Coast Guard hangar tour

The largest US Coast Guard base is in Kodiak, AK.  We were given a tour of the helicopter and airplane hangars.  We learned that they have two types of helicopter here – the ‘60’ or Jayhawk, and the ‘65’ or Dolphin.  The 60 is larger and has a much larger capacity and range compared to the 65.  The 65s are able to land on the backs of the CG cutters.  Much of the search and rescue work is done by the larger 65s and using the C-130 planes.  Our guide was a (really cute) C-130 pilot.  

This is a ‘60’ J-Hawk.

A C-130:

Some random things we learned…The C-130 ‘officially’ needs 7 crew to get off the ground (think pilot, copilot, engineer(s), and I don’t remember the rest), though when pressed he said they could probably do it with 3 or 4 in an emergency.  These aren’t your automated commercial airliners!   

They can take off with as much as 175,000 lbs cargo, though in non-wartime situations 155,000 is the most usually authorized.  In a search and rescue mission, the back end of the plane can open up – to drop equipement or (holy crap) for harnessed crew members to lay on the open door and help visually search for their rescue targets (I’d sh*t myself, but would do it in a heartbeat!).