{"id":62908,"date":"2026-01-15T21:20:40","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T20:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=62908"},"modified":"2026-01-24T04:09:36","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T03:09:36","slug":"the-stability-of-the-famets-ch-47f-chinook-the-largest-spanish-military-helicopter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2026\/01\/15\/the-stability-of-the-famets-ch-47f-chinook-the-largest-spanish-military-helicopter\/","title":{"rendered":"The stability of the FAMET's CH-47F Chinook, the largest Spanish military helicopter"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The \"Colonel Mat\u00e9\" Base in Colmenar Viejo, Madrid, is home to the Transport Helicopter Battalion V (BHELTRA V).<!--more--><\/p>\n<p><rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2024\/11\/16\/a-famet-pilot-explains-in-detail-the-ch-47f-chinook-helicopters-of-the-spanish-army\/\">A FAMET pilot explains in detail the CH-47F Chinook helicopters of the Spanish Army<\/a><\/rel><br \/>\n<rel><a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/07\/01\/an-elephant-as-agile-as-a-gazelle-the-great-display-of-a-spanish-ch-47f-helicopter\/\">An elephant as agile as a gazelle: the great display of a Spanish CH-47F helicopter<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n<p>That unit of the Spanish Army's Airmobile Forces (FAMET) operates <strong>the largest military helicopters in Spain: the Boeing CH-47F Chinook<\/strong>. Since April 2025, its fleet has consisted of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2025\/04\/08\/spain-has-18-ch-47-chinook-heavy-helicopters-again-30-years-later\/\">17 of these aircraft<\/a>, and the Battalion is awaiting the delivery of one more. This afternoon, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@flybywire-aviation\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fly By Wire Aviation<\/a> (a YouTube channel I recommend you subscribe to) <strong>published an interesting video showing these giants in flight:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"CHINOOK CH-47F Im\u00e1genes incre\u00edbles del Helic\u00f3ptero de las FAMET\" width=\"665\" height=\"374\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/fLhR_i2gxr8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>As I mentioned to the video's author, <strong>this is the first time I've seen the complete process of closing the rear ramp of a Chinook<\/strong>, even though I've been seeing all kinds of images of these helicopters for many years. <strong>CH-47s usually fly with the ramp open<\/strong>, either fully (with the lower door down) or partially (with the upper segment folded), which is why it's not common to see images like this.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55043111126_d088b40aec_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55043111126_3233be8a62_z.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">One of the CH-47F helicopters of BHELTRA V, the HT.17-20 ET-420. This was the first of the new Chinook Foxtrot helicopters delivered to Spain, specifically on February 1, 2022 (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boeing.es\/press-releases\/2022\/chinook-spain-handover\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Boeing<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p>Another aspect that this video allows us to appreciate is one of the characteristics of this aircraft. <strong>Despite its weight (11.1 tons empty) and being a large helicopter<\/strong> (its fuselage measures 15.6 meters long and 3.78 meters wide, and its rotors have a diameter of 18 meters), <strong>the CH-47F is a very stable helicopter, largely due to the configuration of two large tandem rotors<\/strong>, unlike most helicopters, which have a main rotor and a tail rotor to control the aircraft's rotation about its vertical axis.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><a href=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55043289023_6b5419a5a4_o.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/55043289023_0c9d93434f_z.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">Two CH-47Fs from BHELTRA V, the HT.17-20A ET-420 (below) and the HT.17-25A ET-425 (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/ejercito.defensa.gob.es\/unidades\/Madrid\/famet\/Historial\/Ucos\/BV\/index.html\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Batall\u00f3n de Helic\u00f3pteros de Trasporte V<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p>In addition, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boeing.com\/features\/2025\/05\/chinook-evolution--pioneering-autonomy-for-the-future-of-heavy-lift-operations\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the CH-47F incorporates a Digital Automatic Flight Control System (DAFCS)<\/a>, manufactured by BAE Systems, <strong>which provides enhanced stability to the aircraft<\/strong>, as well as automatic flight and handling functions, <strong>reducing the workload of its pilots<\/strong>, increasing their performance, and improving their situational awareness, especially in adverse weather conditions.<\/p>\n<div class=\"foto_piedefoto\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/54094473867_9a0a56297a_b.jpg\" style=\"width:100%; height:auto; border:0px;\" \/><\/div>\n<div class=\"piedefoto\">A Spanish CH-47F, the HT.17-26A ET-426 lifting an L-118 Light Gun howitzer and an EINSA Falcata mechanical mule during an exercise in November 2023 (Photo: <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/EjercitoTierra\/status\/1726324775155367978\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Ej\u00e9rcito de Tierra<\/a>).<\/div>\n<p><strong>The DAFCS functions as a digital brain comprised of a series of computers and software<\/strong> that act as intermediaries between the helicopter's manual controls and the rotor blades. <strong>This system includes an automatic hovering function<\/strong>, which is especially useful when operating CH-47Fs with external loads\u2014those suspended from the helicopter's lower hooks by slings. <strong>Thanks to this system, the CH-47F can handle heavy loads with remarkable stability<\/strong>, even when compared to much lighter helicopters.<\/p>\n<p>---<\/p>\n<p><small>Main image: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=fLhR_i2gxr8\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fly By Wire Aviation<\/a>.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The \u00abColonel Mat\u00e9\u00bb Base in Colmenar Viejo, Madrid, is home to the Transport Helicopter Battalion V (BHELTRA V).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11544],"tags":[11518,1052,1047,1051,1048,10557],"class_list":["post-62908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-army","tag-base-coronel-mate","tag-bheltra-v","tag-boeing-ch-47-chinook","tag-colmenar-viejo","tag-famet","tag-spanish-army"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-12 02:33:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}