45 Days at Sea True Story

This 'The 45 Days at Sea' true story adventure happened in 1990. I was serving the Navy as a helicopter pilot those days. We landed on the ship’s deck just 10 nautical miles away from the air base and harbor. The Admiral disembarked to the ship as planned.

Our helicopter engine and rotors was still running at full speed. We had carried the Admiral for some inspection onboard the ship. We were supposed to go back to base without switching off the engine and return back after 4 hours to the ship and take the Admiral back to the Naval Base.

As per plan, I made a radio call to the ship’s helicopter controller, “Hotel-Charlie this is Mike-Kilo, Admiral disembarked onboard, Permission to take off and return back to base.”

The helicopter controller replied on radio, “Orders from the Admiral, Switch off the helicopter on deck. Wait for further orders.”

I didn’t know what to reply because I and my Copilot were completely taken by surprised. But, an order is an order. And when the order came from an Admiral at Sea, we had no choice buy obey. We couldn't even dare to ask why.

We decided to stop the helicopter rotors but keep the engine running so that we can engage rotors again and take off.

I thought that the Admiral wants to go back immediately. So I said, “Hotel-Charlie this is Mike-Kilo, Roger, Stopping Rotors, but would like to keeping the engine on till the Admiral returns to the helicopter.”

Promptly the helicopter controller replied, “Shut Down Engine and Rotors.”

Even though I did not understand why he wants the engine also switched off, I replied, “Roger, Shutting Down Engine and Rotors.”

About an hour before this radio call, we were ordered to take off with the Admiral onboard for the Annual Inspection of the Ship scheduled at sea, land on the ship's flight deck at 10:00 am, disembark the Admiral, take off immediately from the ship and return back to base.

We shut down the helicopter engine and rotors reluctantly. There after, we went inside the ship to check what was going on. I met the Helicopter controller and asked, "We have no ground crew to service the aircraft before starting up again and we do not have the aircraft documents either. We won't be able to take off."

The Helicopter controller said very coolly, " I really do not know Sir, the engine shut down orders came from the Admiral directly."

I thought that the Admiral wanted to leave earlier than four hours stipulated. The Admiral’s pilots always get a special treatment in the ship. It was of course a grand lunch. We met up with a few of our old friends in the Ship's Ward Room and spent some quality time with them and had a good lunch on board the ship. After lunch we read a few old magazines lying around in the Ward Room and even had a game of Chess to pass time.

After a few hours, at 1:40 pm, an announcement came on the ship's broadcast , " The helicopter will be taking off in next 20 minutes with the Admiral onboard."

We walked from the Ward Room towards the ship’s deck, to start the helicopter engines and be ready to fly the Admiral back to the base. We reached the flight deck and manned the helicopter. We are supposed to start the helicopter engine and wait till the Admiral comes and sits on the passenger seat. Then, we are supposed to engage the helicopter rotors and take off for the base.

My copilot asked me, " Sir, How can we start the helicopter engine without after flight servicing and before flight servicing?"

I just looked at him, but didn't reply.

Once the helicopter engines and rotors are shut down, it is mandatory to carry out an After Flight Servicing immediately. Similarly, a mandatory Before Flight Servicing is also required to be carried out, without which the helicopter cannot be flown again, as per aviation regulations.

45 Days at Sea Story Starts

Something inside me was already telling me that, this 45 minutes flight was going to become a 45 days at Sea, because the ship is scheduled for a patrol mission after the inspection by the Admiral.

Pilots are not authorized to carryout any type of aircraft servicing. They have to use trained and qualified men to carry out each and every servicing. Then, the Flight engineer has to sign the necessary documents. Only after that, can a pilot accept the aircraft for flying.

Normally, if the helicopter is planned to switch off on a ship, then we would either carry the technical crew with us in the helicopter or embark the technical crew on the ship before the ship sails out from the harbor, on missions like this one, where an Admiral will be onboard our helicopter.

Both, I and my Copilot were fully aware that any violation of regulations might cost us our career. We did not put any ground crew on the ship, because we were not planning to switch off the helicopter any time on the ship.

If we switch off the engines on the ship, then another aircraft has to fly in the ground crew on board the ship to carry out the after flight servicing and the before flight servicing, for us to be able to start the engine and take off with the Admiral onboard.

The ship was planned to sail for 45 days continuously, once the Admiral completes the Annual Inspection. After the Admiral and is flown back to the base in the helicopter and the ship was to proceed for a Sea patrol mission to be undertaken 300 miles off the nearest coast.

We had to come up with a strategy immediately, because we had not come prepared to stay 45 days on the ship. We had nothing on us other than our flying clothing, which we were already wearing namely, the flying overalls, a pair of boots and socks, one pair of gloves, one underwear, one flying bone dome and that is all.

Both of us did not even carry our purse, so we had no money on us. We came empty handed for this 30 minutes flight. So the items necessary for our basic morning routine like night rigs, bathing towel, tooth brush, spare underwear, socks and uniforms were not with us.

I said to my copilot, “We don’t have a choice. We will have to beg, borrow or steal to survive 45 days on the ship.”

My copilot thought said, “Sir, that won't be necessary. Neither the ship’s crew nor the non-aviator Admiral knows about the two mandatory flight servicing before we start the helicopter and take off."

I said, "So?"

He continued, "So, we will just start the engines and take off with the Admiral back to base. We will log today’s sortie as just one long sortie instead of two sorties, adding up the time we flew.”

Although, I used to be a ‘By the Books’ guy, I replied, “Even I cannot imagine myself living, working, eating and sleeping in the same flying overalls I am wearing now, for 45 days continuously."

My copilot replied, " Sir, Why extend a 45 minutes flight to 45 days at Sea? In an emergency, everything is fair."

I said, "In a war everything is fair. In an emergency whatever we do, they are going to find fault with during the board of inquiry."

I paused, looked at him and said, "I hope you understand that if we do as you say and someone checks the aircraft documents and finds out that we took off after a switch off without doing after flight and before flight servicing, your and my flying careers in the Navy would be over.”

The two of us sat in the Sun, thinking over the consequences of starting the the engines, deciding to sail for 45 days and also about the consequences if we decided to start the engines and take off with the Admiral back to base.

About 5 minutes later I said, “I go with your suggestion. We will start up the helicopter without the inspections, take the Admiral and return back to base at 2:00 pm. But, it will be like a Cat drinking milk with its eyes closed. The Cat thinks, no one will see it stealing milk.”

My young Copilot’s face lit up with hope. But, the two of us were completely oblivious to what fate had already decided for us.

The ship was still about 30 nautical miles from the nearest shore. I reassured my self, it is going to be a 45 minutes flight and not 45 days at sea.

I finished the external inspection of the helicopter. Everything was OK. The time was 1:45 pm and I told my copilot who was already in the copilot seat and ready, “The Admiral will be here any time now. Start the engine.”

The copilot said, “Yes Sir.”

The 45 Days at Sea True Story Goes On

I stood in front of the cockpit awaiting the Admiral. Almost three minutes passed and I didn’t hear the engine starting up. I looked back at the copilot. He was frantically checking some switches, circuit breakers and was moving the engine throttle up and down. I knew something was not right. That is when he reluctantly looked at me and showed a thumbs down with his left hand.

My heart sank. The helicopter had some trouble and the engine was not starting up. What am I going to tell the Admiral and the Ship’s Captain. What reason was I going to give to my Flight Commander who had faith in me and had entrusted this important task of taking the Admiral to the ship at sea and back to base.

As I was drowning in these completely demoralizing thoughts, the Admiral walked to the Ship’s Flight Deck with the Ship’s Captain and the ship's staff in tow. The Admiral stopped walking as he saw the helicopter was not started up. He had his piercing eyes pinned on me with an expression of disbelief. The aircraft engine should have started up and ready by the time the Admiral arrives on the flight deck.

I took two steps forward, saluted the Admiral and said, “The helicopter has an engine defect, Sir.”

The Admiral replied, “That is OK son, it happens sometimes.”

As the Admiral turned around and walked back, I heard the Admiral say, “Captain, ask the base to send another helicopter.”

The Captain said, “Yes, Sir.”

The Captain stopped, looked at me with his expressionless face and said, “Inform the base on your helicopter radio about your inability to take off with the Admiral and ask for another helicopter to take the Admiral back to base. After that, push your helicopter inside the hangar to clear the flight deck for the next helicopter to land.”

I said, “Yes, Sir.”

I radioed to the base, “Approach this is Mike-Kilo, aircraft unserviceable on deck, request send another helicopter for the Admiral. Also, request the Flight Commander to send the technical team along with our aircraft documents in that helicopter for defect rectification onboard. We will disembark the ship post defect rectification.”

I moved our helicopter into the ship's helicopter hangar and secured it. Another helicopter was airborne after ten minutes and landed on the ship 30 minutes later. I got my second surprise for the day.

There were just two pilots on that helicopter and nobody else. My Flight Commander had not sent any technical crew or the aircraft documents to the ship.

The Admiral came to the flight deck immediately after that helicopter landed, boarded it, and the helicopter took off for the base. I stood there on the flight deck, watching the helicopter fly away towards base.

Hope was still alive. My Flight Commander cannot ditch me. He is going to send one more helicopter with the technical crew to rectify my helicopter. I waited on the deck till 5:00 pm. But, no helicopter came. And I had also noticed that the ship was on a constant heading, sailing into the deep sea with the coastline fading out of sight behind the ship.

As the Sun went down into the sea on the horizon, my hope to go back home also drowned. We were now going to be sailing for 45 days on a ship, on which we were only supposed to just land, disembark the Admiral and return back to base.

Days passed. Each day was more boring than the previous, as we had no flying to do and we were not even put on bridge watch duty roster, because the ship’s Captain did not want to see the two us, anywhere on his ship. Everyday, I would spend most of my time on the flight deck. I go down into the ship only after I watch the Sun going down into the sea, over the horizon.

Some of the ship’s Officers helped us by letting us buy our basic routine items from the ship’s canteen on credit. We were on the ship without any transfer documents from our base either for us or for the aircraft we flew to the ship. The two of us and our helicopter were all officially onboard but, staying illegally on the ship.

We survived 45 days of super boredom, sailing in the deep seas with nothing to see and nothing to do, wearing our flying overall by day, and sleep in borrowed bathing robes at night.

we had to wash our flying overalls ourselves at night and put to dry in the bathroom. In fact, after a week of being onboard, I was looking forward to washing my flying overall in the night, because that was the only constructive job I did once everyday.

45 Days at Sea Story Ends

On the 45th day the ship was closing the shore. I was relieved that our 45 days of boredom is finally going to end in a few hours. I hoped the technicians would arrive onboard in a helicopter, fix our helicopter engine defects and we could take off to base before the ship entered the harbor.

The shore lines kept closing in. I saw the harbor mouth as the ship sailed towards the shoreline. Then we entered the harbor and finally the ship was tied alongside the jetty. I couldn’t believe that my Flight Commander could have ditched us not once, but twice in 45 days.

The gangway was placed on the ship and sailors started disembarking to the jetty. With the helicopter still onboard the ship, the two of us had no choice but stay onboard until someone came and relieved us.

That is when I saw my Flight Commander on the jetty along with a long trailer and a few technical sailors. He had come driving his own personal car. He walked up the gangway and came straight to me.

The Flight Commander smiled and said, “Son, how was your 45 days at Sea?"

Before I could answer, he continued, "Listen, our plan is to use the jetty crane, to remove the helicopter from the ship and place it on that trailer. We have to move the helicopter by road to the airbase. You will supervise the whole operation. OK?”

He gave me no choice and I said, “Yes, Sir.”

The Flight Commander smiled at me, walked down the gangway to the jetty and vanished in his car, as quickly he had come.

I got the helicopter moved out from the hangar to the flight deck. Then I supervised the jetty crane operator to lift the helicopter safely from the ship and place it safely on the long trailer.

I cleared the traffic and moved the trailer with the helicopter loaded on it, at slow walking pace by road, till our airbase. Before sunset, the helicopter was back in our aircraft hangar, inside the airbase.

I came out of the aircraft hangar relieved. I stood there watching the sun setting behind the trees for the 46th time since the day I had landed on that ship. The only difference was that today, the Sun was setting over land, instead of over the sea.

As I watched the Sunset that evening, I felt exhilarated at the thought that, tonight I am going to sleep in my own bed and wearing my own clothes, instead of a bathrobe borrowed from someone else.

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