Swedish CH46 !!!

[Hman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QHOqmbRefg

[PR19_Kit]

Some exceptional flying there! Love the 'bow to the crowd' toward the end.

Presumably that's a small radar scanner whizzing round underneath the fuselage?

[scooter]

Presumably that's a small radar scanner whizzing round underneath the fuselage?

Looks like a commercial maritime search radar, Kit, like a Furuno.

[Captain Canada]

Wow...loved the whole 'reverse' sequence ! Still one of my favourite choppers....Nice find there, thanks !

[Pellson]

The radar is a derivative of  civilian navigational set - used for navigation in less than optimal sight conditions. The helicopter is a japanese Vertol-Kawasaki KV107 II, i e a slightly improved CH-46 with floats. We had a bunch, using them as transports, ASW-units and - as in this case - air rescue chopper. The transport/ASW machines were used by the Navy but the rescue machines by the air force. Naturally, some "cross piloting" between the organisations occurred, but generally -as in this case - the air force pilots were ex-fighter pilots while the navy educated pilots directly onto the chopper systems.

The last Vertols were sold rather cheaply to a canadian logging company just a few years ago, having been stored quite a few years in advance. As they were immaculately well kept, the logging company made a beautiful deal - at the Swedish taxpayers cost. Also, the early and politically driven phase-out left the military without relevant transport helicopter capacity for quite some time while the very special version of the NH90 helicopter still isn't operational. Weill, it flies, but as with the british Chinook HC3, they can't seem to make the "combat support system" work... And as you might know, we ended up buying brand new UH-60M:s from the US as a stop-gap measure to be able to operate in Afghanistan - as the americans withdrew their recue helo coverage..

Most of the Vertols were later painted in splinter camo while their replacements all use an overall dark green IR-suppressing and oh-so-boring scheme. And todays air show scheme is three transports flying in, deploying some overambitious sods with blazing guns, then moving away again. Everything was better before.. 

[PR19_Kit]

Weill, it flies, but as with the british Chinook HC3, they can't seem to make the "combat support system" work... And as you might know, we ended up buying brand new UH-60M:s from the US as a stop-gap measure to be able to operate in Afghanistan - as the americans withdrew their recue helo coverage..

You'll have to do the same as the RAF did, 'sidegrade' the NH90 to an NH75.5.  The RAF Chinook HC3s are all now HC2.5s.