SOP for ditching a UH-1?

[John90290]

http://www.stage6.com/user/Tamafine/video/...-the-helicopter

 

 

It's toward the end, insane.

[DEMO]

I know the story behind why they did it, but it still breaks my heart to se it go over. What a waste of man power, I would have taken off their hands for free, but the call never came...

[Mr.Mike]

Some thing about jumping out like that seems nuts to me, but what are the other options?

[67november]

My Uncle was one of those pilots evacuating the city, he was the last bird to take the embassy personnel, and was chased by a NV helo gun ship part way back to the ship. they had to wait their turn to off load and many of the helos were landed on the water because they ran out of fuel.

[AngelFire_91]

Yeah, look on youtube there is a video of one of the pilots jumping at like 50 feet. I'm pretty sure if it was me, I would set her down, Left cyclic, ride it out, then get out. Don't know though that's just me. Jumping seems like a last option since the helo could come back to get ya. Where if you ride it out you already know where the helo is going to be.

[TomPPL]

There's some more footage here, check out the terrifying height some of the pilots are bailing out from - truly firgthening..!

http://www.helicopter-videos.com/watch-vid...er-vietnam.html

(apologies for such a long link..!)

[Pogue]

http://www.stage6.com/user/Tamafine/video/...-the-helicopter

 

 

It's toward the end, insane.

That was "Operation Frequent Wind". I rotated to the USS Midway just after it returned from that mission. They had offloaded the fixed wing aircraft at Subic Bay, Philipines and onloaded some CH- 53's (I'm not really sure which varient.) The guys in the squadron I was in had quite a few stories, one of which was that the UH-1's that flew out there were mostly in pretty bad shape. The ones that went over the side had been stripped of avionics and anything else that could be pulled quickly. As far as the guys jumping from the helicopters I doubt many of them had any idea how high they were. Remember that part of training where they tell you not to fly low over water because you can't judge how close you are? They also dumped everythng except M-60 machine guns over the side (a bunch of weapons came on board.) The hanger bay was filled with refugees sleeping on bubble wrap. They were all dropped off in the PI when the Midway picked up all the aircraft afterwords. I still have the cruise book.