FM-Whip

I've seen photos of at least 3 different "scoop" devices over the years....

Photo of this accident at GRK that I took and then was used in the Army Aviation Digest, October 1979, page 56:

I was there in the tower at GRK when that happened. I don't remember an autorotation - I remember a series of run-on landings that I had been watching, except for the one in which the accident occured - I had just turned around and was headed for the stairs. It was a Saturday or Sunday (I can't remember which) and the tower crew were playing cards and running traffic from the card table. They were issuing clearances without actually watching the runway, and there was only one bird in the pattern, the Cobra. It was around 12:30 PM to 1:00 PM or so, just at lunchtime. I had seen the fire tr

In the mid-1960s, 45% of Americans smoked. In fact, it's ironic that in Vietnam the US Army had an ongoing anti-smoking campaign, because smoking was "hazardous to your health". Tell that to combat troops..

I heard a rumor many years ago that "Low Level Hell" had been optioned to Hollywood, so some studio may be sitting on that option. Hugh would neither confirm or deny...

When I was at Fort Hood from 1977-79, we still had some AH-1Gs with blue glass. Often it was a mix of blue and clear on the same bird. I saw a dumpster full of blue glass one day.

Sorry to disagree but this information is incorrect. If you look at TM-55-1500-345-23 "Painting and Marking of Army Aircraft", chapter 8 shows examples of the font. The US Army block letters used for aircraft do not conform to any commercial font that I know of. Amarillo USAF is similar but not 100% the same. It's easier to see the differences if you look at the numbers - the 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 differ. In "U.S. ARMY", S and M differ significantly, for example. I researched this years ago and was going to develop a PostScript/TrueType font for the Army helicopter markings but

I'm pretty sure the photo of the OH-6 being loaded into the C-130 was taken on the ramp at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. The U-21 in the background probably belongs to the US Army Intelligence Center. John Hairell

Sheesh - can't even spell my name right....:-) John HAIRELL

Here's a photo I found several years ago: https://vietnamwar.govt.nz/photo/hughes-helicopter-chi-lang-1972

Hugh must be getting old. Most photos of 17340 "Miss Clawd IV" in RVN show it with black skids AND skid legs. It also had side exhausts late in the war. John Hairell

Of the last two photos, the bottom one looks like it was taken at Ft. Hood, although the pilots have 101st patches so it may be Campbell. Top one may be Germany. As an aside, I've heard that on MERDC paint on helicopters, painting the tops of the blades was always problematic as the different weights of paint caused imbalances. So the question was to paint or not to paint. The tops of the blades could be used for some interesting non-standard artistic patterns also. I've seen some photos of aircraft from the 101st where much artistic license was used. John Hairell

The top 3 photos were taken at Ft. Hood and were shot as a series for Project MASSTER. The 4th photo also looks like Ft. Hood. This paint scheme used the MERDC paints which were widely used on vehicles. When I was stationed at Hood from 1977 to 1979 there were quite a lot of helicopters still sporting the MERDC camo patterns, which dated from late 1972. Almost all the 2nd Armored Div birds were MERDC, as well as some of the 6th ACCB. There were many, many variations. The most notable variation at Hood were the UH-1Hs of the III Corps Flight Detachment based at Robert Gray AAF, which had

CH-47 unit I rode with at Ft. Hood in 1978 had some people who would be connected with the monkey strap who faced forwards and leaned back, with only their boots on the back edge of the ramp, as in, "Look Ma, no hands". The next step for those brave enough was to step off the ramp backwards and ride the blast behind the aircraft, this being highly illegal, of course. I was offered a trial but declined. On one flight where they did this they had a WAC try it, but after she hooked up they flew over Lake Belton, came to a low hover, and dunked her in the lake. After they pulled her up, we fl

Here's one for the gang:

The antenna being attached to a tab on the sync elevator might not be a major issue if the tab is lined up with the axis of rotation... John Hairell tpn18@yahoo.com

I had a conversation with the Little Bird Project Officer circa 1991 and he told me the J models were the first Little Birds with a common wiring system so that any MH could become an AH and vice-versa - not that it happened on a daily basis but that the capability was there. He also said that prior to the J models standardization was not well done and there were many airframes with mission mods particular to a specific aircraft so that the 160th had a hodge-podge of mods. I believe the current AH/MH-6Ms follow the same standardization philosophy as the Js, which is why they call them "A/MH-

I wonder if some of the 160th airframes don't have a full history, and DOD doesn't want to take a chance legally. I know some of the LB airframes originated on the civilian market and were modified. The FAA might not let them fly in the civilian arena because of this. What you've got is an aircraft that was originally certified only for civilian use and which has subsequently probably been through multiple rounds of non-civilian standard, non-FAA-sanctioned modifications and which may have a damage history due to operations. Also I wouldn't put it past the Army to have put together airfram

Floyd, Look at: http://www.airliners.net/photo/Untitled/Hughes-500MD-Defender-369MD/166056/L http://www.airliners.net/photo/South-Korea-Army/Hughes-Korean-Air-500MD-Scout-Defender-369MD/1451928 http://www.airliners.net/photo/Israel-Air-Force/Hughes-500MD-Lahatoot-369MD/1447906 http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/000348895.html Close-up from back (photos not mine): Tail cone detail:

The survival vest appears to be incorrect for the 70s timeframe. The OD survival vests I believe came into use in the late 80s. All the survival vests I ever saw in Army use in the late 70s/early 80s were the sage green SRU-21/P.

Other thing to add: this bird has had the Doppler gear mounted underneath the fuselage. It also has the IR button and slime lights. Tail rotor is the later metal (vs earlier Fiberglas) type. Always wondered if the upper rear window opening was faired in with new metal or plastic and then the VHF whip was mounted to it. The wirestrike gear being left on this a/c is also interesting. Supposedly this photo was taken on a visit to Rucker. John Hairell (tpn18@yahoo.com)

Just to confuse things a little bit more, an AH-6J that was brought up to Andrews circa 1990 had a satin black finish. The pilot and a crewchief verified the paint was not flat black and both called it "satin black". The pilot indicated that it was not an off-the-shelf paint. There were areas of weathering and touch-ups in various shades which were all flat, and extensive (but thin) greenish staining on the sides and undersides from minigun blast. So study photos of specific aircraft and when and where... Probably the blackest/shiniest part of the aircraft was where oil had ru

A few comments: There's a range of helo pix right now up on eBay which show several California-based law-enforcement 5XX-based machines that show both T panels and I panels for both pointy-nosed and round-nosed aircraft. See the following as an example and check out the seller's other helo pix: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Law-Enforcement-HELICOPTER-MD-500-Series-Vintage-Found-Photo-FREE-SHIPPING-7218/192298272720?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D2%26asc%3D41376%26meid%3D8f8a9f06a86c4a77b44959bc1485e8a8%26pid%3D100623%26rk%3D2%26rkt%3D6%26sd%3D192298272730&

Flogging a dead horse one more time: the book is usable but has issues. At a minimum they could have done basic spell-checking and proofreading. And at least in my copy the photographic reproductions are lacking. BTW, there are other published references on the H-21 but they are not in English. This posting was spell-checked. :-) John Hairell tpn18@yahoo.com

If the book was self-published, the most obvious thing they could have done is run a basic spell-check in whatever software package they were using, assuming the original was not hand-written or typed on a typewriter. They could have also gotten friends to check it for free. If the manuscript was sent off to a publisher the publisher should have done a proof-reading, and/or sent galleys back to the authors for proofreading prior to publication. Some publishers (especially a well-know military book publisher) don't offer any editorial or proofreading services, so it's up to the author(s) to