8/10/2019 Flying the Sikorsky S-61- H-3
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Flying the Sikorsky H-3 SeaKing
The H-3 is the Chevy Suburban of helicopters. It is adaptable,
functional, and for its
day, pretty reliable. The H-3 is or was flown by the armed
forces of many countries and
they were built in the Canada, Japan, the .!. as well as the .S.
There are so manymilitary and civilian variants that it would ta"e
a boo" to describe them all. This
discussion focuses on the #avy variants I flew rather than the
$ir %orce CH-3C&'s and
the Coast (uard)s HH-3%s.
The official name for the #avy versions of the H-3 is the Sea
!in*. The helicopter was
desi*ned in the mid to late +s as an anti-submarine helicopter
that could ta"e advanta*e
of the additional power and capabilities of turbine en*ines. $s
a result, it had a lar*e
cabin on top of a boat shaped hull and sponsons for stability
should one have to ditch.
The lar*e cabin was needed because it had to house the reelin*
*ear for a sonar dome
that could be lowered into the water to listen or pin* for
submarines.
The ori*inal $S- sonar had about one hundred and fifty feet of
cable which, when
lowered throu*h a hole in the H-3)s cabin floor from a forty
foot hover to about one
hundred feet below the surface of the ocean. /ater .S. versions
had the $S-03 sonar,
which besides bein* more reliable, smaller and li*hter, had
twelve hundred feet cable on
the reel. The sonar reel and sensor stations too" up most of the
cabin in the $S1
version of the H-3.
The mission for the $S1 H-3s was to *o fifty to a hundred miles
or more from the
carrier, hover and lower the sonar dome into the water and
listen for submarines. 1e
called this 2dippin* and did it day and ni*ht, re*ardless of the
weather. 4y operatin* in
pairs, one could hold contact on a submarine either by active
pin*in* or listenin*
passively for noise emanatin* from the submarine and direct your
win*men to a
position ahead of a maneuverin* sub.
If there was a problem with the sonar dome)s hoist, you had two
options, one was to cut
the cable and let the e5pensive sonar transducer sin" to the
bottom of the ocean. 6r, you
could climb strai*ht up until you *ot the transducer a.".a. 2the
dome out of the water
and then fly bac" to the ship, wait for everyone else to land.
$s you circled the ship, you
watched them brin* out some mattresses and then from a hover,
you descended until the
dome as it was lowered onto the padded surface. 7ou "ept comin*
down and the fli*ht
dec" crew tried to coil the cable as you came descended. If you
were luc"y, they let you*uillotine the cable and come around and
land. If you weren)t luc"y, either one of the air
crewman disconnected the cable or used the personnel hoist to
brin* a technician on
board to either disconnect the cable or cut it.
The worst scenario was if one was hoverin* and had a lot of
cable out and you had an
en*ine problem. If that happened, there was a very hi*h
probability that you were *oin*
to ditch. 1homever was flyin* the helicopter in the hover had
his thumb over the
*uillotine switch because if you were fast enou*h, you could cut
the cable and fly away.
In the daytime, it was difficult and dependin* how much fuel had
been used, the H-3
would start to settle and you)d have to decide how much rotor
rpm you wanted to trade
for altitude.
8/10/2019 Flying the Sikorsky S-61- H-3
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$t ni*ht, dar"ness and the lac" of a well defined hori8on made
it much worse. nless
you were really 9uic" and s"illed, an en*ine failure at ni*ht
with the cable out meant
you were about to ma"e a sin*le en*ine water landin*. The "ey
was touchin* down,
win*s level at less than five "nots at a slow rate of descent.
If you mana*ed to *et the
helo in the water without ma:or dama*e or it rollin* over, you
had a chance to spend the
rest of the ni*ht in the water or dumpin* as much *ear as you
could and tryin* a sin*leen*ine, ni*ht ta"e off before the H-3 too"
on much water. 1as it possible, yes. Has it
been done, yes. Have I done it; Than"fully I never had too
