encountered this helicopter in their past. I was unable to get registered as a forum member, so I couldn’t open a new topic. Edi