One of my old squadrons before we transitioned to the S/HH-60F/H. Notice the forward rotator is just touching the sand and the main mounts are slightly buried in it. Also notice the upper door is not attached to the personnel door. This Sea King was doing Special Ops/ Combat Rescue training in daylight. A crewman would hang out the upper door to talk the pilot down. Another on the other side would be in the cargo door doing the same. If it were real, a machine gun would sit in the opening with both upper and lower door removed.
That landing is fast and sometimes not gentle. We get on the ground fast, off load and back in the air immediately to avoid having the bird disabled on the ground by baddies. I do miss my old life...
I spent 22 years in the Navy. Of that, a total of 12 days was onboard a ship (ships, actually) at sea. They made sure that 12 days was as interesting as possible. I was stationed at Mobile Technical Unit 10 in Charleston SC. There was a Battle Group getting underway to relieve the group in the Med and there were a number of unresolved issues in my area of expertise, so I get tagged to "ride the group" over and fix things on the way.
In the process I transferred from ship to ship while underway 4 times. Once from a Fast Frigate (don't recall the name) to another small boy, don't recall the type or name. That was via the CH53 Log Helo (Logistics deliveries to various ships in the formation) The bird hovered over the fantail of the frigate and lowered a horse collar, hoisted my petrified ass up into the bird and then lowered me onto the fantail of the CG the same way. They told me to make REAL sure the deck hand had the grounding hook on the cable before I allowed any part of my body to touch the deck. Static electricity from the rotor blades, ya know. Pretty sure I crossed my ankles behind my head before he got a hook on the cable.
Got moved from the second small boy to the Guided Missile Cruiser Richmond K. Turner. This was via LAMPS helo. Officially, the Light Airborne Multi Purpose System. Unofficially, the Light Airborne Mail and Passenger Service. Same deal, horse collar up and down.
Got picked up off the Rickety T via the horse collar but this time the bird actually landed on the Spruance. Wasn't there long, just a re-fuel I think, then hopped back on the helo and transferred to the carrier America. On that ride, they sat me next to the open door and the smartassed pilot decided to roll the bird up on it's side and give me a good look at the waves. I didn't shit myself. Quite...
Spent the night on the America and then flew the COD (Carrier Onboard Delivery) bird to NAS Sigonella, Italy. Getting launched off the cat was...interesting.
I was pretty happy to get back to Charleston (via a nightmare of waiting in various places for Space Available seats heading my way. 3 days from Sigonella to Charleston) and my boring desk job.