Phil, what an experience.  I sure have an appreciation
of pilots after reading this account.  It's sure hard
to tell what was going on.  The landing part of the
whole story really is quite puzzling.  I'm sure you
would've woken up if the helicopter landed that close
to your house.  Very very interesting. Thanks for
sharing.
Todd
--- Phil Scovell <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>      Last Sunday morning, about 8:30 in the morning,
> something
> quite unusual occurred near our home here in Denver.
>  I had been
> out in my office for some time thinking about what I
> would be
> teaching on in church that day when I fell asleep
> for awhile in my
> rocking chair.  Suddenly, I heard something loud
> that awakened me.
> At first, I thought it was my son starting his
> pickup truck which
> is behind our home in front of his garage.  It
> didn't sound right
> so I thought maybe he was using some of his power
> tools in the
> garage.  Still, it sounded totally different.  As I
> listened,
> trying to locate the sound and trying to decide what
> it was, it
> began getting louder.  It sounded like it was
> generally southeast
> of our home, I finally decided, but as I sat there
> listening, this
> thing got louder, and louder, and louder.  I was
> starting to get
> out of my chair to walk to the other end of my
> office where I
> could open a door and step around the side of my
> office into my
> son's driveway when the noise exploded into a
> horrific mechanical
> cacophony.  I honestly thought that whatever it was,
> might be
> going to literally crash into the back of our house.
>  Suddenly, I
> heard the fast turning rotor blades of a helicopter
> and it was
> close, I mean, very close.  I heard it lift off and
> immediately
> it choppered straight south and very very low.  I
> figured it was
> a hospital helicopter but most of them head north to
> hospitals on
> the north side of town.  One hospital, in fact,
> isn't very far
> north of our home, and we hear the helicopters
> passing by all the
> time.  I thought it had probably landed in the
> intersection just a
> short block to the southwest of our home and picking
> up someone
> that needed an emergency air lift to a local
> hospital.  If so, I
> wondered, why is it not gaining altitude but instead
> flying
> straight south and very low.  In fact, all sound
> from the machine
> was gone in 10 seconds or less.  Later, I learned
> more.
> 
>      My son jumped out of bed and ran to the window
> but never even
> saw them.  He knew they were helicopters, of course,
> just from
> the incredibly loud noise they made.  We learned
> later that they
> were two Army helicopters that had lifted off and
> turned and
> headed south.  My son's cousin told him at work the
> next day that
> he was riding his motorcycle and had just stopped
> for a red
> traffic light at a nearby intersection when he saw
> the two Army
> choppers lift off and head south.  He said they
> passed right over
> the top of him and were so low, he could have
> literally thrown a
> rock and hit one as it passed.  He also counted the
> number of
> battle gear dressed men aboard each craft.  The two
> Army choppers
> had rockets lung underneath them, the soldiers were
> armed, and
> their were gunners at each of the M60 machine gun
> stations.  I
> have absolutely no idea what was going on.  I told
> my son, we
> could start calling all around but they would just
> deny anything
> had happened.  I am guessing they were on a training
> mission and
> one chopper had to auto rotate due to engine failure
> or problems.
> That means it would have landed very quietly because
> the engine is
> not running and the pilot has to glide the craft
> toward the ground
> very quickly just using what speed is left in the
> rotating blades.
> It is a dangerous maneuver and you don't get a
> second chance of
> landing because you have no power.  the second
> chopper may have
> come and landed to bring repair parts for the first.
>  The problem
> with this theory is I never heard them land.  Yes, I
> may have
> been asleep, unless, of course, they landed earlier
> at night.  I
> sleep pretty lightly and I find it difficult to
> believe I
> wouldn't have heard them land even during the night
> as close to
> the house as they were.  There is a public city park
> two or three
> blocks east of us so they could have landed in the
> park.  Military
> helicopters, unless they are on a specific assign
> mission, never
> carry rockets, though.  These did.  I'm wondering if
> they didn't
> get some type of threatening report and landed in
> the park near
> our home.  Helicopters, in case you have never heard
> one, are
> unbelievably loud when near by and low.  A few years
> ago, the
> police found a man down across the street about 10
> o'clock at
> night in the parking lot of the large church
> straight across the
> street from our home.  They called in Flight For
> Life and a
> helicopter flew in.  They first make a wide circle
> around the
> landing zone area with all their powerful downward
> halogen lights
> on.  This first circuitous rotation around the LZ is
> probably done
> at least at a thousand feet above the area so the
> chopper doesn't
> accidentally run into any high strung wires.  then
> they repeat the
> process a couple of more time but dropping lower
> each time.  Once
> they are certain they have enough room to land, they
> sit down and
> in this case, in the middle of the church parking
> lot.  When I
> first heard this chopper from the hospital years
> ago, I thought it
> was loud when it made the first pass.  When it
> dropped lower and
> made the second pass, It did not even sound like a
> helicopter.
> It made a very super loud metallic engine sound, of
> course, but it
> also made a strange hissing sound that sounded like
> the biggest
> snake you ever did hear in your life.  I am assuming
> that is the
> tremendous force of the downward wash the spinning
> props make.  I
> have heard reports, that when choppers try and pick
> someone up at
> sea and they are not amphibious helicopters, that
> is, choppers
> which can land on the ground or water, the water
> spray created
> from the tremendous down wash the rotors make,
> stings as if it
> were a sharp needle spray shower nozzle as they drop
> the lift
> basket down to the person stranded in the water. 
> When the chopper
> landed in the church parking lot, probably less than
> 300 feet from
> my front door, you cannot imagine the noise.  I had
> no idea, in
> spite of all the helicopters I have heard flying
> around our
> neighborhood, that they were that loud.
> 
>      Sunday, although these two Army choppers were
> loud, they
> turned so quickly and headed south, you couldn't get
> the full
> effect of the sound as they were moving faster than
> you would
> think at such a low level.  I doubt, from what our
> cousin
> describe, they were more than 300 feet, if that
> much, above the
> street where he was sitting on his motorcycle.  I
> still cannot
> figure out why, although we all were asleep, none of
> us heard them
> land.  Unless, of course, they auto rotated instead
> of landed
> 
=== message truncated ===



 
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