Helicopters taking on fuel over Resurrection Bay, Seward, Alaska.
I heard a fair amount of noise outside last week at about 10:00 in the evening – looked outside and was surprised to see a helicopter being refueled in mid flight over Resurrection Bay! I knew they did this with jets, but I’ll be honest, I had no idea they could do this with helicopters.
Since I have 3 Facebook friends who are former military helicopter pilots, I’m not about to try to identify these birds, but maybe one of them will know a bit more. The next morning I read in the paper about the beginning of the Northern Edge 2011 training exercises – I assume this was part of this training.
Update: These are HH 60 Pavehawks being areofueled by a KC-130.
Helicopter re-fueling as it flies over Seward, Alaska.
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Oh, that makes sense. I was wondering what that was all about. It sure was neat to see!
Well you got it captured anyway
The helicopters in the first image look like HH-60s — great shot!
Forgot to tell you that I added another grizzly, half dome, Yosemite falls, and kissing squirrels to my Flickr site if you want to look.
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Thanks everyone!
GT Thanks for the ID. I received the same ID from someone who used to fly these in Alaska.
Dennis – I’ll take a look.
Refuelling in air is pretty clever stuff! Great capture, Ron.
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It really is amazing.
Woah, I had no idea they could refuel helicopters like that either!