SPH-4 with surgical tube

[marentius]

I'd like to know the reason why on this flight helmet has been installed a portion of surgical tube.

The shell is dated 1971 but it was refurbished/used in the late '70s-early '80s.

[taucco]

I'd like to know the reason why on this flight helmet has been installed a portion of surgical tube.

The shell is dated 1971 but it was refurbished/used in the late '70s-early '80s.

 

could it be a retention bungee for the night vision goggles (ANVIS type) battery pack?. they were quite big.

http://img88.No_outside_hosting.us/img88/1098/dsci3168.jpg

[rr01]

The bungee is there to take the place of the headstrap associated with the PVS-5 NVGs: http://www.ownthenight.com/catalog/i29.html.

The bungee attached to the two side snaps and another "V" shaped strap attached to the center snap and then was fastened to the visor housing with velcro which was glued to the visor housing.

This was all a very rudimentary setup but the old way with the headstrapsoften created "hotspots" under the helmet. The helmet also had to be removed to take the goggles off or put them back on.

There were many other adaptations such as the crew on the flight deck having the lower portion of the goggles cut off so they could see the instrument panel under that cutout. Before the blue NVG lighting showed up critical areas of the panel were illuminated with first the larger chemlites and then the smaller ones. A cumbersome process but necessary given the mission taskings during the Reagan era. Speed tape was the crew chief/FEs best friend.

Another adapatation was to get replacement Radio Shack infra red LEDs that could go in TV remotes and use them in place of the regular mini mag flashlight LED.

The winter battery pack adaptor for the NVGs was used so the batteries could be more easily changed. The adaptor simply plugged into the regular battery container and the power cord was long enough to go into a pocket which normally kept the battery warm.

Early NVG flying was frought with risk for everyone involved with the guys at TF160 incurring a very high and traumatic accident rate. Many of todays NVG tactics are the result of those events thirty years past. You have a very unique piece of military history, good snag.

[hawkdriver]

could it be a retention bungee for the night vision goggles (ANVIS type) battery pack?. they were quite big.

http://img88.No_outside_hosting.us/img88/1098/dsci3168.jpg

 

No, it's not for the battery pack. The helmet shown was at one time worn with the PVS-5s, but then converted with the ANVIS visor. The unit probably had a mix of PVS-5s and ANVIS-6, hence the two different components.

Here is a picture of the SPH-4 with the cut away PVS-5s and retention bungy.

 

[marentius]

:twothumbup: thank you Steve for the higly detailed answer and the great picture!i wonder about the torture for the neck of the pilot who had to flight with such a monster thing on his/her head.....

[101CH47]

i wonder about the torture for the neck of the pilot who had to flight with such a monster thing on his/her head.....

 

 

It sucked! That photo does not show the worst of it. I was a NVG IP at Fort Rucker when that system came out with the full face goggles. We had to put at least 1.5 hours on each student per night to stay on syllabus and after the first 1.5 all you wanted to do is be done for the night. The helmet would ride forward letting the goggle frame rest on your cheek bones which became uncomfortable in only a short amount of time. We tried counter weights on the back of the helmet, most consisted of bags with lead pellets in them Velcro-ed to the back of the helmet. Even when that worked the weight of the helmet made your neck hurt after an hour or two. Later the safety folks banned those for a while because they said it exceeded the recommended safe weight of the helmet which could cause your neck to snap in a crash sequence. They later gave up on that restriction because of wide spread none compliance with the ban.

 

It wasn't until the cut away type goggle frames as shown in the photo posted by Hawkdriver came out that we started getting some relief. Flying NVGs was a unique experience back then.

[hawkdriver]

Did you ever see the contraption where some kid made a suction cup on a rubber tube that you would stick up in the green house, then to the top of the helmet and it would pull up on the helmet? It looked retarded, but I tried it once and as long as your helmet was on tight, it worked!

 

Marentius, come visit some time and stand real close to my back, I will move my head and you can listen to the grinding from 24 years flying with this stuff. I don't know of an old head yet that has retired that didn't have a bad neck when they were done. I am already compensated by the VA for my neck.

[rr01]

It sucked! That photo does not show the worst of it. I was a NVG IP at Fort Rucker when that system came out with the full face goggles. We had to put at least 1.5 hours on each student per night to stay on syllabus and after the first 1.5 all you wanted to do is be done for the night.

Boy, did you miss out!!!!! In~flight refueling can certainly extend that to infinity with 10~12 hours being the norm. Yeah we only had to wear them when the sun was down but that was also a mixed blessing. One 15 hour mission actually required vectors to the coast line with a left turn down the beach for an hour to the base. And it looks like you also missed out on standing behind an engines running fixed wing at a FARP refueling one helicopter after another enroute to or coming back from the target. Or better yet, driving a motorcycle with those things on.....talk about a two dimensional field sobriety test!!!!! Fortunately, we had the heavier, unmodified versions strapped to our helmets to give protection from all the wind and sand. Haven't done anything so stimulating since.

[101CH47]

Boy, did you miss out!!!!! In~flight refueling can certainly extend that to infinity with 10~12 hours being the norm. Yeah we only had to wear them when the sun was down but that was also a mixed blessing. One 15 hour mission actually required vectors to the coast line with a left turn down the beach for an hour to the base. And it looks like you also missed out on standing behind an engines running fixed wing at a FARP refueling one helicopter after another enroute to or coming back from the target. Or better yet, driving a motorcycle with those things on.....talk about a two dimensional field sobriety test!!!!! Fortunately, we had the heavier, unmodified versions strapped to our helmets to give protection from all the wind and sand. Haven't done anything so stimulating since.

 

 

I don't missed out on much. What I described was with the full face infantry type goggles bouncing down the lanes teaching students how to fly with them. Its one thing to have someone on the outside trying to kill you whole different story when the one trying to kill you is sitting beside you.

[101CH47]

Did you ever see the contraption where some kid made a suction cup on a rubber tube that you would stick up in the green house, then to the top of the helmet and it would pull up on the helmet? It looked retarded, but I tried it once and as long as your helmet was on tight, it worked!

 

Marentius, come visit some time and stand real close to my back, I will move my head and you can listen to the grinding from 24 years flying with this stuff. I don't know of an old head yet that has retired that didn't have a bad neck when they were done. I am already compensated by the VA for my neck.

 

 

Tell me more about this VA thing. I would be very interested in that. Now if they would just give me something for this ringing in my ears.

 

I don't remember that rig. At one point during my time at Rucker they stopped us from using counter weights then decided everyone could come up with their own idea how to compensate for the weight. We saw all manner of odd setups then. The medical research side of the house was going to study each one to see if any would be approved. I stuck with the weighted bag on the back of my helmet.

[Ronnie]

I don't missed out on much. What I described was with the full face infantry type goggles bouncing down the lanes teaching students how to fly with them. Its one thing to have someone on the outside trying to kill you whole different story when the one trying to kill you is sitting beside you.

 

This gave me a good chuckle just now....I can only imagine what you instructor's went thru. I have several buddies that you probably taught to fly. Which leads me to this.....we have the best Armed Forces in the World. Clearly we have the best trained men and women out there! Our pilots both fixed wing and rotary are second to none. Kind of makes us all feel pretty damned proud, or at least it does me. That said this wouldn't be the case if we didn't have men like you. Thanks for your service. Thanks for what you did. Thanks for stepping up to the plate.

Ronnie