Flying with Big Windy

Found this article of a reporter's recent ride with Big Windy in Afghanistan:

Before noon someone decided the weather was clear enough to fly, and one of the flight crew machine gunners gave us a quick safety briefing.

It was full of gems: "If we crash – but, hey, we’re not going to crash," was one of my favorites. But if we did crash, we were supposed to stay in the chopper "until everything quits moving" – unless it was on fire, in which case we were supposed to get out right away. And he also gave us some advice on the best way to avoid running out of a crashed helicopter and into a mine field, but I got distracted watching a crew prepare the Apache gunship that would escort us, and I didn’t catch all of that part. (Hey, he said we weren’t going to crash.)

Roy writes of another ride here.

The article has a few pics and he also has a photo archive, where I found some more Chinook pics:
The Baghdaddy Baller
A close-up of the Baghdaddy Baller
View from Chinook cockpit of other copters (notice the teddy bear mascot?)
View out the rear door of Chinook






Always love seeing those guys in the news!