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Chinook
09/30/2002
Listen in RealAudio 
In Alaska, the U.S. Army's High Altitude Rescue Team is responsible for emergencies above
10,000 feet. As correspondent Amy Mayer explains, the pilots have to manage the weather on the
mountain and the weather-like conditions their helicopters create.
The large, noisy CH-47 helicopter is nicknamed the Chinook, after the mountain winds. Major
Lissa Young commands the Chinook company at Fort Wainwright, Alaska.
LY: The liability of having an aircraft that has this large of rotor blades and this much
power is that you blow the snow so much.
An elite crew of Young's pilots form the High Altitude Rescue Team, which handles mountain
emergencies above 10,000 feet, including on Denali. Young says landing on a snow-covered
glacier is like sinking into a bag of powdered sugar.
LY: Typically at about 40 feet you'll begin to kick up a lot of snow cloud, and then you begin
to just slowly lower while you still maintain visual reference on the horizon, but you stop
every five or ten feet, using the radar altimeter, so that you can continue to allow that snow
cloud to settle. And what you're actually trying to do is blow out the snow. And then if you
have blowing snow and flat light, it's very, very, exciting.
It's challenging. But Young says it's also exhilarating.
LY: It's absolutely breath-taking in both terms of fear and awe. And I have a small group of
aviators here who do it on a regular basis and they still have a sense of humility and awe and
wonder every time they do it.
That's Major Lissa Young and I'm Amy Mayer.
The Weather Notebook is supported by Subaru, and the National Science Foundation.
Today's Links
More about the CH-47 Chinook Helicopter
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/h-47.htm
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