Bush Flying, pt 3 - Beaver 11.jpg (1/1)

Miloch wrote in
:

In article , Mitchell
Holman says...

Stormin' Norman wrote in
m:

On Wed, 23 Jan 2019 07:39:48 -0600, Mitchell Holman
wrote:

De Havilland made some very impressive aircraft. Thanks for
posting.



"Anything you can close the door on"
was the byword for what a Beaver could
carry..........




My aviation company in VNam had three of them in addition to
helicopters. I wound up about as far south as you can go in SVietnam
and at midnight had to fly one back to Saigon...the site was unsecure
so we couldn't stay overnight. The pilot was fixed wing qualified but
outranked me...a first lieutenant...he gave me the controls to fly as
soon as we were airborne while he went to sleep!

As there was no electricity in those days the only visible lights on
the horizon were the city of Saigon in the far distance...had to fly
on instruments almost the entire flight...easier to do than in a
helicopter.

Flew unto an island, landing it on a open field...you can't lock the
doors so we took what we could while visiting some of our
personnel...what was left in the U-6 was stolen! Found out later the
Vietnamese name of the island translated to "Island of Thieves"

On another flight, the prop seal broke while in flight causing oil to
splatter all over the windscreen...since we couldn't very well, the
pilot had to land while sticking his head out the side window to see
where he was landing as he was bringing it in.


If Lindergh could land with no
forward view, well..........



...but great plane...reliable radial engine...will go anywhere...carry
just about anything...forgiving to fly but loud!


The one I flew in Texas was of
the "check the gas and fill the oil"
variety.