How high did you fly in a CH-46

[beddoe]

During dinner with a couple VMM-263 Marines, the question came up about what's the highest a CH-46 has flown. (anyone higher than 12,000 feet?)

I told them I would have to post the question to the membership and see what the stories are. With this group, the first liar doesn't stand a chance...

[Jack S. Warner]

Got an H-34 up to 12,500 ft. over the Grand Canyon. Wouldn't go any higher.
Air got pretty thin and no oxygen.

HMM561 with Bob McIlvain as my wingman.

46 should go a little higher, never tried.

[Joe Reed]

I seem to remember high altitudes over Khe Sanh in early 1968...8,000-8,500 sounds about right. I remember the HAC "wiggling" the cyclic and the A/C kind of "shuddering" as a response. These were CH-46A's and that's all they had, as I recall.....

[accs]

[SIZE="3"]I confess, I wasn't with Jack, but I recall a time or two well over 10,000 and up to about 12,500...on really hot days and you weren't in a hurry, it took a while to get there but what a cooling off..... and yes the trusty old Dog 34 [/SIZE]

[John Ace Hunt]

I'll take the 1st snicker. It was about the 15th of June'69, give or take a few days. Just after we extracted the 9th MAB out of the field, and onto the Iwo-Jima, the Batallion C.O., a Col. Doty had a Staff meeting in Quangtri. When he would fly he chose my Bird,EP-14 to fly in. The Bird had just came back from O&R in Japan and had the Sigma tail on it. I also had droopsnoops, and it would also take the -10 engines as the compartments had been modified to take them. We got the Col. to his meeting, and since it was a very hot day, we decided we would see what the Bird would do. We were just nortneast of the Base and started our spiral upwards. We kept going and going. After a bit I went to the cabin to see what the altitude was and both left seat and the HAC were smiling to beat 60. I looked at the altimeter and it read 14,426 feet AGL, and still slowly climbing. The controls were still strong and could have gotten a bit more altitude except at that point we were beginning to see a few spots. The HAC decided we would start our decent at that point and we did. We landed, picked the Col. up and flew back south to the Iwo-Jima. That is a Fact. Ace.

[pm3777]

Held the world Altitude record years ago. As I recall it was small number over 33,000 ft. It was all turbines with a light load! Some could probably verify that as the official record someplace. SF PM

[Norm Urban]

World-Class Helicopter Records
Selected records. Source: National Aeronautic Association

* Great Circle Distance Without Landing
* International: 2,213.04 mi; 3,561.55 km.
* Robert G. Ferry (U.S.) in Hughes YOH-6A helicopter powered by Allison T-63-A-5 engine; from Culver City, Calif., to Ormond Beach, Fla., April 6–7, 1966.

* Distance, Closed Circuit Without Landing
* International: 1,739.96 mi; 2,800.20 km.
* Jack Schweibold (U.S.) in Hughes YOH-6A helicopter powered by Allison T-63-A-5 engine; Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., March 26, 1966.

* Altitude without Payload
* International: 40,820 ft; 12,442 m.
* Jean Boulet (France) in Alouette SA 315-001 Lama powered by Artouste IIIB 735 KW engine; Istres, France, June 21, 1972.

* Speed around the World, Eastbound
* 40.99 mph; 65.97 kph.
* Joe Ronald Bower (U.S.) pilot, in Bell JetRanger III, powered by one Allison 250-C20J (317 shp), covered 23,800 mi in 24 days, 4 hr., 36 min. June 28–July 22, 1994.

* Speed around the World, Westbound
* 57.01 mph; 91.75 kph.
* Joe Ronald Bower (U.S.) pilot, John W. Williams (U.S.), co-pilot in Bell 430 powered by 2 Allison 250–C40, (811 shp), Aug. 17–Sept. 3, 1996.

[pm3777]

Was prior to the French record as I recall it was back in the late 60 ies when the Crane came into the field as in Vietnam. I know it was in that time frame as I was working for Sikorsky when that info came out in our publications.SF PM

[Wayne Stafford]

January 1969 on the way back from Alameda to LTA an HMM-265 bird went to 12,500 over Yosemite. As I remember, the T-5s were high and controls sloppy.

Wayne Stafford

[Belatti]

In 1970 with HMM-365 out of New River headed for a Med Cruise at a port visit in San Juan, we received special orders to go to Peru to assist in the Earthquake disaster relief effort. Once we arrived, we had to fly over the first Peruvian Andes Range to get into the areas where aid was needed. To clear that first range, we took portable oxygen canisters with mask and I have Super 8 mm footage of the altimeter of the bird that Vinnie Gennaro and I were in at 18,000+ feet msl. Controls were very sloopy to say the least. When landing at the higher altitudes (anything above 8,000 feet), we had to plan our departure prior to touch down. Sort of like hopping over to the edge of a drop off and then let the turns build to gain transitional lift. A bit hairy, but the CH-46's held together and we were able to write the upper flight characteristics and altitude charts for later version of the 46 NATOPS manual.

[mecollins]

Been following these stories with great interest since Wally first posted it.
As an old "A" model raggie,I gotta say that they've ALL had a serious effect on my "pucker" factor accompanied by a few heart palpitations.
My last physical & blood work was done in June with pretty good numbers for
a "young kid" of 64 yrs.
So bring it on !!! I can hack it.Ha.Ha.
S/F Mike "Craze" Collins

[Jim Wissmar]

Here is a no shit story that many of you won't believe. The pilot was Ron Balbey in an A mod. The copilot I don't remember, the time frame had to be sometime in 1966, off the coast of LTA. Now anyone who knew Ron would attest to his ability. Ron decided he wanted to see how high he could get a 46. It seemed like it took us forever to there, but I did see the altimeter read 14,000.

Semper Fi Wizzy

[beddoe]

How about over Mt Fuji in Japan in 1957 in 2 H-19's/HRS-3's. Here are pictures to prove.

[Dale A Riley]

1967 with HMX-1 in an old A model we took a load of 14 skydivers to a shuttering 13,000 and I kind of wished I had a chute on myself that day

[jdullighan]

When I was stationed with HC-3, NAS Imperial Beach, California. we would take Navy Seals up to 14,000 feet, so they could jump out. They liked to do things like that. Occasionaly we would go higher, I saw 16,000 but the airplane felt lousy, so we didn't do that again.

Why did the Navy birds get higher easier.

1. much lower temperatures.
2. Navy airplanes have a much easier life that the Marine Corps, lower flight hours, routinely hangered. HC-3 used to wax polish theirs!!!!

John Dullighan

[Joe Reed]

John said:

When I was stationed with HC-3, NAS Imperial Beach, California.

Don't worry John, your secret is safe with us!!

[Joe Hanner]

Joined HMM-162 after flight school [ Aug-Oct 66 ] for H2P prior to WestPac. Flew right seat on one hop with squadron CO. After preliminary work he wanted to see how high we could get. He got us up to around 13,000 and she was struggling. Took a long time to come back down and had to add power 3-4 times to keep cylinder head temp up. Late 68 joined HMM-365 at New River [ had the new F model 46]. Skipper had two birds rigged with oxygen bottles,masks, etc to try for alt record. Don't remember pilots name but they went off somewhere and got to around 30,000 [ lot of other training going on and Carib cruise prep so the alt try didn't get much attention ]. That's the best I can remember and will plead temporary senility to anything else. Joe H.

[thomas.zuppke]

We were really bored one day and took a CH-53 up to 22k, smack dab over the field @ MCAS New River...one of our crew, that smoked tobacco and perhaps was @ happy hour the day before... started getting the "heebie-jeebies" and then I learned that one cannot just do an auto from such an altitude...so we had to take it a lot slower than it took to get up there...years later, in Korea, we took an Army "jump team" up to 20k but got them off fast, so we didn't have to linger...In HI we did the same thing...20k...then decended as fast as we were allowed...and had to turn med-e-vac, as some of the jumpers got hurt...later on, when one of the phrog crashed on Mauna Loa @ 14 k, several of their birds went up there to investigate, and found out that w/o supplemental 02, NATOPS did not approve...

The bottom line to all this, is...it's not that the A/C model can do it...it's the pilots and crew, as anything over 12k can cause HUMAN problems, not necessarily A/C problems...

Hooper...college of hard knocks.

[thomas.zuppke]

When the CH 54 Skycrane set the altitude record for forward flight (~90 knots) it was actually progressing "BACKWARDS" over the ground...due to the winds, etal...
Hooper