worked properly, then walked to the flight line, where assignment on the other side of the country, but
two of Patrick’s 14 Pave Hawks were being prepared was already looking forward to my flight for launch
for our mission.
attempt number two.
After talking with the crew and going over
emergency scenarios, such as learning how to safely
bail out of a Pave Hawk, the APUs started and the
choppers came alive. Our pilot was Colonel Jeffrey
“SKINNY” Macrander, who just so happens to be the
Commander of the 920th Rescue Wing - responsible for
I returned Monday night, May 21, at 10:30 p.m. to
the management and supervision of some 1,700 citizen
airmen under his command. A veteran of Operations do it all over again, but this time with Lt. Colonel Rob
Allied Force, Northern Watch, Noble Eagle, Southern Haston piloting our Pave Hawk. Lt. Colonel Haston has
Watch and Operation Enduring Freedom, Colonel been supporting rocket launches for nearly twenty
Macrander is a rated command pilot and has over years, piloting Pave Hawks and clearing the range for
4,500 hours of flight time in five different military aircraft. nearly every launch since 1995 - including Space Shuttle
He was also part of the crew who rescued ambushed launches and landings. He has witnessed three rockets
explode, so he understands first hand the importance
Navy SEALS in the Afghan mountains in 2005.
“They usually like us to clear
the box about two hours prior
to launch. Since it is 2:00 a.m.
we don’t expect a whole lot of
small boats out there, but we still
get the commercial traffic that
cruises back and forth,” said Col.
Macrander minutes before our
flight. “The big boats are always
up on a maritime frequency,
so we have a special radio in
the Pave Hawk to call and talk
to the boats. We’ll tell them to
either speed up, change their
course, or slow down so that
they are not in the range for
the launch window. We’ll call
the coordinates into the control
office at the Cape and they will
plot it, do some math, and let us
know what the boaters need to
do to stay out of the range. A lot
of times the small boats are just
fishing and not monitoring their Pave Hawk “Jolly 1” preparing to take to the skies to clear the Eastern Range in support
radios, so sometimes we have of the SpaceX Falcon 9 COTS-2 launch.
to come down there and hover
pretty close to get their attention and let them know of the 920th’s role in securing the Eastern Range for a
launch.
with hand gestures to get on the radio.”
“I liken supporting rocket launches to fishing. There
I would find out later that evening just how close they
get to those small fishing boats not paying attention are a lot of nuances to range clearing that I’ve
experienced over the
to their radios. We even hovered
years,” said Lt. Col.
within 200 feet of a boater who
Haston. “You get to
was sound asleep, using the noise
know the type of boats
from the rotors and flashing bright
and generally where
spotlights on his boat to wake him
they are going. A lot
up. I can only imagine his reaction,
of different skills are
waking up to an Air Force Pave
- Lt. Colonel Rob Haston involved depending
Hawk circling him in the middle of
on the type of boats
the night.
you are dealing with. You may be dealing with a 1,000As for the launch, it scrubbed 0.5 seconds before
liftoff. A second launch attempt was scheduled for foot freighter with a non-English speaking captain,
three days later. In the meantime I had a different or a brand new boat owner in a sailboat.” Lt. Col.
Dragon’s
Breath
“I liken supporting rocket launches
to fishing. There are a lot of nuances
to range clearing.”
www.RocketSTEM.org
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