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I know most of the experts have moved on from ARC but hoping someone can help with a few questions for a 1972 vintage Cobra I’m building - 

 

Were the tube-style skids a feature of later production Cobras or were they just random field mods?

 

Main rotor blades - black or OD?

 

Anyone have pictures of those sand shields (I think that’s what they are called) That were installed on the main rotor hub?

 

TIA.  

 

 

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I'll take a whack at it.  

The tube-style skids were always there.  THey were just covered with the aerodynamic fairings.  It was up to the unit if they wanted to remove them or not.  They were a pain in the butt and broke frequently.  More towards the end of Vietnam did units start leaving them off.  It will depend on the unit and aircraft.  "The Gladiator" had them removed.

 

Main rotor blades, black on the bottom.  OD on top with 6 inch yellow marking at the tip.  Early war some had 1/3rd painted white, 1/3rd the way down the blade on top only.  Later some were painted all white on top and the other was OD.  But the standard according to the paint manual was black bottom, OD top with yellow markings on the end top and bottom

 

The sand shields were almost always installed in Vietnam because of the dust.  

Floyd

Debris Deflector small.jpg

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9 hours ago, Floyd S. Werner, Jr. said:

I have them.  I just need to make the instructions and package them 
Floyd

I'm not in a huge rush but if it helps, I can certainly do without the packaging (and unless there is major surgery required), the instructions as well.    Now, if I can just nudge you into doing those Cobra decals in 32nd, (modeling) life will be very good indeed. 

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On 2/28/2023 at 10:11 AM, midnightprowler said:

What do a 1/32 pair run?

I think I can do it for $7.  

Floyd

18 hours ago, 11bee said:

I'm not in a huge rush but if it helps, I can certainly do without the packaging (and unless there is major surgery required), the instructions as well.    Now, if I can just nudge you into doing those Cobra decals in 32nd, (modeling) life will be very good indeed. 

I have the 1/48 ones on the site now.  I should get the 1/32nd ones in this weekend.

Floyd

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5 hours ago, Floyd S. Werner, Jr. said:

 

I have the 1/48 ones on the site now.  I should get the 1/32nd ones in this weekend.

Floyd

 

Can you post a link? I've looked at your site and can't find them...

 

Jon

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1 hour ago, Floyd S. Werner, Jr. said:

They should be up

Floyd

 

38 minutes ago, Dave Williams said:


I see them.  Make sure you select “next page” at the bottom of the 1/48 product listing.  It’s set 48-22.

 

Well that's embarrassing for me! Thanks for the pointers - I've found them 🙂

 

Jon

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  • 2 weeks later...
6 hours ago, jonbryon said:

I have two sets of 48-22 available in the UK, otherwise postage from US is $25!

 

PM me if interested.

 

Jon

That's the way to do it.  Get a bunch together and order.  I swear the EU just doesn't want small businesses to do business there.  The latest regulations are making me seriously reconsider dealing with the EU, even though they make up a large portion of my sales

Floyd

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On 2/27/2023 at 10:57 AM, Floyd S. Werner, Jr. said:

I'll take a whack at it.  

The tube-style skids were always there.  THey were just covered with the aerodynamic fairings.  It was up to the unit if they wanted to remove them or not.  They were a pain in the butt and broke frequently.  More towards the end of Vietnam did units start leaving them off.  It will depend on the unit and aircraft.  "The Gladiator" had them removed.

 

Main rotor blades, black on the bottom.  OD on top with 6 inch yellow marking at the tip.  Early war some had 1/3rd painted white, 1/3rd the way down the blade on top only.  Later some were painted all white on top and the other was OD.  But the standard according to the paint manual was black bottom, OD top with yellow markings on the end top and bottom

 

The sand shields were almost always installed in Vietnam because of the dust.  

Floyd

Debris Deflector small.jpg

In the late 70's they had an accident with an AH-1G doing non standards.  They executed an autorotation and when the bird hit the runway, the skid snapped, and it rolled over.  Turnes out quality control of the sub making the skid cross tubes was not quite that good.  At Ft Hood they pulled the covers off and started mounting 19 shot pods on the outboard stations when they did non standards, just in case.  (Non Standards > Running landings, autorotation's, stuck peddle, and simulated hydraulics off).  Lots of fun.

 

I was doing a hydraulic off running landing in a UH-1H and the attitude indicated failed with all the shaking and shuttering.  When I looked at it, it was just a grey blur.  If you want to do a nonstandard bird, you have to simulate the cast iron welded full length skid shoes.  I think the bead was on the order of a 1/2 tall and about an inch wide.  the sides of the weld lines were always rusted, but the bottoms were always bright and shinny...

Edited by BWDenver
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  • 2 months later...
On 3/20/2023 at 12:26 PM, BWDenver said:

In the late 70's they had an accident with an AH-1G doing non standards.  They executed an autorotation and when the bird hit the runway, the skid snapped, and it rolled over.  Turnes out quality control of the sub making the skid cross tubes was not quite that good.  At Ft Hood they pulled the covers off and started mounting 19 shot pods on the outboard stations when they did non standards, just in case.  (Non Standards > Running landings, autorotation's, stuck peddle, and simulated hydraulics off).  Lots of fun.

 

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 truck crew sitting outside the fire station next door, taking the sun.  Suddenly we heard the fire truck sirens starting up, and the phone from the fire station rang. The guy from the fire station said to the controller, "Hey, you see this crash right out here?".  Right in front of the tower there was a big cloud of dust just settling, with a Cobra laying on its side off of the runway.   Luckily the crew made it out OK but it was a close thing.  When I got over there the crew was still on-scene and pretty shaky.  Later in the day I photographed the wreckage for the accident investigation.  I knew the division aviation officer and he had told me previously they always had trouble getting a photographer for accidents.  I told Ops that when the investigation team got out there if they needed a photographer to give me a call.  Sure enough, about 5 PM after I had gotten home I got a call to go back to GRK and to bring my camera, and to hurry before it got dark. The wreck was interesting - the right front skid had dug into the runway, and the Cobra spun around and went off the right side.  One of the blades hit the ground digging a huge gouge in the dirt.  That ripped the transmission out, and now being at a sharp angle from horizontal the other blade came around and hit the top of the front canopy.  If it had been 6 inches lower it probably would have decapitated the front seater.  When I was photographing the wreck the division aviation officer had me wait a minute as he safed the pyros for the windshields which the pilots had forgotten to do.  That was something "I had not seen"...there were bits of that aircraft scattered far and wide.  I had to take photos from the farthest bit of debris back to the main airframe, and there were parts that were 300 feet away.  There was a lot of fiberglass in the top end of a Cobra, and a lot of it was shredded and went flying.  Also the tailboom was broken off.  To make a long story shorter, my slides were developed by the 1st Cav photo section, and sent off to Rucker.  The division aviation officer was very happy with my photography and I got an attaboy.  A year or so later I was in Korea and saw one of the photos I took in the Army Aviation Digest magazine, illustrating some story about another accident.  I heard later that the GRK crash was caused by faulty welding on the skids by a Bell sub-contractor which prompted a fleet-wide inspection.

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Interesting!  I got the info second hand about the crash.  Always good to get a firsthand account.  I think at the time I was flying with the 218th Med Det RC out of Hood Feild.  We worked Monday - Friday, and only during the day as we only had two birds and 6 pilots, 3 RLO's and 3 WO's.  When that unit stood down, I moved over to 3/507th Lifesaver at RGAA.  So, I likely launched from the bottom of the tower when you were there. 

 

Cheers,

 

Bryan

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