I had a chance to see this In the shadow of the blade.Everyone need to watch this.

Link?

http://www.arrowheadfilms.com/docume...w-of-the-blade
Try this link.

Good find Cisco, I'm going to savor that!

Last April we had a skyfest down here in New Smyrna Beach FL.

It was OK, some good stuff, the usual suspects. Our RC club was on hand to promote the AMA and ourselves. We had static display, flight sims and I gave a couple of chalk talks to a couple of Boy Scout Troops on the modeling and basic aerodynamics at the 'Inspiration Village'. Purdy cool.

Anyhoo, we were setting up on a Thursday evening. The planes were coming in for static display. Then the 'WOP,WOP,WOP' of an UH-1 Iroquois broke and she came in, flared and set down on the flight line. I got goose bumps. I'm 54 so obviously didn't serve in Vietnam, but I was 10 in '69 and being ignorant to what war was about I thought the Huey was 'it' and glorified the Air Cav. Hard.

Then an altogether different tone followed right behind the Huey, more agressive, almost frightening, an AH-1F Attack Cobra arced across the flight line from behind us in a hard bank, swung tail in to set down opposite direction of the UH-1 and ended up staring right at us, rocket pods, 20mm turret dead on. Shivers!

The next day the air show officially started and we got in early before the crowd. There were ride along concessions, again the usual suspects; A Stearman, a Robison, some other GA planes, and lo' and behold; UH-1 Huey rides $60!!

Wow, couldn't believe it! Never heard of such a thing. The Army Aviation Heritage Foundation had formed a 501c charity to benefit the veterans and to keep the helos up and running for posterity. AWESOME! UNBELIEVABLE!

I decided that on my lunch break I was so in for this. The bucket list was getting one shorter today! All morning long that Huey never rested. Kids, families, vets who hadn't been aboared in 45 years all strapped in on the floor, legs on the skids, benches, or in the gunners' door position, and getting the opportunity of a life time.

So's around noon I grab 30 minutes for myself to get in on it. The line was a 100 yard snake. I loitered around in that line but the rides were a decent length. Looking at my watch and the progress of the line it didn't look doable.

One of the pilots was chatting up the line, everyone was getting pretty excited. He turned to me and asked if I was going on a ride. I explained I wanted to but time restrictions dictated otherwise.

He pointed to the AH-1F Cobra and said with a big ole' smile; "No waiting for a ride in that one!"

Ha, ha, very funny! I kinda thought it cruel to tease like that, but he's long earned the right to be as cocky as he'd like. But then he went on; "Yeah, it's a little more coin than a Huey ride, but, hey the flying pilot would ring it out pretty good for you. You know, do a mock rocket run, gattling gun pass, some low level jinking a 'return to target ' with some steep up and down lines, you'd feel some G's, waddya say!"

This was too much teasing, so I couldn't resist; "I'm in. Where do I sign up?" Hehehe.

"Right there at the window. The pretty lady will take your money and I'll meet you around the corner for a briefing."

"Ummmm, you're serious?!"

"Oh, I'm definitely serious".

JEEEEZUS!

Luckily I had my video camera with me. I've already typed way too much here already so I'll let the video do the rest of the talking.

I have to apologize that some of the video is kinda lame. I was VERY, VERY excited. I just wanted to absorb and drink in everything. And during some of the maneuvers the G's kept me from being able to lift my arms above the instrument panel. Having said that, I must say the flight experience was very coordinated and controlled considering some of the flight attitudes and maneuvers. I had two way communication with the pilot and I only wish the video could have picked that up. He explained every aspect of the 'sortie' in extreme detail as it was unfolding real time. There are Gods that walk the Earth. They wear green uniforms.

The Army Aviation Heritage Foundation has a web site that gives the calendar of events as to where they will travel during the year. If anyone gets the opportunity, go for it. It's history you can live.

Doug

Attack Cobra (6 min 4 sec)

Thats cool.

I got lucky and saw it on tv Monday night. It's tells alot of great stories..

Very cool indeed! Getting a ride in the "Snake" is just too much! So, how long was the ride for?

FB

There were two options for different costs;

A five to seven minute trip around the airport perimeter breaking away briefly to overfly some mangrove islands.

A fifteen minute mock 'sortie' I mentioned above. It really was an education. The ingress, acquire visual target, set up the rocket pass, the return to target, not sure what you would call the minigun maneuver, kind of 'on station' then a nose in pirouette or arc around target, a photo pass of target, egress with jinking, a steep up line with a push over to hover at altitude (think of a Humpty Bump) return to airport and a fast low pass down show center. My video was a lot longer but I don't have a paid subscription to YouTube so I had to condense it to what is there.

The terrain wasn't lost on me either as per the foliage, tributaries, geography. Only thing missing was the 'Wagner' and Robert Duvall.

Back in the day. (i guess im getting old but always wanted to say that) while i was in sunny south east asia. I was a crew chief-door gunner on a UH-1 M . Predasessor to the ah-1. anyway our unit got 5 brand new shiney ah 1-g cobras. I had a chance to ride up front from, Nha trang to pleiku. awsom is all i have to say. when I got to Pleiku they put me on an 0h-6 as gunner. didn't like that.

Thank you for your service.

A big Thank You to all the Vets out there....