Early Tomorrow Morning Loud Helicopter Landing

(5/18 update: UW said that the low cloud cover between JBLM and campus forced the unit to cancel the flight for safety reasons. They may try to do this again next year.)


Tomorrow about 5:50am, the UW's Officer Training program  (ROTC), will land a very loud helicopter at Intermural Field #2 Landing Helistop in the parking lot near Union Bay.

The UW said that the landing needs to happen early so as not to avoid conflict with UW classes, which begin at 8:30am.

The UW said "that a team of JBLM reigning commanders are visiting to meet with army ROTC students. Students will meet with their future leadership and learn about loading and unloading a Blackhawk." 

The helicopter will follow instructions from AirLift NW for their approach, including making an approach from the water, not over residential neighborhoods.  

The UW ROTC Commander told the Laurelhurst Community Club  (LCC):

I will make sure that the helicopter shuts down its engines as soon as possible after landing and that we minimize the amount of time that the engine is running during the morning.  

If any of your residents are interested, they would be more than welcome to come down and observe the training.   

We generally conduct our leadership labs (our equivalent of a chemistry or physics lab) from 6-8am every Thursday.  We conduct physical fitness training most other mornings of the week.  

We do try to be considerate of the local community whenever we are conducting training at this hour. For example, if we are running in the local neighborhoods, we ensure that our students travel in smaller groups and do not call cadence or sing as they move.