Flying the Bell AH-1 Cobra Gunship

[wolfpack076]

My sincere heartfelt condolences for your loss Sir...I will keep him in my Prayers...

 

[Kyle Bayless]

Interesting article on the cobra. The armed H13 was mentioned as a first attempt at arming helicopters. My Dad, CW4 Jack Brown, was the lead pilot during work to first arm helicopters. There were some attempts at Ft Rucker to arm H13s but, they were trying to use them as not much more than elevated machine gun firing platforms. Most of the development, including the first strafing runs and rockets fired by a helicopter, was done in 1957 at Ft Benning by a small group that was part of the 4th Transportation Co. They armed H13s, H23s and finally ended up with a heavily armed H34. The final version was nicknamed "The Bad Mother" and it had an array of armament. I can't recall the entire list but, it included several fixed and flex mounted 30 and 50cal MGs, fixed 20mm, somewhere around 40 2.75in rockets and two 5in holy moses rockets. After their initial experiments, they took it to the Sikorsky factory where they designed some better gun mounts and firing systems. I will try to find some of the pictures and share them.

A further note to your missive. I don’t know what model copter was the first with weapons but I’ll offer details of on test I observed. In either 1952 or 1953 my father, at that time Maj Harry K. Bayless, was stationed at Ft. Meade , MD. He spent his whole adult life and WW-II with the Army Air Force and Army Aviation ending up as a full Colonel in charge of all Army Aviation in US European Command. Now for the story, one day my dad asked if I would like to accompany him to observe a test on the Ft. Meade reservation and of course I jumped at the chance. We went to one of the live fire ranges. When we got there he, and a number of other officers inspected a helicopter ( I think it was of Korean War vintage, something like on the MASH tv show, maybe OH-1 ?). They had mounted a Browning .30 cal. Machine gun on each skid And jury rigged wires to allow the pilot to fire them. It took off and circled down and out of sight to our right, then popping up and sweeping toward an old vehicle hull about 200 yards down range. The pilot had to point the helicopter exactly where he wanted the guns to fire and he obliterated the vehicle in a couple of runs.
Afterward he landed and everyone inspected it I overheard my dad say “ I think we may have something here”.
If you have any way of forwarding this to Will Dobis please do.
Kyle Bayless

 

[KillerFord1977]

I always wanted to fly Army Aviation. Most notably the AH-1 Cobra or OH-58 .
I was fascinated with helicopters and wanted Army after High School.
Bad eyes prevented that in the late ‘80s and the DOD wouldnt take me even though at 19 yrs old I was a private pilot/ instrument rated and flying since 14. Pilots license day I turned 16.
Every branch of service said NO to me flying helicopters with my eyesight.
So I went commercial… for a few years.
Still bummed to this day about never being in service to fly helicopters.

A man named Hugh Mills inspired me. A Loach and gunship pilot in Vietnam, I had all the books about him. Shot down, decorated who wss Low and slow looking for trouble in a snake or loach. I wanted to do that sooo bad.

Still have the books from childhood.
This one was printed in 1974. Gone are the days I could join the service even under the 2000’s relaxed rules.


Mills being reacued from a Jolly Green with a CAR-15 was when I had to have a short M16 when “I grew up” .
Still my favorite

 

[CEW]

In Iran I made it a mission to teach the maintenance/troubleshooters/crew chiefs to be able to fly the aircraft.

I know one for sure went home to Atlanta arranged to rent a Jet Ranger and get his rotor-wing certification.

In return they let me do some of the maintenance.

Actually we had a great time over there, until Kohmani returned and eventually we were evacuated.

A note thrown up on our balcony. For the most part the citizens were very helpful.

Great memories!

Scary World and not much better, but strange as it makes the best memories...

 

[DavidDSmith]

Finally something we have in common, From HS to Flight School 1978, Fort Rucker, AL OH-58A Graduate and on to Ft. Hood, TX, 11 years and 3000+ Hours later of Military service all over the world. Mainly Scout operations for the Cobra's. And finally maintenance officer before getting out.

 

[CEW]

In Iran I made it a mission to teach the maintenance/troubleshooters/crew chiefs to be able to fly the aircraft.

I know one for sure went home to Atlanta arranged to rent a Jet Ranger and get his rotor-wing certification.

In return they let me do some of the maintenance.

Actually we had a great time over there, until Kohmani returned and eventually we were evacuated.

A note thrown up on our balcony. For the most part the citizens were very helpful.

Great memories!

You teaching the techs to fly, was a wise one. Working for a Company that surmised it would more cost effective to allow them to do starts and run-ups, not knowing how to fly was okay. Some of us old grays thought, hmm, how long till... Not disappointed in our concern, one Tech got to solo shortly thereafter, with the expected results. Fortunately, he did get to walk away with some minor cuts. However, the chopper, hangar roof and aircraft stored within, not so lucky. The practice was immediately stopped.

I remembered during a Chief Pilot stint the insurance companies' division of blades in motion or not in motion within a policy as I am sure it wasn't the first...