I had some time to kill before an appointment in a neighboring town yesterday so I decided to visit the local airport. Every once in a while something interesting shows up. I approached from the furthest perimeter point and immediately picked out the shape of a UH-1 parked off to the side of the ramp area. An occasional National Guard asset will drop in from time to time so I thought this could be an old H or V model. From the distance it was definitely a Huey, but something wasn't quite right.
The "sit" was too squat and there was something about the rotor system that was a bit odd. The hair on the back of my neck stood up as I realized I hadn't seen one of these for a looooong time. It just had to be a C model. I hurried around the local streets to the entrance to the ramp area and into the parking lot. Sure enough...a C model. But this one was different. Batterred, but plainly visible on the tail boom was the word "NAVY". A quick glance at the nose confirmed my suspicions. A faded, but colorful HAL-3 logo was quite evident.
I asked around and found out that a local pilot had acquired the aircraft for static display. It was in pretty good shape as far as I could see. The ramp area is fenced and locked so I couldn't get close enough to get a serial number, but I did get the name of the owner and will try to get a closer look along with some photos. The airframe is complete and the rotor system looks to be the 540. I couldn't get a look at the interior, but all the windows and windscreen are intact (at least from my vantage point on the port side).