I have tried to stay away from posting as much as possible because I don't have a great deal of fixed wing experience and even less knowledge, but I have to share my night with someone.

I'm not sure what category this belongs in as it is not backcountry necessarily, but is a trip report and story that I will have for some time. I was assigned as the "Air Mission Commander" and pilot-in-command of a stand-by flight of 2 x UH-60 tonight. We didn't expect to launch and I had settled in for a night of CHU (containerized housing unit) flying. This usually entails waiting for posts on this or the 180 site and dream shopping on different sites for improvements to my 53' 180. I swear that if I read information on the EDM-700 or Garmin 430 one more time they will magically appear.

The night took a different turn when our crew was alerted that we were being launched to a destination 30-minutes away to pick up important cargo. It is not ordinary for our stand-by to launch so we had a lot of questions. No answers were given so we preflighted and when ready departed. When we got to the destination it all became clear.

There was a directive put out by someone high up that every soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan would receive 2-beers for the superbowl. There we were sitting on the pad loading 83-cases of beer in the back of the Blackhawk. It was the nicest load we've ever carried. We arrived back to our airfield and unloaded the cargo to about 50 eager folks. We shut down, put the aircraft to bed, and made it to the dining facility just in time for the kickoff, a sample of our work. We received a standing ovation from the several hundred there.

I have read almost all the trip reports and I know that I am missing some critical details here like weather and landing conditions, but I think you will agree with me that I touched on the highlights. I didn't have my camera with me, but I am trying to get a friend's picture of us with a beer each (unopened of course) while we were loading the aircraft at the pad. It promises to be a classic.

I appreciate you allowing me to share this story as it was a pretty satisfying night. I hear there was a good game too.

Brett
FOB SYKES, Iraq

Good story, I enjoyed it. You guys be safe over there

I'm sure of one thing, there probably isn't enough beer to be over there! Good post. Good luck.

That is awesome! I bet beer taste REAL good delivered by blackhawk in the desert!

Been there done that > many moons ago across the big pond (40 +years back) we used to make a similar run. Navy base at Na Bay had fresh food
and beer offloaded from ships for trade. Flight of 3 UH-1's were dispatched
to retrieve "supplies" -normal was to go low level across swamps and give Gunners/ crew chiefs opportunity to shoot up all the old ammo. On "mission"
3 aircraft came in contact with geese at low level -3 UH-1's went down to
"hostile fire "by VC geese . Accident report showed the aircraft were at
1200 ft.AGL -not . More like 80 ft. and 100 knots.

Awesome! I just saw on the news about the soldiers getting beers right before I read this post. I've spent many many days over there since 2003 and I can tell ya that a couple beers can really change the morale. Awesome story!
TSgt Myers
C-5 Flight Engineer
Travis AFB, CA

Great story! What kind of beer was it? A UH-60 is like a Clydesdale, a workhorse. Hey Zane, what do you think about a BCP T-shirt like Heli-Brew or something. I will buy 2, one for me & one to send overseas.

How about Beer Hawk? Hopicopter?

Troop refreshment transport

They actually had several different brands which actually made the load a little tough to get stacked solid in the back. I went straight to the Heineken when I hit the cooler for mine (the highest alcohol content of the bunch).

I will not confirm or deny whether an extra case of MGD some how got mixed up in our flight gear and didn't get... burp... unloaded.

Brett