PORT ANGELES — The three new helicopters delivered this month to Coast Guard Group/Air Station Port Angeles feature more reliable engines, better communications systems and — eventually — weapons.
The last of the MH-65C model helicopters was delivered last Friday to the Coast Guard base on Ediz Hook.
The base’s three HH-65C Dolphin helicopters — familiar sights around the North Olympic Peninsula for years — were flown to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island to be loaded into C-130 Hercules cargo aircraft.
From Whidbey, they’re being flown to Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point in Hawaii.
The three new copters are more versatile for the mountainous terrain of the Olympic Peninsula, the treacherous Pacific coastline and the many islands and inlets of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and Puget Sound.
“The biggest effect of the new engine is that before if we lost an engine in a hover or other high risk area, we had to either land or crash,” said Lt. Greg Torgersen, an aviation engineering officer and pilot.
“Now depending on the conditions, we can continue to hover or else make a survivable landing. That’s really the largest benefit,” he said.
