Fripp Island SC

[chm2023]

Anyone familiar with this spot?

[rbaker]

The thought of Fripp Island causes chills to run down my arthritic spine. In 1962 I was a young second lieutenant in the Marine Corps flying the Sikorsky HR2S helicopter. I was stationed at MCAS New River, NC. I had flown to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, SC to be part of a static and flight display. The following day I was to return to New River. About noon time we lifted off from the “grinder” and swung East to follow the coast North. We always flew up the Inland Waterway at quite low altitudes so I was at 300 feet when my crew chief informed me that the cabin was being flooded with oil from the main gearbox. A quick glance at the transmission oil pressure and temperature gauges indicated a massive oil loss. It took me about four seconds to land on a beach and shut down. It took me twenty minutes to clean my skivvies.

As we later found out it was Fripp Island. God forsaken place – never seen so many skeeters in my life. I actually thought that we had fallen over the edge of the world. Now bear in mind this was over forty years ago. Today, place is probably loaded with condos and golf courses and people with white belts and shoes. Kinda scary . . eh

Dick
www.aerovisiontech.com

[chm2023]

The thought of Fripp Island causes chills to run down my arthritic spine. In 1962 I was a young second lieutenant in the Marine Corps flying the Sikorsky HR2S helicopter. I was stationed at MCAS New River, NC. I had flown to the Marine Corps Recruit Depot at Parris Island, SC to be part of a static and flight display. The following day I was to return to New River. About noon time we lifted off from the “grinder” and swung East to follow the coast North. We always flew up the Inland Waterway at quite low altitudes so I was at 300 feet when my crew chief informed me that the cabin was being flooded with oil from the main gearbox. A quick glance at the transmission oil pressure and temperature gauges indicated a massive oil loss. It took me about four seconds to land on a beach and shut down. It took me twenty minutes to clean my skivvies.

As we later found out it was Fripp Island. God forsaken place – never seen so many skeeters in my life. I actually thought that we had fallen over the edge of the world. Now bear in mind this was over forty years ago. Today, place is probably loaded with condos and golf courses and people with white belts and shoes. Kinda scary . . eh

Dick
www.aerovisiontech.com

It's now a gated community. I don't know if this is progress or not! Friends just bought a place there and we are probably going down later in the summer.