UH-1C Academy

They started day only flight with the old NVG4 I believe around 73/74 for a couple of years. We would let students fly with them with the caps installed. They only got a couple of hours in them that way. The original nighthawk training started in 77 I believe and was still primarily naked-eye with just four hours of fimiliarization at night without the caps. They stayed that way until I left teaching in Jan 81. Sometime after that is when NVG certification started being taught. Never kept up with it because I went into Apaches and we used FLIR which was even scarier until Flir II was fielded.

Charlie

Hey, I think I flew that ARA Charlie model. It is a Battery HQ bird as indicated by the XM16 armament system. The line batteries carried rockets only. Can't tell for sure though which battery it belongs to, but if the red marking in the upper right-hand corner of the top pic is part of a circle then it is a Charlie Battery HQ AC. which I probably have some time in.

Jim

Jim,

  Thanks for your service, sir!  Here's the full side shot. that red circle, as you can see, is for the Fuel filler.  Can you tell more from this pic, though?

  Ray

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Here's another from the front:

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 So this is a line battery bird then?

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Ray,

The two top pics are Headquarters Battery AC, which carried the M60 quad flex guns and the 7 round 2.75" rocket pod. The third pic is a Bravo Battery AC with the "Maxwell" system installed. The Maxwell System was designed by CWO Robert Maxwell, who I had the pleasure to work with. The pics look like they were taken at the 1st Cavalry Divisions base camp at An Khe, VN. The mountain in the background was called Monkey Mountain and the airfield was called the "Golf Course. If you want more info on the weapon systems go to this link:

      http://tri.army.mil/LC/CS/sma.htm#Main

Jim

Jim,

  Thanks for the info.  WOW, you knew CWO Maxwell!  I'm very familiar with both the Maxwell system and the M16 gun system but your knowledge about the unit and the area where the photos were taken is invaluable.  The more history we have for the photos, the more significant they become.  Thanks for the info.

    Ray 

These are great images you posted. I noticed one really partcular thing in the image. Look at the leading edge of the main rotor blades and you noticed the entire blade or at least the leading edges where painted yellow because you can see a yellow band before it gets to metal. There might be some zinc chromate under the yellow but it doesn't show up much. I wonder why they were painted that way. Blades are not stripped in the field so I have no idea why they have that much yellow paint under the outer paint. I also notice these aircraft do not have the modified air intake.

Very interesting images, Thanks Ray.

Charlie

Charlie,

  The bell mouth intake was present on several of the first UH-1C's.  The markings are also interesting as they are a mix of high vis and low vis.  The blade is actually primed with chromate green, i believe and the end of the blade had a yellow and red band on it.  I admit the photo makes it look as if the primer coat was yellow, but I feel pretty certain it was chromate green or perhaps one I have heard of called chromate yellow.  By the way, the last bird with the Maxwell System on her is a Bravo not a Charlie model.  Just in case anyone was wondering.

     Ray 

You may be right Ray, but the closer I look at that image it sure looks like there is a color under the Yellow which seems to be darker.

Charlie

Charlie,

  I see what you mean.  Yet another Huey mystery.

      Ray

Speaking of mysteries, I just figured out a way to roll PE parts. I had a part in the engine exhaust that needed to be rolled so I could glue four mounting brackets thst keeps things aligned. What I did was find a drill bit that was the same diameter I needed and one just a hair larger. Using the plastic (lack of better words) bending wedge that comes with the Bending tool I purchased, I laid out the piece needing rolled, laid the plastic tool underneath the PE part and slowly started rolling the larger drill bit perpendicular to the PE part while maintaining a slight  up angle (Less than 20 degrees), with the bender. You have to pull the bender as you roll the drill bit over the PE part. I did this a couple of time each time increasing the angle on the bending wedge. Then I turned the PE part around and start the same process so each end ended up curved. Then I went to a smaller drill bit to tighten the circle up. Surprising it worked and someone else probably discovered this long before me. I'll edit this later a post an image or two showing what it looks like and the parts I used. I couldn't take a picture why I was doing it because I did not have enough hands Darn-it.

Here are the images I promised, not very good but should give you an idea.

The first one shows how I used the drill bit and the bending wedge. Remember I pulled the wedge while I was rolling the drill bit over the PE piece. You can see the can cap to the left.

The Second image shows what the piece looked like after I rolled it a few times.

Finally the finished product (only took 3.5 hours to build)

Charlie

So you must have served with Bob Mason the Author of ChickenHawks he meantions the "Golf Course" And another location called "Tea Plantation" He was with 1st Air Cav.

Geez, you gonna go blind building that tiny stuff!  Seriously, it's looking great!  i acn't wait to see her finished.

   Ray

Could be. He obviously served more than one tour in VN if he was there in '68.

We used chest armor, crewchiefs also sat on it in addition to wearing it. Did you know that peanut butter will stop an AK47 round?

Jim

One of our crew chiefs, who was on "Red" status, was eating peanut butter and crackers in his huey when a fire mission was called in. He put the lid on the jar of peanut butter and left it on the floor of the AC. During the fire mission the AC took small arms fire and one of the rounds came up through the bottom of the huey into the jar of peanut butter. After the mission was over and the AC returned to the unit, the crew chief found the bullet in the peanut butter when he was  inspecting the damage from the round. Hmm, I wonder what would have happened if we filled sand bags with peanut butter. Could it have stopped a 60mm morter round?

Jim

Does anyone know what this horizontal shaft is sticking out of the top of the transmission is for? The only thing I can think of is it forces the transmission cover to sit higher than it appears it should. Any answers/comments are welcomed. I leaning toward shaving it off.

Charlie

Charlie,

  This is the best pic I have and I don't see anything there.

      Ray

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Thanks Ray, I am probably going to cut that piece off. Other than making the case top sit a little higher I for the life of me do not have a clue why they have that shaft. Even the instruction drawing shows that shaft, but nothing ever connects to it.

Charlie

rotorwash wrote:

Charlie,   This is the best pic I have and I don't see anything there.       Ray   " border="0" />

the protrusion is sitting up next to the hydraulic cylinder. It's hard to see but it's there.

I do not think it is the same protrusion. I cut if off and cut off the little nipple on the inside of the case cover. I can only figure they wanted the case top to sit a little higher to give the push/pull rods the proper clearance. I figure if they end up a little too long I will adjust their lengths. I just did not like the way the case top fitted on that transmission with that protruding shaft. The new fit looks much better. I am hoping to post a image with the engine and transmission installed tonight.

Thanks

Charlie

Here are three images of my progression. The engine and transmission are not glued in place yet. I just wanted to see how they would fit. The actual colors on the engine look much better in real than in the photos. The flash makes the burner section look redder than it actually is, plus I have not buffed out the Alclad finish yet.

The fit of these items is not very good in this model. The exhuast wall fits sloppy and the engine to transmission mating is not very tight either.

Charlie

Charlie,

  Oh man, that looks awesome!!  I eagerly await the next installment. 

   Ray

 PS: I checked on that transmission part with a Huey mechanic, it ain't there as far as he knows and, trust me, he knows!

Charlie,

I have parts of a -20 for the UH-1 and there are bosses cast into the transmission housing and cover that are used for oil injectors. The protusion you were talking about could be the designers attempt to portray one of these.

Jim

The protrusion might be something to help during the injection process so the mold filled properly. 

The main rear bulkhead needs triming to fit properly as previously mentioned and you will also need to lenghten the two small side panels behind the pilots doors by about a 1/16 of an inch or a little less.  It's been a while since I worked on mine so have forgotten any other tips at the moment. 

Thanks Mel, Haven't heard much from you. You must have been offshore. The funny thing about the protrusion was they continued to show it left on in the instructions. I wacked it off. Looks better that way.

Also are you talking about the two cabin post that hold the medkits? I am using PE parts for them and they seem to fit good. I'm not going to glue them in until I glue the two halves together. They fit tight and I do not want to have to trim them when trying to glue the two body halves together.

Almost forgot to mention I'm using your picture on the C model rotor system to try to accurately build the mast assembly. A lot of the parts are just plain inaccurate and I am not going to spend a whole lot of time on this model scratch building parts.

Thanks

Charlie

Charlie,

I have been busy with backpack camping trips and then my daughter had a middle school dance teacher job fall in her lap so she came home from NYC this pass Sunday and started work at L.J. Allemand Monday.  Dee is estatic to have her back home. I'm offshore, day 4 in the Gulf.  We are finally attempting to flow some oil, still no gas pipeline serviceable yet!

I am referring to the height of the supports.  I found, at least with my kit they needed to be lenghten a tad at the top so the roof breaker panel wouldn't hang down too far.

I forget which picture I sent you, probably the one "out of the box" but with the correction to the M/R blade pitch change link cups and links added to mixing levers.  I have another I added the mast stops to and added detail to the head and mast.  I've toyed with the idea of trying to make resin parts for future builds since I want to build a whole bunch of "named" Sharks when I retire, well hope to retire.  Heh, heh!

You are doing a great job on your "Charlie" model. 

Here is the Transmission and Engine glued in place. I am dissappointed in the fit of many of these components. I did a fit test before taking this image of  how well or not this cabin will fit in the fuselage. The push pull tubes on this model will rub against the fuselage and the exhuast section droops to low and will need me pushing up until it dries in the correct place. The overall fit of many of these transmission/rotor/engine components are not very accurate and will cause me a lot of grief when it comes time to glue the two fuselage halves together. I have applied Future and then weathered the transmission and engine compartments. I left the engin unglued in the frame so when I have to lift the exhaust section the engin can easily move a little to fit better, I hope.

Thanks

Charlie

Sorry it has been a couple of weeks since I did any updates. I was going to take vacation during Thanksgiving and hopefully get a lot further in this monster, but being old I had to have a Gallstone attack and spent all last week in the hospital getting my Gall Bladder removed. I'm fine now and finally felt good enough to start work again tonight.

Here are my latest images. As I discussed earlier because of the cabin fit issues I decided to glue this thing together piece mill. I first glued the cabin top into the right side and then tack glue the cabin into the right side. After getting the various areas tacked in position correctly I glued the left half fuselage into place. The current pictures show the top of the fuselage and tailboom glued and drying. Tomorrow I will glue the rest of the fuselage together. As you can see I still am going to have fit problems. I really am disappointed in this model. I was hoping things would fit better. The transmission leans too far forward. The engine exhaust is to short and narrow, and the cabin is slowing fitting, but I will have a major problem with the back wall matching up to the door frame on the left side. Other than that I am glad I decided to go this direction, because I think the fit would have been even worst if I tried gluing this all at once.

Anyway, its great being back and will update with some more images hopefully tomorrow evening.

Thanks for looking.

Charlie