Warbird Information Exchange

From; Branson Dailey News

Crews dedicated to preservation
By Cal Hiebsch
BDN Staff Writer

When J.R. “Skip” Lam greets a group of passengers under the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation tent, he tells them about the helicopter they will be riding in, the safety harness, and the pilot.

Each of the pilots have made a career in aviation; they fly these warbird Hueys on the weekend, for the fun of it. They have thousands of flying hours, Lam says, “and some are in choppers.”

Then he grins, and the crowd laughs. Most of these pilots have been flying longer than their kids have been alive. For Lam, it was 22 years in the Air Force Special Operations that puts him behind the stick of these aircraft. For George Meeker, Master Crew Chief for the foundation, it’s been a little longer.

“I train the other crew chiefs,” said Meeker.

He’s been flying since he was drafted in 1967, and does it now so the memory of what went on in Vietnam won’t die.

For eight years, since Meeker retired from Bell South, he has spent the winter in his home state of Georgia, maintaining these pieces of flying history, and then in the summer, he takes groups of veterans and their kids for a ride.

The aircraft they are using in Branson to give rides, UH-1H Hueys, are museum quality restorations of helicopters that served in Vietnam, flying thousands of operations into enemy-held territory.

According to Lam, between the three helicopters that were giving rides, there are a total of more than 3,500 combat sorties over Vietnam.

Now those planes are restored to look exactly like they did in those days, just a little neater.

“When you look at that aircraft today,” said Lam, “it looks just the way it did when it landed in an LZ, but it was probably dirtier.”

The helicopters carry actual machine guns mounted on the sides to enhance the reality, but the military made sure they couldn’t be fired before they sold them as surplus.

The Hueys are only one of the 45 types of aircraft the group flies. The Army Aviation Heritage Foundation is the only group in the world that the FAA certifies to take passengers up in restored warbirds.

They do it for the same reason that George Meeker still does it — because they love it, and they don’t want the memory to
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Beating The Air Into Submission
Robbie

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Fly Fast Make Noise!

The only ones certified ? Gee, I'll bet Mike and Skip didn't know they were that special !!

Skip still flys for the Army and racked up some pretty tough missions during the Katrina rescues. Stuff we didn't see on TV.

The Army Aviation Heritage Foundation is the only group in the world that the FAA certifies to take passengers up in restored warbirds

We were first. I filled out SOP's Drug testing policies and spend many hours when we got started. My dad was diagnosed with cancer, and we've been out of it since. We hope to have our waiver back soon!

Oscarduece I'm not sure I follow. Army Aviation Heritage is flying their ride program with the same experimental exemption letter the other folks are flying on. (Collings,CAF,EAA,Liberty Bell, Barbie III, etc...)

What cert are you talking about?

Rick,
We were under the same program. Our UH-1H were Experimental so we needed the same waiver to fly. We did this in 1995 and after mountains of paperwork, were able to get the exemption to fly to help pay the maintainence on the helicopters. We flew 992 and 658, both vets of Viet Nam.

Regulations do not allow experimental aircraft to fly for hire, so we needed to file for the exeption like EAA CF, AAH, etc.

OK, that covers the certification. I thought that there may be something different that you were flying under.

I found it funny that AAHF was characterized in the article as the ONLY organizations who had FAA certification to fly passengers.

Yup, many others do (EAA, CF etc), but Their group and ours were the only ones to try with the Hueys to my knowledge.

Please remember that a "news guy" did the write up and we all know how details can get in the way of a good story

If it was a AAHF press release I'd question the details a bit more (IMO)

Tim

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www.tailhookstudio.com

If anyone is interested in the Vietnam War and likes to read. There is a small book that was published by the crewchief who flew 658 that oscardeuce had mentioned. Full tail number was 67-17658.
the book is
"an eagles eye view" by Terry Willman

You can get them from HIM on ebay.

Let me know when you get your blessing to fly again oscar deuce. I would non-rev out for a weekend......Help pull some maint on something (cert A&P) and would pay for fuel for a ride in a UH-1!!!! I only have one request..........."low level"

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Long Live the N3N-3 "The Last US Military Bi-Plane" 1940-1959
Badmouthing Stearmans on WIX since 2005