N3Njeff wrote:
I may be the resident N3N junkie but having rides in a P-51 and a TBM avenger at 100ft up Ft. Laud beach with another TBM in formation as some pretty good fun..........Number ONE on my list still needs to be checked off and thats on a UH-1.
I lucked up and got a couple of flights on UH-1s when I was starting out in the Army, once as a ROTC cadet going through post-advanced camp training with a line unit in 1997 and another was a very short hop as a LT the following year. That one ended quickly with a main rotor failure. For years I would have sworn that we'd fallen from a great height, but a pal of mine dug up the crash report and it says we weren't even at 100 feet. I'll trust the report, but man it felt like we were falling for hours before we hit the ground. Didn't hurt anyone other than a stiff back the next morning. I was doing PT two days later.
We also did a tour of the Pentagon (imagine a bus full of newly minted 2LTs doing that) and while walking around the outside, a UH-1 painted in Gloss 'Nam colors landed at the pad. I'm sure some General who'd maybe been a O-1 in 'Nam had ordered that paint job. There was another VIP color painted one there, too. I dont think i got any shots of that, darn it.
After that, I never saw another UH-1 being flown by the military again, not even National Guard ones.
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