? Helicopter

[Kurt]

I see Ospreys every now and then. A couple of times I have seen one towing another - very strange.

 

[beachmouse]

There's also a group out of the Destin airport that has some seriously vintage military aircraft they take out for fun and private rental. Cool stuff to see WW II era planes out in formation flying overhead on the odd Sunday morning.

Saw a Pave Low down at the beach yesterday. I know that they were supposed to be replaced by the Osprey last fall for active duty. Are the Guard and Reserve still flying them?

 

[Freshwater Bay]

We saw all of them. First the one with the question marks and then the second was the walton county sheriff's coptor. They did cruise at a low altitude. At first I thought they were looking for something. We then realized they had a lot of activity on the beaches and maybe it is used to promote military enlistment with all the young kids on the beaches this week. It was the beginning of spring break.

 

[Smiling JOe]

Yep. That's it. Surely, they weren't flying that low to look at all the babes in bikinis.

 

[Andy A]

There's also a group out of the Destin airport that has some seriously vintage military aircraft they take out for fun and private rental. Cool stuff to see WW II era planes out in formation flying overhead on the odd Sunday morning.

Saw a Pave Low down at the beach yesterday. I know that they were supposed to be replaced by the Osprey last fall for active duty. Are the Guard and Reserve still flying them?

The "seriously vintage military aircraft" you speak of are T-6 Texans. It was my trainer in AF primary flight training at Bainbridge, GA. There are always interesting aircraft flying up and down the beach.

 

[Everytime]

Sounds like the Russian MI-8 that I have seen at Destin on several occasions. There is a private defense contractor that has an MI-8 HIp and an MI-24 Hind that support a special squadron at Hurlburt Field. I went out to Destin airport a while back and poked around to learn about the company. Bottom line is that the unit at Hurlburt is trained to fly other aircraft of "countries of interest". So this private contractor maintains and flies these aircraft to train them.

Bingo...I found it via yahoo search:

It's on the Milavia military aviation website.

Regarding the Pave Lows, I think Special Ops at Hurlburt still uses these. Also, the Navy and Marines use the Sea Stallion variant; I frequently see a U.S. Navy Sea Stallion fly over, late in the afternoon, but I'm not sure where it's from. Do they have these at Pensacola NAS or Panama City?

 

[Will B]

I see Ospreys every now and then. A couple of times I have seen one towing another - very strange.

Sounds more like they are training for air to air refueling; however, I don't know that they are equipped for that. I can't imagine that they are towing due to the logistics of having to lift the second straight up and then have both transition to foward flight mode.

Saw a Pave Low down at the beach yesterday. I know that they were supposed to be replaced by the Osprey last fall for active duty. Are the Guard and Reserve still flying them?

They are in the process of phasing out the CH-53's, but there are a lot still in use. HUrlburt still operates them

Regarding the Pave Lows, I think Special Ops at Hurlburt still uses these. Also, the Navy and Marines use the Sea Stallion variant; I frequently see a U.S. Navy Sea Stallion fly over, late in the afternoon, but I'm not sure where it's from. Do they have these at Pensacola NAS or Panama City?

There are always Navy variants at Pensacola NAS for the airshows, but I don't think they are based out of there as it's a training wing. Maybe Whiting Field?