A Fight in Afghanistan

 

 

 

The drawing above serves to explain some of the problems with high altitudes and temperatures when piloting any aircraft, particular the effects exhibited on the CH-47 Chinook.

 

Density Altitude (DA) is a function of altitude and temperature. Both Pressure Altitude (PA), or height above mean sea level (MSL), and the outside [free] air temperature (OAT or FAT) are used to calculate the amount of power the engines will produce at any given time. The amount of power available will directly determine the load that the aircraft can carry, and it's total gross weight for the conditions.

 

DA = PA + T

 

Pilots, after receiving a weather forecast for the mission, consult the aircraft technical manual (TM), Chapter 7, to compute the expected performance of the helicopter during the flight.

 

 

Click-N-Go Here to view a cleaner, prettier, and printable version of the drawing at the top of the page. (PDF format [1.3 Mb]).

 

 

You are on page 9. Read more, just Click-N-Go to the next page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

 

 

Related Sites

 

Listen to a great Taliban song (MP3, 2.0 Mb.) [But you will have to be patient with the huge file download]

 

A CH-47D Chinook crash in Afghanistan.

 

Pilot Reports from Afghanistan

 

Osama Humor

 

Chinook Model Comparison

 

E Model Specifications

 

Iraq 2003

 

 

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