Mount Rainier Mission

" An amazing ballet of human beings and awesome flying machines..."

Stunning mountain flying, breathtaking scenery, heavy sling loads, marginal weather, high winds, precision sling load operations, Mount Rainier mission had it all, and more. It was the best, most challenging flying we ever did.

In our 17-year history flying in the Park we had a perfect safety record. Our two-weeks spent each year saw two Chinooks and ground crews from the 92nd Avn Co. and Mount Rainier’s Trail Maintenance Air Attack crew haul 4 million pounds of quarried stone, gravel, log bridges, concrete, steel, and other loads up to the high country, often done at max gross weight under tactical conditions and sometimes marginal weather. You want to learn how to work a CH-47 to the max? You came to Rainier.

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Mount_Rainer Mission Patch

Paradise First Mission 8-78

The best, biggest, highest showcase for our flying and aircrew skills. Mount Rainier flying was the best. We began flying for the National Park Service at Rainier in August of 1979, and for another 17 years safely performed feats of aerial wizardry seldom equalled! A typical season consisting of 2 D model Hooks and crews flew for 2 weeks carrying over 4,000,000 pounds of quarried stone, concrete, gravel, log bridges and cargo, all delivered under tactical conditions: high winds, high altitude, bad weather, working around 200-foot tall trees and crews lovin’ every minute of it.

Muir Gravel Pour 9/91

The first mission was flown in 1978 by Mike Jones and Doug Houser. It was a test of the potential for a long-term working relationship between the Department of Interior and the Department of Defense. The Army did not want to compete with civilian helicopter contractors already working on Mount Rainier. An agreement was reached where the Chinooks would only perform work that was beyond the capabilities of the much smaller helicopters. The first mission demonstrated the potential for using Chinooks to perform high altitude heavy lifts. The CH-47A was to attempt an 8000lb sling load deploying cement into building foundation forms at 10,000 foot Camp Muir. It was a resounding success. It also worked the Chinook to its limits.

Flight Line Sunrise 9/1991

Once agreements were in place, the Hookers began work. Late in the summer crews were scheduled and flight ops began. Chinooks staged out of Paine Field near Everett, a 45-minute flight to the mountain. A lowland helibase was constructed at Kautz Creek just inside the Park's west entrance.

Rainier, Morning Fog

Rainier made its own weather. Mike Carney was always consulted before we took off for the mountain. He lived just outside the west entrance to the Park. His many years of working on the mountain gave him first-hand experience with the local weather.

VFR On Top

Approaching the mountain to begin the day's work.

Hooker Base 7/1980

Hooker Base quickly developed into the hub of air operations. It included a work shed for storage of sling gear, chain saws and other equipment, landing pads for two CH-47s, parking for refueling tanker trucks, an outdoor eating area and load makeup area.

1989 Avn Trail Crew

Mike Carney's crew were experts in helicopter operations, blasting, quarring, construction, conservation, and high altitude rescue.

Camp Muir Backside

Camp Muir is the overnight stop for climbers ascending the 14,410-foot mountain. The Hookers continued to support new construction and the building of a helipad for smaller commercial helicopters

Camp Muir, 10,000 feet

Warming huts and outhouses at Camp Muir.

Crew at Camp Muir 8/75

One of our earliest visits to Camp Muir. Doug Houser, Dotty Holmes and Linda Varda.

Doug, Muir Glacier

This was the only place close to Camp Muir to land. It is on the north side of the camp. Look closely: Do you see the UH-1 Huey on approach?

Steelwork for new Bridge

One of our major construction projects was helping to build the high suspension bridge over the Carbon River. The Hookers hauld over 400,000 pounds of concrete for the tailblocks, steel girders, suspension cables and decking

Helibase Load Prep

Kautz Creek helibase was a busy place where loads were made up, including building prefab bridges.

Kautz Helibase Bucket Lift 1991

Located next to Kautz Creek this Park work area was set up as our basecamp. Here we had a refueling area, dining area, and places loads could be made up. Our industrious ground crew painted and arranged river rocks into the "Hooker Base" name. It was also the site for our annual end-of-season salmon BBQ dinner for Mike Carney's trail crew and the 92nd Hooker pilots, flight engineers and ground support crew.

HookerBase Gravel Bucket Load

Much of our work was hauling these 2-yard construction buckets up to Carney's trail crew worksites. The name of the game was speed and accuracy. Park Rangers were paranoid about us spilling gravel off the trail and damaging a delicate meadow. Competition always developed between flight crews to see who could do the quickest turns. We had to use long sling gear, often over 150-feet long, to avoid hitting the tops of trees near the trail. It was common to be in the hover with the rotor blades only 10 feet above the treetops while the bucket was 2 feet above the trail below. Pilots could not see any of this and relied on our expert Flight Engineers to 'call the load' talking us into position so the train crew could reach the bail release to dump the gravel. There was zero margin for errors.

Trail Gravel Deploy From Hell Hole.

This is the view the Flight Engineer had of the target we had to hit. The trail is narrow. We got very good at not only putting the gravel on the trail, but precisely maintaining a 2-foot buckt height while 'walking' the bucket up the trail. This spread the load out so the trail crew didn't have to do as much shoveling to spread the load out. Keep in mind, the pilot can't see any of this. He/she is looking at a treetop next to the cockpit as a hover reference. The bucket is 30-feet behind the pilot and 150 feet below. These loads were about 5 tons.

Trail Gravel Deploy From Ground

The Chinook is all about precision hover work. It has to be done, even under windy conditions, or marginal weather, fog or low clouds.

Trail Gravel Bail Pull

Co-pilots new to this extreme environment were challenged. One had to remember that as soon as the ground crew dumps the load, the helicopter suddenly becomes 5 tons lighter. The job isn't done until the bucket is empty and you haven't let the helicopter shoot up as the gravel pours out and spread the load all over Ranger Rick's wildflower meadow beside the trail.

Gravel Pour 8.81

Notice the lateral split logs laying across the trails. These are called water bars. They are used to retain the gravel during heavy rains and foot traffic. Mount Rainier has 312 miles of wilderness trails. Carney's crew could only repair and maintain a few miles each season. The Hookers could haul far more material up to the high country than the trail crews could deploy. Stockpiles were established allowing an entire season of work. The Hookers only were on site for two weeks in the late summer. In one day a CH-47 could do more work than Mike Carney's crew could using 30 mules in an entire year. And we didn't tear up the trails doing it. The Park loved us! Mike called the 25-ton Chinook, "the minimum tool to to the maximum good."

Bucketdump8:81.jpg

Logs for Bridges

If you thought we were hauling small timber, look at this picture. These are the logs, usually two at a time, we flew up to bridging sites. These were set in place with minimum damage to the surrounding forest. Some of these bridges weighed 20,000 pounds or more.

Setting Bridge at Indian Henry's Hunting Ground 9:91

One of our new D model Chinooks sets a new foot bridge at Indian Henry's. Prior to the Hookers, logs for bridge sites were hand-logged at the site and moved by hand through the forest, a dangerous undertaking. At each bridge site a small clearcut scarred the area. It was a painful trade-off between providing public access to the resource and destroying trees and meadows in the process. We eliminated this damaging activity. A new bridge would be built at Kautz Helibase, and in a few short turns, the Chinook would have everything in place. Setting 5 and 10 ton foot bridges demanded extreme precision to set it in place on the stonework. Often bridges were deep in a canyon among very tall trees. Setting a bridge often required a 240-foot sling.

West Summit, Rainier

Kautz Helibase was on the southwest corner of the Park. Much of our work took place on the north side of the mountain. Rather than fly around the mountain, empty return trips to Kautz were done 'over the top' of the 14,411 foot summit; Here looking east

Sunset Amphitheater. Mount Rainier

Going direct over the top of Rainier shortened flight times, and was a good excuse to sightsee. Sunset Amphitheater is a spectacular cross section of Rainier's explosive Pleistocene tephra eruptions. The light colored band is pumice some 90-feet thick.