The United States Coast Guard was founded in 1915 as a branch of the U.S. Armed Forces. Recently, we got to meet some of the people behind their helicopter wing (no pun intended) to see how it all works.
Stats About the Chopper
Before we dive into the nitty-gritty of how the U.S. Coast Guard works and got started, for all of you helicopter fans out there, here is a little more information about the aircraft itself. The featured aircraft that we got to see at Flite Fest South was a Eurocopter HH-65 Dolphin. This is a twin-engine, single rotor helicopter.
- Crew: 2 pilots and 2 crew
- Length: 11.6 m (38 ft 1 in)
- Height: 4 m (13 ft 1 in)
- Empty weight: 3,128 kg (6,896 lb)
- Max takeoff weight: 4,300 kg (9,480 lb)
- Powerplant: 2 × Turbomeca Arriel 2C2-CG turboshaft engines, 636 kW (853 hp) each
- Main rotor diameter: 11.9 m (39 ft 1 in)
- Main rotor area: 38.54 m2 (414.8 sq ft)
Performance
- Maximum speed: 333 km/h; 207 mph (180 kn)
- Range: 658 km (409 mi; 355 nmi)
- Service ceiling: 5,486 m (17,999 ft)
About the Organisation
As mentioned, the U.S. Coast Guard began in 1915, but, as they had yet to be invented or indeed proved as capable flying machines, there wasn't a helicopter rescue branch of the organization. At that time, it mostly used seacraft.
The organisation uses a lot of different flying machines to help it with its many roles. Currently, the Coast Guard operates approximately 204 aircraft from 24 bases around the United States.
In addition to rescuing people, the Coast Guard is responsible for intercepting smuggling vessels among other roles.
For these varying tasks, they fixed-wing aircraft such as the Hercules, Super Hercules and HC-144 Ocean Sentry.
How a Rescue Operation Goes Down
Conditions can vary but can often be extremely poor for rescue operations. As you can imagine, it's more likely for a vessel to get into difficulties in bad weather for example. This would mean that the helicopter crew could be called out in the midst of a storm. This means that the crew has to deal with rain, high winds and poor visibility.
They could also be called out at the dead of night. This is especially challenging when there is no natural light reflecting from the moon or there is, again, a storm. We really have to give these teams a ton of respect for the conditions they have to fly in. Leshana explained how she keeps the horizon, gauges and reference points in a continuous cycle in order for her to keep the helicopter stable and over the individual in the water or on the vessel.
Technology can help to hold the helicopter in a hover at the danger zone. One of the panels contained the controls for activating a radar-assisted computer system that automatically holds the craft at the right altitude. This is called the 'Hover Augmentation'. As Leshana said, this helps to eliminate one of the elements that she has to think about meaning that she can focus more on the other tasks.
Many thanks to the U.S. Coast Guard for paying us a visit at Flite Fest South last year. It's great to share the details of the extremely admirable job that these people do on a day-to-day basis. If you'd like to know more, follow the links below.
Further Resources to Check out!
United States Coast Gaurd Website
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Article by James Whomsley
FliteTest.com Editor
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