Port Angeles Coast Guard Air Station gets new wave of helicopters
Petty Officer 2nd Class Brad Laxton, an aviation mechanics technician, describes the features of one of the U. S. Coast Guard’s new MH-65C helicopters at Air Station Port Angeles on Tuesday. -- Photo by Keith Thorpe/Peninsula Daily News
By Brian Gawley, Peninsula Daily News
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The last of the MH-65C model helicopters was delivered last Friday to the Coast Guard base on Ediz Hook.
The base's three HH-65C Dolphin helicopters — familiar sights around the North Olympic Peninsula for years — were flown to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island to be loaded into C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft.
From Whidbey, they're being flown to Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point in Hawaii.
The three new copters are more versatile for the mountainous terrain of the Olympic Peninsula, the treacherous Pacific coastline and the many islands and inlets of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound.
"The biggest effect of the new engine is that before if we lost an engine in a hover or other high risk area, we had to either land or crash," said Lt. Greg Torgersen, an aviation engineering officer and pilot.
"Now depending on the conditions, we can continue to hover or else make a survivable landing. That's really the largest benefit," he said.
Aircraft-mounted gun
"It's also got a different communications package, and eventually will carry an aircraft-mounted weapon on it," Torgersen said.
"We'll be able to use frequencies that local fire and rescue and police use instead of marine band FM.
"These radios will allow full communications, which will make coordinated rescues more effective," Torgersen said.
The radio systems on the older helicopters required communicating with police and fire departments either by telephone or through the Coast Guard's dispatch center, he said.
The helicopters won't be fitted with weaponry until those parts are available and training on them is completed, Torgersen said.
The weapons will be one laser-sighted .50-caliber rifle and one 7.62 mm M240 machine gun, reflective of the Coast Guard's homeland security role.
The price tag for the new helicopters is about $7 million each, "but they're not for sale," he said.
The three HH-65B Dolphin helicopters moved from Port Angeles were upgraded to HH-65C in July 2006 with new engines and new control system in July 2006, giving them a more stable power supply.
A rescue in the Olympic Mountains in Jefferson County shortly those upgrades set a record for the highest altitude hoist performed in an HH-65 model.
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Reporter Brian Gawley can be reached at 360-417-3532 or brian.gawley@peninsuladailynews.com.
Last modified: May 27. 2008 9:00PM