Vietnam Huey

Hey there!

I was in the 174th AHC from mid Jun to early Nov of 1971.   The sync elevators were Orange on the Dolphins, Sharks and Witch Doctor "650". 

Thanks Mel. I was hoping you'd make a gun run on this one.

I contacted Jim McDaniel over at the 174th AHC website and he set me straight and provided some much needed detail on my missing gunships and that elusive color question. All the model kits, 1:18th scale Ultimate Soldier Easy Rider and the Corgi die cast Shark have the wrong color and I was certain of it but I needed some boots on the ground confirmation.

I created a monster! . its been a few years now since i last visited this LZ. Just been reading through some of the posts and Its really great to see old familier faces still sharing valuable knowledge for the cherries lol . As for me and going AWOL, sanity demanded a time out. Im sure the vets here will understand when i say that book research began to have a real impact and losing some vets that had been helping me with their personal accounts was enough to make me step back. For some, making a model huey is enough. For me i wanted to know the guys that flew in the real birds behind the models and that takes you beyond plastic and into a whole other world. Its taken time, but finaly..im clear.

Will be good to see some of the old faces on here, maybe hook up on facebook or something for a catch up.

As for the models, i have slowly brought the old boxes out of hiding, was thinking of having a bash at the skyraider first before i go back to tackling that night hawk.

Howie's wise words come back to haunt me, how modeling can slip into the quicksand of collecting and research at the cost of getting around to building..so true lol..  

What have you all been working on?

Andy!  How the heck have you been my old friend!  It is soo good to hear from you..  As it turns out I'm headed to Ft. Rucker tomorrow for my father's 145th CAB reunion.  Gonna meet some of those old warriors you were talking about.  I have missed your enthusiastic commentary these last few years. I guess you can tell the forum is nowhere near as active as it used to be.  Welcome back to the forum!

    Ray

Ray

Hello my ol buddy lol , its good to see you still here, all being well, maybe we can liven things up again lol. Its about time i got back to where it all started. I have alot of stuff filed away, pics that were sent me etc that i have permission to use and i know they will come in handy on here.

Well how about that! your off to your dads reunion. Listen to them and take it all in, the years are going by so fast and some stories... need to be remembered.

Did you have any more luck on finding Gladiator pics? Im pretty sure i had some video footage here, i know i remember thinking of you when i received it, it's in black and white, i will have to hunt through.

All being well i should be going on my first flight soon. A restored 1H. She logged 108 flights and 559 combat hours in Vietnam. So needless to say,  its going to be nothing less than a spiritual experience for me. And one well worth filming.

Enjoy your time at Rucker my friend, catch up with you soon.

Andy

Andy,

  It's been a long time.  I have amassed around 180,000 helicopter photos from all branches.  I have also connected with several 190th veterans and now have a decent collection of Gladiator photos.  Also, I have been on two Huey rides in a Vietnam veteran bird restored by the Army Aviation Heritage Foundation.  You are correct, that first lift was indeed a religious experience.  At the moment I have just finished scanning several hundred photos for Mike Verier, a very well known Cobra historian from your side of the pond.  All in all not a bad few years of helo research!

    Ray

PS: A couple of pics from my Huey flight:

My ride:

Our CE George Meeker:

Me pointing at my house:

The shadow of the blade:

Oh yeah, if you have video of an actual Gladiator, I REALLY REALLY want to see it!

   Ray

Bear with me, i will dig it out, I have photos, documents, slides, 8mm film, 3 hard drives of pics, audio, video, interviews and email that all need sorting and converting. I will forever be in awe of just how helpful everyone has been to me. It is going to be a daunting task, but i have put it off for long enough.

As for your pics..all i can say is...wow! I bet your house never looked so beautiful ;).

Andy,

  We will definitely have to have a multimedia exchange.  i have nearly 1.5 TB of scanned images and videos so far and I'm still scanning.

   Ray

Hi Guys

that sure is a great view - I remember it well but not with a beautiful, peaceful development at my feet! 

BTW are you aware that John Brennan has just published his book, "U.S. Army Helicopter Names In Vietnam"? For information or to Order go to www.hellgatepress.com.  It's a compilation of as many Army helos that had names or nose art that he could chase down.  I just ordered mine, so can't coomment on it yet.

Also - there's an Army/Navy Surplus store a couple of towns from here, and the owner sez he'd love to find a "display" non-working Huey that he could spruce up and display.  He has no intention of making it flyable.  Any idea where he can find one?

Howie

Wow Ray. I thought I had a large photo archive. 1.5 Terabytes?!?! Astounding.

Howie, there is a B model project out in California for 12.5K but it's a shell. No seats, trim elevators, blades, correct hub, mast, rotors, missing a lot of glass, particle separator, etc. It's absolutely bare bones at that price. No delivery either and no papers on it meaning the government can claim it back. That has actually happened before after it had been restored of course.

I scour the net for these all the time and check all the major suppliers for NSN lists. I've been looking for my own project for years.  A static restoration can bankrupt a collector. One instrument alone can run you $150-$300 dollars. The UHF antennae is about $150. The doors are $450 each without glass. The XM21 mockup is $45K which is also the going price for the right length blades. If your guy has $345K he  can always buy the complete Mike model that's up for grabs in IL.

Despite all that, the only thing holding me back on this project is my wife. The Huey or Me? That's the name of my daily reality show. =)

Howie Belkin

Hi Guys

that sure is a great view - I remember it well but not with a beautiful, peaceful development at my feet! 

BTW are you aware that John Brennan has just published his book, "U.S. Army Helicopter Names In Vietnam"? For information or to Order go to www.hellgatepress.com.  It's a compilation of as many Army helos that had names or nose art that he could chase down.  I just ordered mine, so can't coomment on it yet.

Also - there's an Army/Navy Surplus store a couple of towns from here, and the owner sez he'd love to find a "display" non-working Huey that he could spruce up and display.  He has no intention of making it flyable.  Any idea where he can find one?

Howie

Howie,

  Hard for me to imagine what it was like to fly in country.  Thanks again for your service.  Regarding the John Brennnan book, I supplied a bunch of photos for his list.  In fact I think it was the last batch I sent that pushed him over 3,000 names.  I need to get that book as well.

    Ray

Howie, good to see you mate, I cant thank you enough for all your help with the 227th, i was looking through some old emails and have a few bits that you may be interested in. I can forward.

So im completely out of touch with the model world, was out killing time with the mrs a few weeks ago and happened upon a new model shop in the city centre, i was beaming ear to ear when i spotted a model slick with seats! and door guns! I think it was a Dragon. They are not big on hueys over here in the UK and its the first time i have ever seen a box with all the trimmings on a shelf, my excitement soon faded though when i saw the price £45!  

Whats new? regarding huey models, cobra company, decals etc?  The last huey i bought was in 2007! so i have a lot of catching up to do lol.

Why we build hueys its almost arousing lol Magic carpet ride indeed.

Good to hear from you again too.  Excuse me for replying to a couple of messages at a time!  That was a great video - Magic Carpet Ride!   I don't know when I last heard the words, "A New hobby shop..."  Good luck, I hope they succeed - and bring their prices down!!  That's a pretty steep price.  The best bet to keep the prices down is to go to the different model shows or order from one of the shops that buys collections then resells them at less than retail to us.  Military Modelling magazine and other UK hobby magazines run ads from some of them.  Then of course there's always ebay or other online sources.

The kit you saw probably was the Draon release that included the crew figures and machine gun for the DG.  I believe you had to buy a 2nd figure set to have the 2nd M-60 mg and mount for the CE.  I don't think there's been anything new re Hueys since 2007!  Has it been that long?

I'll enlighten the Surplus store owner re how much a Huey shell goes for, much less some of the parts you mentioned.  Unless he previously won the lottery, I'm afraid he's going to have to dream on. 

My local model club just had our annual model show, and a friend and I shared a vendor table to try to sell off some of our excess kits.  I have enough to keep me busy til I'm 300 years old!  I only sold about $70 worth of kits - but I visited other vendors and spent $150!  I guess I better start really cranking out models AND start eating very healthy!  Excuse me for buying a couple of aircraft carrier kits - a 1/700 CV9 USS Essex and a 1/700 CVN-69 USS D.D. Eisenhower.  I mention it because some of the parts are barely visible.  There are 1/700 WWII aircraft with separate wheels/landing gear, props, etc that you can barely see much less hold.  IF I could ever put it together it would be awesome.  But I think these mfrs are getting insane with their parts count and part sizes.  Back in the day the kit cost pocket change and had less than 20 parts and was a 'fun' build done in an afternoon!  That was before we became demanding experts!

Well, good to hear from y'all

Howie 

In your collection, do you have a picture of an UH-1B rear cargo compartment bulkhead without the sound  padding?  Have plans to convert an Academy Charlie Model kit into a Bravo with a stripped out crew area using Cobra sets ( Bravo conversion and M6) as well as a bunch of scratchbuilding.  Thinking about putting a FFAR system above the armament mount (think they were called Heck systems back in the UTTHCO days).  Like to get everything planned and together before lighting the fire in the tube (PPPPPPP).  Old habits just stay with you.

There seems to be a lot of interest in the Huey lately.  For the new guys on the forum, this thread is an excellnt place to start so I thought I'd bring it back to the top of the page.  It used to be pinned so if an admin could do that, it would be great!

    Ray

iroquois1963

hello ray . thank you for this delivery in memory for this very interesting comment which i give in reference to model makers in france . I prevent them that three hours ago of reading but it please them . thank you again for this comment which taught me many thing on my favorite copter . phil .

 

Glad you enjoyed it, Phil.  It is an excellent resource.

   Ray

rotorwash

Howie,

  Personally, I have no problem with considering Firefly ships and other specially armed long fuselage Hueys gunships.  I just wish kit manufacturers wouldn't put an XM-21 or XM-6 system on their long bodied US Army Huey kits.   I have no doubt they do this to entice modelers who want their models to all be gunships, but it just ain't right!  My generation has enough troubles trying to understand the true history of the Vietnam War without the missinformation provided by the kit manufacturers.  Actually, it would be great if they would make long fuselage Hueys with some of the exotic weapons systems we've been discussing here. I have never seen a model of one of these unique weapons configuartions.  Has anyone else?  In the end, though, I find modeling is the best vehicle for me to understand the history of the war.  I can't even begin to tell you how much I have learned while doing the research on the Huey and how much more repect I have for all you guys who were there.

      Ray
 

 

Ray,

I do have a Kodak slide of an H model at An Khe that did have the XM21 armament system installed along with the XM157 pods and not in the Australian configuration. Attached to the M23 door gun mounts. Its a true example of hens teeth showing up. Does absolutely nothing to the errors in many slick kits being uparmed by manufacturers. As far as anyone building molds for a Nighthawk or Firefly Im still wishing upon a falling star.

Snake36Bravo

 

 

rotorwash

Howie,

  Personally, I have no problem with considering Firefly ships and other specially armed long fuselage Hueys gunships.  I just wish kit manufacturers wouldn't put an XM-21 or XM-6 system on their long bodied US Army Huey kits.   I have no doubt they do this to entice modelers who want their models to all be gunships, but it just ain't right!  My generation has enough troubles trying to understand the true history of the Vietnam War without the missinformation provided by the kit manufacturers.  Actually, it would be great if they would make long fuselage Hueys with some of the exotic weapons systems we've been discussing here. I have never seen a model of one of these unique weapons configuartions.  Has anyone else?  In the end, though, I find modeling is the best vehicle for me to understand the history of the war.  I can't even begin to tell you how much I have learned while doing the research on the Huey and how much more repect I have for all you guys who were there.

      Ray
 

 

 

 

 

 

Ray,

 

I do have a Kodak slide of an H model at An Khe that did have the XM21 armament system installed along with the XM157 pods and not in the Australian configuration. Attached to the M23 door gun mounts. Its a true example of hens teeth showing up. Does absolutely nothing to the errors in many slick kits being uparmed by manufacturers. As far as anyone building molds for a Nighthawk or Firefly Im still wishing upon a falling star.

 

 

I don't suppose you have scanned that slide?  I'd REALLY like to see it!  What unit if I may ask?

   Thanks,

           Ray