This is a picture of the crew that picked me up. I was recently told that the Fulton recovery system was use in the new Batman movie.

Inside the C130

Good morning I hope you slept well.

Once the C130 hits the line the line is secured by the whiskers on the nose of the C130. Since the line is nylon and is braided there is a fair amount of stretch to it and it took a second or so for me to be lifted off the ground. When I did go, I went streight up and then there was a rubber band effect and I was snached in the direction of travel, I pulled a few G's at that time. There I was, trailing along 500 feet behind an airplane. Once stablized I could look down between my legs and watch the jungle passing below. It was great. At this time the line that I was attached to was below and behind the aircraft. The crew used a steel bomb, attached to a pully and winch, to snag the line. You can see the bomb being lowered in the left picture and the winch in the right picture. Once the line is secured to the winch I am pulled into the aircraft. The blue arrow is pointing at me. What a ride.

Fulton recovery cont.1

A special C130 comes by and if you look closely at the left picture you can see two things. A pair of whisker looking things that the pilot will use to engage the line on the balloon and if you look really close you will see or might see a wire extending from the whiskers out the end of each wing. This wire is serrated and it does two things, if the pilot misses the line the line will slide along the wire and it will be cut releasing me before I am even lifted off the ground, or so the theory goes. Also by cutting the line the line will not be caught up in the propellers. That would be a bad thing for everyone.

I'll talk about what happens in the airplane after the pick up later. I'm tired now.

Good night

Fulton recovery cont.

Once it is fully inflated you play out the line at a moderate rate until all the line is out. Then you sit down with your back to the wind as I am doing on the right and wait. By the way, while I was sitting there I was wondering what in the heck did I get myself into.

More Fulton recovery

Once you get the suit on you roll out the balloon, hook up the helium and begin inflating it. It takes both helium containers to fully inflate the balloon.

I'll try it again

The Fulton recovery system has three container as you can see. One has the suit that I am putting on, the balloon that you will see shortly along with 500 feet of braided nylon line. The other two containers are bottled helium. There is an instruction card that only has pictures. You don't have to be literate to use this device.

The Fulton Recovery System

This will be a little bit out of sequence. I'm putting it here now because I haven't gotten my PI slides back yet and it's been a while since I've posted. In late 1970 I was asked if I wanted to participate in a Fulton recovery pick up. I had seen it twice before. One was another survival instructor, I can't recall his name at this time, the other was from the recovery unit. So I was familiar with what I was being asked to do and I said yes. The following slides I put together from personal photographs and information off the web. The ground pictures were taken by Butch Poe and the photos from the recovery aircraft were taken by Tim Batrell. This system was also know as the "Skyhook". This is the patch that the crews wore on their flight suits.