Fastroping

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BadMuther
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Post by BadMuther »

I never got to Rappel from a live bird...and only got to fast rope from a live bird a few times.......It was fun with no RTO ruck!
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BRanger91
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Post by BRanger91 »

I had the wonderful pleasure of teaching Air Assault for two years out of Drum and the best aprt of it was being able to get aircraft whenever you wanted it and start flying down a rope. At 90 feet I can rappell faster than a roper can thats for sure. Just go Aussie no braking involved. I think there is still a video of me eating shit full throttle floating around somewhere. That was a bad day.
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Steadfast
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Post by Steadfast »

In RVN I was sent by 2nd BGDE HHC LRRP's to Division's K/75th Pre-Recondo School where Rappelling was one thing I learned to do. However, I never rappelled into the jungle. I sure would have liked to do that fast ropping. Looks easy and gets you to the ground pronto! One thing I'de like to ask you guys is did you ever fast rope wearing an ruck with 80 to 100 lbs of gear plus your LBE & Rifle? I would think that slowing down with all that weight would be near impossible.
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Looon
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Post by Looon »

BadMuther wrote:I never got to Rappel from a live bird...and only got to fast rope from a live bird a few times.......It was fun with no RTO ruck!
That sucks. We got to rope quite bit.
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BadMuther
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Post by BadMuther »

RGR Luna wrote:
BadMuther wrote:I never got to Rappel from a live bird...and only got to fast rope from a live bird a few times.......It was fun with no RTO ruck!
That sucks. We got to rope quite bit.
We roped I dunno, once or twice...maybe 3 times a year.........always from the tower....


Birds were REALLY fucking scarce the first year I was there (91-DS year)....
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Looon
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Post by Looon »

I only roped off of the tower a couple of times. Clinton really fucked shit up for you guys. :x
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Looon
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Post by Looon »

Most of our ropes were out of shithooks and CH-53s. On live fire insertions in the shithooks, if you were by the crew door waiting to hit the rope, the fucking mini-guns had a field day with your hearing. :shock:
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hit_it
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Post by hit_it »

i agree. the only reason i went is because the school was on Campbell. i would have been a fool to pass on the opportunity when i know i needed the promotion points.
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Post by Spartan »

We usually hydro-roped out of C-130's into water. It was kind of rough cause the pilots had to get down and hold the plane to within 50 feet above the surface of the water.
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rangercamaro
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Post by rangercamaro »

At first Bn we did elevators all day two or three times during my era. I've came out of blackhawks and shithooks. I prefer the blackhawks. Less people to avoid. the only people we had roping with rucks and any weight was the 60 AG's. Thank god I had my gun by then. Those boys hated that shit. Hit like a bunkerbuster, shit flying everywhere. They exited first and #2 man waited til they were touching down before he got on. (gave em time to clear the rope in case they fell)
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Parabellum
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Post by Parabellum »

Steadfast wrote:In RVN I was sent by 2nd BGDE HHC LRRP's to Division's K/75th Pre-Recondo School where Rappelling was one thing I learned to do. However, I never rappelled into the jungle. I sure would have liked to do that fast ropping. Looks easy and gets you to the ground pronto! One thing I'de like to ask you guys is did you ever fast rope wearing an ruck with 80 to 100 lbs of gear plus your LBE & Rifle? I would think that slowing down with all that weight would be near impossible.
Slowing down is impossible. Just hold on for dear life and hope the pilot doesn't move the ropes off the top of the building. You always need the be ready to do a proper PLF when fast roping. :wink:
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Post by Spartan »

I didn't PLF away from the ropes this one time and Cutner - my roomate - landed with his boot right on my throat and PLF'ed away laughing while I tried to roll away out of the way of the Ranger following him.

Among the many things they showed in BHD I thought that insertion was painfully slow. Back in the day, we'd usually be aiming to hit the rope as soon as the guy designated to go before us hit his hands against it cause he'd be gone by the time you hit it anyway. But, if you're a big time Hollywood producer paying the Army a few $M to bring all thier birds to Morroco, you probably want to maximize the footage they appear in the movie.
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Looon
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Post by Looon »

rangercamaro wrote:At first Bn we did elevators all day two or three times during my era. I've came out of blackhawks and shithooks. I prefer the blackhawks. Less people to avoid. the only people we had roping with rucks and any weight was the 60 AG's. Thank god I had my gun by then. Those boys hated that shit. Hit like a bunkerbuster, shit flying everywhere. They exited first and #2 man waited til they were touching down before he got on. (gave em time to clear the rope in case they fell)
We also did elevators. Never did get to rope from a Blackawk, though. :cry:
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Post by Bell »

I never fastroped. Shucky durn.

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