July 24 The End for this trip.

Here is a photo of the helicopter sitting in a rancher's pasture where we landed near Black Lake, NM. Black Lake is about 8 miles south of Angel Fire, NM airport where we were heading after hearing some strange noises from the transmission area. The noise got worse, so we parked the bird here.

After several ground runs to try and locate the problem, and talking to home base back in Arizona, they sent us a hydraulic pump. This morning it arrived by plane and we installed it right away. The next ground run resulted in the same vibrations and noise, plus we got a XSM CHIP LIGHT on the Master Caution Panel.

So the trip to Oshkosh and AirVenture 2010 ends here today. The UH-1B will ride home on a trailer and the crew has also returned, some by ground, some by air.

To all the Seawolves who we wanted to meet along the way, and who were going to fly with us in this restored gunship, I am very sorry that we had to end the journey today. But better safe, on the ground, to be repaired to fly another day.

Larry Clark