Foggy Test Flight - 1969
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I can recall one incident where CW3 Tom Shirley and a couple of us were up all night trying to get a helicopter with newly installed blades to track and balance right. Time after time we adjusted and flew and kept having a bad one to one vibration.
Finally, about midnight, we pulled both blades off and put new ones on. We were able to track again, make adjustment on the trim tabs, test fly and come back in as a very dense fog was rolling in. If I recall correctly, we made one more balance adjustment, but could not make another flight because of the fog and got to bed about 0400.
At 0700 Mr. Shirley and I went out in the dense fog, and cranked up that slick. We ran it up to an “out of ground affect” altitude, and with the fog swirling around, we could not see to set it down for fear of hitting another aircraft. Mr. Shirley called up “Tower” and they would not give permission for takeoff because of the dense fog. We could not see to set down.
“Tower” had informed us that clear skies were above 2000 feet, so we proceeded with a takeoff to that altitude to bright sunshine. I did hear one remark from the “Man in the Tower” say, “Who’s that flying by my tower?” I don’t think we replied and by good fortune, the chopper was flying very well. After a while in the air, the sun started burning off the fog, we landed back at the “Corral” and we signed the chopper over to Operations for use.