Sent to me by a fellow snake pilot;
1. Helicopters are cool!
2. Once you are in a fight, it is way to late to wonder if it was a good idea.
3. NEVER get into a fight without more ammo than the other guy.
4. Gravity may not be fair, but it is the law.
5. The terms "protective armor" and "helicopter" are mutually exclusive.
6. Nothing is as useless as altitude above you and runway behind you.
7. While the rest of the crew may be in the same predicament, it is almost
always the pilot's job to arrive at the crash site first.
8. The farther you fly into the mountains, the louder the strange engine noises
become.
9. It is always a bad idea to run out of airspeed, altitude , and ideas at the same
time.
10. Engine RPM and rotor RPM must both be kept in the green, lest they affect
the morale of the crew.
11. It is a fact that helicopter tail rotors are instinctively drawn toward trees,
stumps, rocks, etc. While it may be possible to ward off this event some
of the time,it cannot, despite the best efforts of the crew, always be
prevented. It's just what they do.
12. The B.S.R. (Bang, Stare, Read) Theory states that the louder the bang the
faster your eyes will be drawn to the guages.
13. You can NEVER have too much fuel; unless you are on fire.
14. The grunt is the only true reason for the existence of the helicopter. without
exception every helicopter that flew in Vietnam had one mission, one
irrefutable purpose: to help the grunt.