Electric vehicles can't

[ldjessee00]

Originally Posted by oil pan 4

Most of the time I was riding with my equipment, if it fit on one air craft.

My small trailer is kind of like an air craft pallet the way it's ringed with tie down points.

Yeah, in the Chinook (my experience), always had plenty of tie-down point.

[Xist]

In the Army we strapped down loads until we started crushing them. They still shifted and fell off. We kept radioing our escort and asking how our load looked. "Good. Good. Good. You lost something!"

Then we needed to stop the convoy, jump out, and hopefully secure it before Afghans secured it.

[ldjessee00]

Originally Posted by Xist

In the Army we strapped down loads until we started crushing them. They still shifted and fell off. We kept radioing our escort and asking how our load looked. "Good. Good. Good. You lost something!"

Then we needed to stop the convoy, jump out, and hopefully secure it before Afghans secured it.

Try it when you have something swinging 30 ft below your helicopter, there is a sudden move upwards, and the pilot behind you goes 'You just lost your sling load...'

Did I mention the 10,000 ft up part?

[redpoint5]

I'd be afraid of a lost load on a helicopter sending the cable up into the rotor.

[ldjessee00]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

I'd be afraid of a lost load on a helicopter sending the cable up into the rotor.

It was a failure of the multiple locking mechanisms on the hook holding the load. The sling went with it.

I was not in this accident, but it happened in my battalion before I got there and I saw the wrecked bird. They got too low in the fog and mist, got their sling caught on trees on a mountain slope and it pulled the aircraft to the ground.

[Xist]

Sling load, sky chariot...

We had a class on that before we deployed. The NCOIC told us that we could send one helio instead of a full convoy, but when he finished, he quietly mentioned the helio could only transport one load at a time. A convoy might involve three or thirty vehicles, but we could carry far more!

I never saw combat, but I had one convoy where we came under fire. I just never saw it. I never heard it, either. We were traveling with the Afghan National Police (or Army, I forget) and the bad guys were shooting at the local forces (in unarmored Ford Rangers). They blew up three of our gun trucks, but as we drove from 1800 to 0600, all that I knew was that I needed to keep my M1083 MTV behind the truck in front of me, and I periodically got stuck, but somehow I eventually got free each time.

Three times I heard a pop and saw a flash and some rocks move. I asked the Soldier riding with me if that was an IED and he responded "I don't know!"

When we rolled through the gate I hopped out to clear my weapon and saw that three of our trucks were blown up. "What happened to you guys?!"
"We hit IEDs! Where the heck were you?!"

Fortunately, our MRAPs did their job, and our Soldiers were okay, but it is crazy that while people around me fought for their lives, I just thought "Man I am tired!" and "Come on! Don't get stuck!"

My point is that was my only convoy where we had action. It was also my only convoy where we left the hardball. A riverbed is a natural path through the environment, but you cannot pick up a piece of asphalt, hide an IED, and put back the asphalt like nothing happened. Also, we drove for twelve hours, but it was a shockingly short distance away.

How would that have gone with an Aviation unit? Load the sling, sing the M*A*S*H theme, drop the load, and fly back?

Additional notes: I later got stuck in the motorpool (!) and a dang civilian showed me the tire inflation system. I always wondered what that box did! So, I probably should have reduced the tire pressure when we first entered the riverbed, and I might never have gotten stuck!

Second, I just saw a picture of a Chinook transporting an M1078, so its carrying capacity should not be minimized.

[ldjessee00]

Task tunnel vision. There was an example of that a few years ago, showing people playing basketball and you are given the task to count the number of times the ball is passed. Then at the end, it asks you if you saw the guy in the gorilla suit. Watch it again, and sure enough, he walks through the video clear as day, but if you focus on watching the basketball and who it gets passed to, you will never 'see' the gorilla suit. The Human brain is good at editing everything we sense and it eliminates anything it thinks is irrelevant.

I parked a pickup truck inside a Chinook once. it is a tight fit and a Hummer is to wide to fit inside, but sling loading them was common.

We often traded favors for moving things out to field problems... like moving these very top heavy engineering vehicles for the combat engineers out to the field in trade for them digging our fighting positions out for us. We were going anyway, the extra tonnage was not a big deal, but meant we did not spend the first day in the field digging and filling sandbags...

Never drove one of those trucks, not even one of the 'new' 5 tons (new back then) that had a central inflation system. Did drive some old CUTVs, jeeps, cars, a Deuce and a half, and flew around inside Chinooks.

When we really loaded up the bird, would have to do a rolling take off to get into the air, then once up, could dangle more weight on a sling. Usually that was either an artillery haul or a fat cow mission....

Of course, WAY of topic now...

[Xist]

Yes, my professors liked the gorilla video.

Back on-topic, could a Leaf win a tug of war against a Fiesta?

[ldjessee00]

Originally Posted by Xist

Back on-topic, could a Leaf win a tug of war against a Fiesta?

Not sure, but I have owned a 1993 Ford Festiva. Even with the manual, I am guessing that the Festiva would have issues with just the weight of the Leaf, let alone tug of war style.

Now, I really liked the Festiva, which I had first ran into in Korea (Kia Pride), but no where near even the muted torque of the Leaf (compared to newer EVs, like the Bolt and Teslas).

Also, those skinny tires that let the Festiva get such great gas mileage were a nightmare in any kind of slippery weather (how mine got crunched, winter time with it snowing on top of packed snow on the road from the previous day). Would be bad in a tug of war.

Now a top of the line 2019 Fiesta, with 202 lb-ft of torque (using the 6 speed manual) would still probably lose to the Leaf for the combination of weight and torque (187 lb-ft) at zero RPM. If you started spinning the tires on the Fiesta, you have broke traction, so not going to go anywhere... but the same could happen with the Leaf...

It would be closer than the Festiva, but I do not think the Fiesta would win given equally skilled drivers.

But that is just my opinion.

[RedDevil]

And the Kia Pride was nothing but a copy of the Mazda 121 - which name suggests it might do well in a tug of war.
But maybe not against a vehicle almost twice as heavy.