NZFF

Swift Eagle was a 4 week deployment to Townsville for 3 Squadron .
We Took 4 Huey's - The trip over for them was in the back of an Aussie C-17. Swift Eagle involved over 3500 military personel.
For 3 Sqn we had 3 weeks at townsville and one week in the field under canvas.
We were all glad to get home by the end of it.

Heres a few photos.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10


A few more can be seen - http://s254.photobucket.com/albums/hh92/Tr...t%20Eagle%2008/

Trev

That last shot is amazing- any chance you could send me a high-res version for a new desktop background?

Trolly wrote:

QUOTE (Trolly @ Nov 23 2008, 04:20 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That last shot is amazing- any chance you could send me a high-res version for a new desktop background?

PM me your e-mail address and I'll send a copy. Its a 5MB file.

Trev

Nice shots - no Eurocopter Tigers?

I think the army tigers are based in Oakey. Theres only Blackhawks, Chinooks, Kiowas and one MRH-90 at Townsville.

I would have liked to had a look around a tiger.

Thanks for that excellent series, Trev.
Look at that machinegunner...most people walk in under rotor blades, in a crouch.
Not him, mate. He stands up...on the doorsill of the Huey!

Charl wrote:

QUOTE (Charl @ Nov 23 2008, 06:00 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for that excellent series, Trev.
Look at that machinegunner...most people walk in under rotor blades, in a crouch.
Not him, mate. He stands up...on the doorsill of the Huey!

Day missions are usually flown with one crewwman/gunner hence having to stand up to get a good look around, plus possibly showing off for the camera

Chap in the back of the Chinook looks a happy camper nothing to do just enjoy the sites , be twenty years now the RAAF have operated the Blackhawk .
Great pic s

The Aussie helicopter crewman on the blackhawks and Chinooks wear a face sheild that attaches to thier helmets.



It makes them look more like a storm trooper.

In Timor they had to take them off before getting out of the helicopters , because they kept scaring all the village children.

The face sheilds do work tho. I heard a story where a load tie down chain snapped. It whipped back and hit the crewman in the face. If he hadnt been wearing the face sheild, he would have almost certainly broken his jaw or worse.

Now that our crewman have seen them they want them as well, but they wont fit our helmets, much to their disgust.

Trev

Trev wrote:

QUOTE (Trev @ Nov 24 2008, 05:25 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

The Aussie helicopter crewman on the blackhawks and Chinooks wear a face sheild that attaches to thier helmets.



It makes them look more like a storm trooper.

In Timor they had to take them off before getting out of the helicopters , because they kept scaring all the village children.

The face sheilds do work tho. I heard a story where a load tie down chain snapped. It whipped back and hit the crewman in the face. If he hadnt been wearing the face sheild, he would have almost certainly broken his jaw or worse.

Now that our crewman have seen them they want them as well, but they wont fit our helmets, much to their disgust.

Trev

on our budget though im sure duct-tape and cut-up ice cream containers would do fine!

pic #4 looks awesome. it would make a good website banner!

#8 and #10 are my favourites

Pic #4 'All units...Irene.'