Chinook HC2 range

[Melchett01]

Hope some kind soul can point me in the right direction. I'm trying to get an idea of the range for the HC2s we used to operate in the early 2000s for an informal piece of staff work I'm engaged in. Nobody seems to know and the one person I had hoped might know has just quoted figures for Mk5 and 6. I've tried to work this out myself but as I understand it the Mk5 is the upgraded Mk3, but if memory serves we never actually got the Mk3s beyond the hangars and reverted them back to Mk2s. Janes, my go to bible for this sort of geekery hasn't helped either and neither have the numerous technical manuals I've stumbled across.

So would the Mk5 range figures I've been given be a reasonably accurate representation of the figures for a Mk2 or am I getting my Mks mixed up and the Mk2/3/5 timeline isn't a simple developmental chain? Apologies if it's a dumb question, but frankly I'm currently working so far from the front line in a staff job that I have to send my laundry forward. You'd have thought it would be a simple thing to find out how far you can fly an aircraft ... apparently not.

[Just This Once...]

Big tanks - more range (with less hover performance at any given weight). The big tanks remained in situ when reverted from Mk3 and when subsequently upgraded to Mk5.

Small tanks - standard range (with more hover performance).

As ever, extra internal fuel can be fitted as role equipment and the whole fuel, weight, balance, performance argument does not always produce simple answers. JHC and Air Cmd have a nice ready-reckoner for standard configurations if you ask.

[Cows getting bigger]

Tricky question. Are you talking standard model or one with Andover ferry tanks in the back? After that, someone needs to do a power/speed/mass calculation. It’s not a simple 450nm answer.

[PPRuNeUser0211]

What cows said, check you pm's

Edit to add:

MK3 (fat) became mk5 (fat tank with semi glass cockpit + digital autopilot)

MK2 (thin tank, buys various incl. Upgraded MK1) became MK4 (thin semi glass cockpit + analogue autopilot)

Mk6 is new buy thin semi glass cockpit +digital autopilot

MK4 became mk6a (as Mk6 but upgraded and therefore different build standards but to similar effect)

[minigundiplomat]

Melchett, PM Sent

[Melchett01]

Thank you all for your help and PMs - once again the 'PPruNe virtual crewroom' comes up with an answer! I'll try asking an easier question next time - meaning of life or string theory.

[Training Risky]

Hi mate. The HC2s we flew in 2002 were able to do roughly 2.5 hrs at 120 kts = 300 nm. (hazy memory and without checking my FDM, but This was without the internal tanks and when the only fat tanks were on a mk3 hidden in a hangar somewhere). We must have used the ferry tanks for long range trips because I remember doing some long trips in a oner:
1. Souda Bay,Crete-Akrotiri (500-odd nm).
2. Clermont Ferrand, France - Odiham.
​​​​​​The Fadecs were dodgy too but that's another story.