Was talking with a good friend of mine who was with MACV working with the Yard's. He told me he rode in Otters a lot and was surprised as slow as they were that the VC never shot him down. I knew Helios were in Nam but didn't know about Otters. Anyone got any more info? Contact?

Beavers, Otters, Carabos, C-123s, C-130s, and CH-47s all flew well above 3,000.' Small arms was pretty ineffective over 500' or so. 50 cal was effective up to 3,000.' If quad 50s were around, F-4s broke at 3,000.' The Vietnamese in Cessna T-37s and F-100s broke at treetop level along with us in the Cobra.

Hueys flew to hot LZs at treetop level and 100 knots. On very short final where they could not even see the LZ yet, the Cobra at 1200' called "FLAIR." That was the reason for the "cowboy" approach the ARNG had a hard time weeding out after the war.

I loaded up a Twin Otter at 7 p.m., New Year’s Eve with my emergency bag, a Thompson, coffee and a leather jacket. It was going to be a cold night flying CAP over Long Tieng. I had a very good co-pilot with me in Capt. Dan Cloud.

Read the rest of the story in the Sept 2013 Smokejumper Magazine. https://smokejumpers.com/index.php/smok ... les_id=387

contactflying wrote:Beavers, Otters, Carabos, C-123s, C-130s, and CH-47s all flew well above 3,000.' Small arms was pretty ineffective over 500' or so. 50 cal was effective up to 3,000.' If quad 50s were around, F-4s broke at 3,000.' The Vietnamese in Cessna T-37s and F-100s broke at treetop level along with us in the Cobra.

Hueys flew to hot LZs at treetop level and 100 knots. On very short final where they could not even see the LZ yet, the Cobra at 1200' called "FLAIR." That was the reason for the "cowboy" approach the ARNG had a hard time weeding out after the war.

My section rode in Slicks and occasionally S**thooks and I did a couple recon flights in OH58's, all from '74 to '78. I always sought out the Nam pilots and we always landed with plants hanging off the skids. I hated the S**thooks, one because they were so loud and two because more than once we had engine failures. The non-Nam pilots were scared of the trees.

I only got one hitchhike ride in a Chinook. The AC let me take the peter pilot's seat and hover out of ground effect for a bit. For a normal helicopter pilot the s...hook is unbelievably stable. Dynamic proactive pedal and cyclic movement: yes. But you have to pull a trigger to move the collective. The back end oscillates up and down by itself to provide dynamic stability. Set the hover altitude and the thing just sits there, the center of gravity near the front that is. It could be different with troops in the back, but the hook part is very, very stable.

Until the loud "bang"! Then the pucker factor increases as everything starts to vibrate. I guess, as I recall, it was still stable though. And I'm still here so it couldn't have been that bad.

I don't think I could ever use a parachute except in extreme structural failure. Army helicopter pilots didn't have parachutes. There was a famous Chinook pilot's radio transmission: "Mayday. Ten thousand feet. Lost front rotor. Don't hurry." They leaked a lot of hydraulic oil and made a lot of screeching noises, but they were/are tough aircraft.