SUBS17
07-19-2005, 05:01
Heres a cool story I heard today about a Huey pilot during the Vietnam war.
Folks,
I feel like the old man about to sit around the campfire with the
other village warriors to relate the battles of years past.
To those of you who haven't piloted a Huey there are a couple of
things that I must explain. One is that there is an engine and
rotor tachometer in one instrument. The two needles don't split
while the engine is running so I will mention only engine tach
speed. In normal flight the tach is at 6600 rpm. If you pull more
power than the engine can maintain it will "bleed off." The tail
rotor works as an anti torque blade. If you bleed off below 5800
rpm you can expect to lose tail rotor control. The aircraft might
still fly without spinning on its axis if your airspeed is up to
about 35 knots. However, the lower your tach goes the slower you
blades go and the less likely you will stay airborne. The second is
that the "D" model Hueys had an older L-11 engine which was not as
powerful as the L-13 in the "H" models. This meant that the weight
in relation to the density altitude of the surrounding air became
critical. In this particular situation my aircraft could not get
off of the ground with more than 7 fully loaded pacs (a term we used
for passengers). Finally, we had two M-60 machine guns on bugi-
chords on each side of the aircraft. This was the last mission
which didn't have them on mounts.
There were five ships in formation, we were the last, tail-end
Charlie. When choppers fly in formation they are stacked higher
than each other as you go back (the opposite of fixed wing) because
of the rotor wash. Tail-end Charlie is usually last to touch down
and the first to lift off. This particular PZ was especially hot
and it was decided to extract the unit and attack from a different
direction with a larger force. After pounding the daylights out of
them with arty first. As we approached the flight commander called
and told the troops not to overload the last aircraft. Of course,
in the confusion and most notably after the treeline opened fire on
us we ended up with 8 fully loaded pacs. As I tried to lift off, I
couldn't get to a stable hover, much less come out with the
formation and all the disturbed air. I had to wait. This creates
an extremely hazardous situation as the (2) gunships cannot cover
the outgoing flight and a stranded bird. I had to hover back to the
bigginning of the PZ by "bouncing" the aircraft in order to take
full advantage of space and come out into the wind (it's also called
translation) or what we called free air. Bouncing the aircraft
until enough speed was attained, I exited the PZ, sort of. My chin
bubbles and skids were making a heck of a racket as we passed
through the trees. My tach was at 5400 and we were almost
sideways. I could visibly see the blades as they came around and
wondered what kind of a wish and a prayer kept us airborne. At this
juncture one of the Rebel gunships radioed the C & C aircraft and
informed him that we will need to get an extraction team and troops
to recover the tail-end Charlie aircraft as he was about to crash
into the trees. We called the gunship and told him not to give up
on us just yet as we were still in the air. It was about then that
we noticed the river. I nosed the bird down and built the airspeed
up enough to make a gradual ascent out and join up with the flight.
As you might expect, I was greatly relieved but still slightly
concerned as I knew we took several hits in the aircraft. None of
the warning lights came on and control functions were OK, but I
couldn't wait to get to Phu Loi and see where we were hit. The Crew
Chief and Gunner went in to clean their weapons and my first pilot
and I stayed to inspect the bird. I knew I had felt them, but
couldn't find them until we looked under th aircraft. There they
were, but they looked like they came out rather than in. Closer
inspection revealed that all of the "hits" we had taken were from
the Crew Chief as he followed his target into the aircraft and UP
THE BACK OF MY SEAT!!! The last bullet had hit the armour plating
about two inches from the top. One more round and he would have
gotten the back of my head. Even more interesting was the fact that
he didn't even know it. The door mounts were installed on all birds
afterward.
Folks,
I feel like the old man about to sit around the campfire with the
other village warriors to relate the battles of years past.
To those of you who haven't piloted a Huey there are a couple of
things that I must explain. One is that there is an engine and
rotor tachometer in one instrument. The two needles don't split
while the engine is running so I will mention only engine tach
speed. In normal flight the tach is at 6600 rpm. If you pull more
power than the engine can maintain it will "bleed off." The tail
rotor works as an anti torque blade. If you bleed off below 5800
rpm you can expect to lose tail rotor control. The aircraft might
still fly without spinning on its axis if your airspeed is up to
about 35 knots. However, the lower your tach goes the slower you
blades go and the less likely you will stay airborne. The second is
that the "D" model Hueys had an older L-11 engine which was not as
powerful as the L-13 in the "H" models. This meant that the weight
in relation to the density altitude of the surrounding air became
critical. In this particular situation my aircraft could not get
off of the ground with more than 7 fully loaded pacs (a term we used
for passengers). Finally, we had two M-60 machine guns on bugi-
chords on each side of the aircraft. This was the last mission
which didn't have them on mounts.
There were five ships in formation, we were the last, tail-end
Charlie. When choppers fly in formation they are stacked higher
than each other as you go back (the opposite of fixed wing) because
of the rotor wash. Tail-end Charlie is usually last to touch down
and the first to lift off. This particular PZ was especially hot
and it was decided to extract the unit and attack from a different
direction with a larger force. After pounding the daylights out of
them with arty first. As we approached the flight commander called
and told the troops not to overload the last aircraft. Of course,
in the confusion and most notably after the treeline opened fire on
us we ended up with 8 fully loaded pacs. As I tried to lift off, I
couldn't get to a stable hover, much less come out with the
formation and all the disturbed air. I had to wait. This creates
an extremely hazardous situation as the (2) gunships cannot cover
the outgoing flight and a stranded bird. I had to hover back to the
bigginning of the PZ by "bouncing" the aircraft in order to take
full advantage of space and come out into the wind (it's also called
translation) or what we called free air. Bouncing the aircraft
until enough speed was attained, I exited the PZ, sort of. My chin
bubbles and skids were making a heck of a racket as we passed
through the trees. My tach was at 5400 and we were almost
sideways. I could visibly see the blades as they came around and
wondered what kind of a wish and a prayer kept us airborne. At this
juncture one of the Rebel gunships radioed the C & C aircraft and
informed him that we will need to get an extraction team and troops
to recover the tail-end Charlie aircraft as he was about to crash
into the trees. We called the gunship and told him not to give up
on us just yet as we were still in the air. It was about then that
we noticed the river. I nosed the bird down and built the airspeed
up enough to make a gradual ascent out and join up with the flight.
As you might expect, I was greatly relieved but still slightly
concerned as I knew we took several hits in the aircraft. None of
the warning lights came on and control functions were OK, but I
couldn't wait to get to Phu Loi and see where we were hit. The Crew
Chief and Gunner went in to clean their weapons and my first pilot
and I stayed to inspect the bird. I knew I had felt them, but
couldn't find them until we looked under th aircraft. There they
were, but they looked like they came out rather than in. Closer
inspection revealed that all of the "hits" we had taken were from
the Crew Chief as he followed his target into the aircraft and UP
THE BACK OF MY SEAT!!! The last bullet had hit the armour plating
about two inches from the top. One more round and he would have
gotten the back of my head. Even more interesting was the fact that
he didn't even know it. The door mounts were installed on all birds
afterward.