HH-1N pics: former VH-1N comes to mobile

Thats super news Ray,

I don't suppose they have the logbooks?  That would give some of the history.  Delivery, operational VH use, put in desert storage, pulled out of desert storage and put back into operational VH service and upgraded electronics.  Taken out of VH service and transformed into HH service as we see her now.  I really HATE to see aircraft I've flown go into museums..................guess my bones are getting as creaky as thiers are.

I'll look for photos Ray, but 551 has been coming up a blank as far as pics go.  There has to be some BH employees browsing here............maybe they can help some. 

Regards
Steve

Sorry to be skeptical because I don't know the museum but from what I've seen of other museums I wonder if they really have the time, expertise, money, and desire to backdate it properly to a VH-1N.  Need complete interior, steps, new cabin doors, new fairing in front of mast, etc.  I'm debating whether or not it is too much work to upgrade a model let alone a 1/1 scale aircraft.  Anyway...

Thanks for the pics.  There were only seven of them right?  158551-158557.  Might be one of these (or the one taking the picture!  Photo courtesy of Gnuuy Hennessy

Randy and Steve, 

   I am told there were 6 of them.  3 still survive.  Believe me, Mr. Thompson is gonna do it RIGHT.  He's a former Marine and FAC from Vietnam.  He has been in contact with the Bell engineers that helped with the mods, Bell is gonna send him the extended cowling with space for the AC unit, He has her logbook, he's in touch with all the folks he can find that had anything to do with flying her.  Most importantly, Bell is actively helping with the project.  He has a line on several cans of the EXACT paint use on the VH-1N.  The ALQ-144 has already been found.  Yes some things will have to be made, but Mr. Thompson even knows the color of the drapes and carpet.  they were hand picked by Nancy Reagan.  Heck, he even knows the exact spot where President Reagan kept his jelly bean jar!   Never fear guys, I've seen his work and it'll be done right or not at all.  I'm just glad I was able to document her in SAR colors.  Oh and as I'm sure you know many controls will have to be replaced.  The roof mounted pitot is going.  The two nose mounted ones are gonna be refitted.  The special collective that was usd with the autopilot system will be reinstalled.  We're talking a head to toe refurb back to VH-1N.  As much as is humanly possible anyway.

   Ray

Absolutly awesome pic's Ray ,

What I found interesting was the pic you posted of the cockpit instrument consol , It's not the actually the the consol but on the cabin floor where the foot pedals are and directly below there are two metal strips where the pilots feet would rest ; is painted the same color as the rest of the cabin floor ? . Every Huey I've built the instructions usually say to paint those metal foot strips black .

I wonder if most Huey cockpit floors are like the one you posted ???

Thank's for sharing the great pic's

                                      Kind regards John

Hey John............I was kidding of course.    Of course i'd rather see her in a museum.  I was just commenting on the aging process. 

Ray, that is very good news. 

It all depends on just what timeframe they plan to rebuild her as to what equipment. 

She was delivered originally and operated with the usual Huey sliding doors (actually they are civilian 212 doors with the emergency exits) and the standard "doghouse" tranny fairing so they wouldn't have to change the BIG stuff, panel guages on first variant looked similar. 

Early 80s is when they added to Bell 412 "doghouse" fairing to house the satcom.  They added the "cardoors" and moved the "wingdoor" at the same time for the distinctive entry.  AFCS with coupled nav and new instrumentation came at this time too.  I "seem" to remember a chrome instert over the foot extenders in front of pilot seats. 

VH-1N with standard tranny fairling but with the high tech doors. Standard Nav with roof pitot.

VH-1N 158554 in a DOD photo with all the updates, 412 fairing, AFCS with dual nose pitots (Ray), car doors.

So you can see from these photos that the changes came over a period of time but they all got standardized. 

There were only 6 VHs.  158555 went to the fleet as a standard UH-1N. 

Regards
Steve

Here are a few DOD photos of the "late" version of the VH-1N's doors and a peek at the interior.  Double layer of smoked glass.  Taxi cab style glass between cockpit and cabin for quiet.  It's as quiet as the interior of a Huey is ever gonna get. 

Regards
Steve

Steve,

  When I said Mr. Thompson was thorough I meant it.  If he cannot accurately reproduce the fancy door configuration he has plans to fall back on the original configuration using the standard Huey doors.  Believe me, he has a plan for almost every contingency.  Heck he's had her a week and already has up a display with about 8 photos of her in various VH-1N configurations and paint schemes.  We ain't talkin' amateur hour here.  Thanks for the awesome pics.  I really knew less than zero about the VH-1N birds so you guys are really educating me.  Good to learn from such knowledgable sources.

     Ray

Helo 53 wrote:

Absolutly awesome pic's Ray , What I found interesting was the pic you posted of the cockpit instrument consol , It's not the actually the the consol but on the cabin floor where the foot pedals are and directly below there are two metal strips where the pilots feet would rest ; is painted the same color as the rest of the cabin floor ? . Every Huey I've built the instructions usually say to paint those metal foot strips black . I wonder if most Huey cockpit floors are like the one you posted ??? Thank's for sharing the great pic's                                       Kind regards John

 John,

  Glad you like the pics.  As for the color of the foot rests. they can be either black or gray and can either have the raised rim around the edge or be flat.  Here's some pics of both types.

   Ray

Early UH-1B with flat black foot rests:

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 Gray with raised rim on a UH-1H (sorry my foot is in the way):

Here's a UH-1H with NVG compatible black interior so obviously the foot rests are black:

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Here's a later UH-1B with the gray raised foot rests:

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 From what i can tell, early birds had the flat black foot rests and most later ones had the raised edges and were painted gray originally but later balck again if the bird got the black NVG interior.  I hope that helps.

   Ray

Grandad,

  Roger that, sir!  I just added the thread to the master list.  Do you want more pics of the HH-1N or just the other guys VH-1N stuff?

    Ray 

Ray ,

I was wondering if you had any pic's of the internal rescue hoist for the HH-1N .

I'll need to build three of them for U.S.Navy and USMC 1/72 scale Novembers using the Fireball "Abandon Chute" decals . Squadrons Huey in action book has one pic of the rescue hoist from the side and if I remember correctly you built a internal rescue hoist for your "fire Fighting" UH-1H Huey .

I was curious where you may have found the dimensions for the hoist .

                                    John

John,

Unfortunately, the recue hoist was removed before she was flown down to Mobile.  That was the only real letdown of the day as I have been itching to do a complete walkaround of one.  Perhaps Supercobra or Steve have some shots though.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

    Ray

rotorwash wrote:

Grandad,   Roger that, sir!  I just added the thread to the master list.  Do you want more pics of the HH-1N or just the other guys VH-1N stuff?     Ray

Both

John,

  Depending on what era UH-1N you are looking to build, these hoist pics might help. I am pretty sure the newest hoists used on HH-1N are different, but I found this photo in the 1982 copy of the UH-1N manual:

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This image shows the rescue hoist to be identical to that used on Army Hueys and I CAN help with pics of those.  First here are two pics from the dash 20 organizational maintenace manual:

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Here are three pics from the Army Aviation Museum archives:

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The last shots shows the jungle penetrator attached in it's closed position.  Finally, here are three pics from the 68th AHC website that may also help.

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Good luck and i hope these help.

   Ray

Ray , those rescue hoist pic's are exactly what I need .

I greatly appreciate you posting for me

                                    Kind regards John

John,

  Your welcome.  Now get building. it's been what 5 or 6 days since you finished a helo!

 Grandad,

  I haven't forgotten about posting more HH-1N pics, just been playing with my new scanner and haven't gotten around to uploading them.  I'll post some here in a couple of days.

    Ray

Grandad,

  I post pics over the next few days.  To start with here are some open panel pics. seems everybody wants to see those as they aren't usually photographed.  the halon gas canister(s) (not sure what they look like since they were gone) has been removed. the radio and battery have been removed from teh nose compartment as well.  everything else is in place as far as i know.

   Ray

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Thanks Ray

Regards
Steve

 Ray , sorry to bug you with another question ;

The Fireball HH-1N decal sheet gives some facts about the interior arrangement of the SAR Huey and it mentions a fuel bladder in the left hand cabin well . There is a small pic on the bottom of the decal sheet with what looks to be a ribbed style fuel bladder . I was wondering if you had a closer pic in your files of a similar internal fuel bladder .

                           Kind regards John

I got your six there John. here's the fuel bladder on a UH-1N that came to Auburn year before last:

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And here's both fuel bladders from the one that visited this year.  As you can see, the left hand one was not connected, but the right hand one was.  I think these should pretty much seal the deal for ya.

   Ray

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Thank's again Ray ;

Obvisiously the Fuel Bladder isn't ribbed like I mistakenly thought , but rather there's a few 'car-like' seat belt straps that help hold the Fuel bladder in place.

Thank's for posting the pic's .

                               Kind regards John

MMMMM , I'm thinking of cutting up some fingers off some rubber gloves to see how that might closely resemble a Fuel Bladder , I'll have to get the brain ticking over on this one

Hello Fella's,

 Just happened upon this site while searching for pictures of the old VH-1N's.  I'm very pleased to see at least one is going into a musuem.

I used to work on those while a member of HMX-1 at Quantico, although I didn't get to work long.  President Carter had gotten rid of the Huey's before my arrival there in 1978, however, President Regan brought them back as I was leaving there in `82.  Beautiful aircraft though and very nice flying.  Ahhh... the good old days..... seems like only yesterday.

BTW.....sounds as if at least one of you know the gentleman restoring this old girl.  I still have a few items of interest around here I'm sure.  I know I have a couple of jelly bean jars and I'm pretty sure I still have the VH-1N booklet and seating cards..... along with Presidental patchs and who knows what else. (smile)  I'll just have to look, however, I'm leaving on a business trip in a few days so probably won't be able to get to it until I return in a week or so.

Best wishes,

Steve R.

SgtMajor, USMC, (Retired)

I also found this thread interesting and helpful.  I'll be starting a UH-1N for the Helo GB, but I'm doing it in the 72nd Helo Sq. from Langley AFB, VA.  I was stationed with the unit from Sept. - Nov. '95 (when it was de-activated) while going through my Flight Engineer Qual training.  I've only got a few pics of the exterior to work from and couldn't remember fully what the interior colors were, but your photos have cleared the fog of time for me.  Thanks.

BTW, does anyone know of a 412 conversion kit for 1/48 scale?  I'd like to do one of our (Era Helicopters, LLC) 412's also.