Chocorua rescue?????

Did anyone hear about a rescue on Chocorua today 2/9? Driving home from doing Pierce today, south on 16 it looked like a helicopter hovering over the summit around 2 pm.

Nothing on the F&G site. I was out Tuesday to a local CT State Park which has a small airport across the tidal estuary from the park. A Blackhawk approached the airport flying forward and came within 40 or 50 feet, maybe lower, to the ground. The pilot hen pulled the nose up hard and quickly gained several hundred feet. Seeing them either rise vertically or fly at a stable altitude, I was impressed at the maneuver. Maybe the locals in NH were practicing a common thing they might be asked to do. It would be a good place to practice hovering over bare mountain terrain without being in the middle of Presidentials or Franconia Notch. (Likely less windy too)

There are a lot of things going on. NH Army National Guard is the S&R group that operates out of Concord. They could have been on a training exercise. Peakbagger has noted in another thread that they may expand to the Berlin airport, which has been in the local press up here. In CT, Sikorsky, the manufacturer of the Blackhawk, regularly makes test flights for a number of reasons, including to just break in newly manufactured aircraft (they fly them for X hours and then the aircraft goes back to the facility for the once-over, including re-torque of everything). They come up to the Whites sometimes as well for those flights.

My retired AF neighbor says of helicopters:

just thousands of moving parts flying in close formation around an oil leak while waiting for metal fatigue to set in.

Well hopefully it was a training activity. I have seen the gliders over Franconia ridge a number of times, and I understand the necessity for practice runs, but I think I would be a little freaked out with a helicopter hovering over me on the summit. Given the fabulous day I would expect there were folks on or near the top.

MikePS said:

Well hopefully it was a training activity. I have seen the gliders over Franconia ridge a number of times, and I understand the necessity for practice runs, but I think I would be a little freaked out with a helicopter hovering over me on the summit. Given the fabulous day I would expect there were folks on or near the top.

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Nothing like seeing a pair of of C-130s below you rolling low-and-slo through Franconia Notch. Actually occurs a lot in season.

Reported on social media for what it’s worth yesterday was a big training day for the National Guard and or the Military. Some magnificent photos of a Chinook Helicopter hovering over Chocorua. The Men and Women whom protect the freedoms we enjoy like hiking mountains unrestricted are partly due to days like yesterday. Not to mention anyone of us here might need their services if the situation hits the fan unexpectedly some day. Let them have at it!

I miss seeing the Chinooks all the time. Growing up near Boeing and Lewis-McChord they were a constant presence. Blackhawks have been more active than usual in Boston lately.

Had a couple of C-130's fly over our neighborhood yesterday evening. We seem to get a fair amount of traffic of blackhawks and on occasion Chinooks also. Not too far from the CT National Guard Base although there is no airfield at that location, it's not far from Groton/New London Airfield. From what I see on a map, Colchester is almost directly on the line from Groton to Barnes Airfield in MA. No idea what calls either field home.

Backpacked out to the Bonds on Friday. Heard some jets flying around. At the parking lot today, a helicopter buzzed right overhead.

B the Hiker said:

Backpacked out to the Bonds on Friday. Heard some jets flying around. At the parking lot today, a helicopter buzzed right overhead.

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Heard them too. Perhaps F-35's out of VNG, Burlington. Military aircraft have been coming from all over NE to train over the Whites for 50 years and it's hard to keep track from whence they came.

My guess is the days of A-10s zipping up drainages are just about gone given the downsizing of the fleet. There is a group that runs low level terrain runs with cargo aircraft down the Moose River Valley (lining up with the old B&M line to Berlin) they skim the tree tops and eventually cut north towards Berlin. The F-35s out of Burlington use the Whites as a training ground but they seem to run mostly high altitude.

The National Guard helicopters at the Berlin airport is not a done deal. The airport is actually in Milan at what is the densest population area of Milan. Some Milan residents who live near the airport are objecting to ongoing helicopter operations near their homes. The airport has little traffic and helicopter operations would definitely be noticeable.

SAC use to put on quite a show in the ADK.

It appeared that the Blackhawk was operating over Osceola today. I was XC at Waterville and saw it from the top of Snow's Mountain.

Tim

bikehikeskifish said:

It appeared that the Blackhawk was operating over Osceola today. I was XC at Waterville and saw it from the top of Snow's Mountain.

Tim

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On Saturday they were doing laps up and down the Kanc, it seemed. Spending a lot of time in the Rob Brook/Sawyer Pond area. We were camped on the south side of the Kanc at about 1700 feet and were wondering why we couldn't see them overhead. They came back for another round after dark and it was clear why we couldn't see them above us as we gazed down at the flashing red lights from the birds below us. It must have been a sight for anyone driving on Saturday.

Always unsettling when you are on the side of Cannon looking down at aircraft flying through the notch...

Looks like they are keeping the engines warm and hands on the sabers.