mtaylor

Lou, DaNang was an awful place to fly into. I was a few clicks down the road from it and we used to go there too. Funny we never left base without our thundersticks and never got called on it at air base. Well... no. I did get called on it one time for having a bandolier full of ammo. Thought it a bit strange that someone would go off their base with no extra ammo. The USO was good place for food. I remember that base well. The AF had squadron of -53's, less then we had but 2-3 times the support people. They asked us to come over once a week and cross-train some their guys. The MP's at the AF area stopped us and questioned the guns. All we said was, "we're not going back through town unarmed". Kept the rifle but had to leave the grenade with them until I left. There was an incident around '67 or '68 maybe? A 707 (empty) headed to DaNang, misread their instruments or were just lost and landed on the strip at Marble Mountian. Reports were, the pilot realized something was amiss and to late to go around, he did everything in his power to stop it. Succeeded but ran of the end of the runway by 100 feet. They had to strip that plane down by gutting the interior, leaving the crew (other than 1 pilot) and draining every tank (water, etc.) and minimal fuel. They were offered a couple of JATO (the strap on rockets) but declined. They said came the day to launch it, the whole base was there to see it. Took off, due south, got over the vill and then started banking so they wouldn't run into the mountain. The guy who told me had photos...

Cool.. you had a dogfight on ceiling.

And therein were issues. Too much experimentation sometimes. Sometimes it worked, sometimes not. We tried a dual .50 mount on the ramp. Welds on the mount tubing kept breaking. One of the first failures was the tail gunner forgot to secure the ammo can (it was single gun mount) and when the pilot did nice turn at speed, the can flew off the ramp... left the linked ammo hanging down outside. Exactly. One thing I noticed was everyone looked them in the eye... like they had never seen "round-eyes" before.

Beautiful and detailed. I really don't know how you do stuff that tiny but it's pure artistry.

Is it just me, but looking at the wakes, is the ship going in reverse? The other pics looked right but these two have me scratching my head.

Beautiful work. Like the others, I am impressed by your work bench. That is a marvelous tool.

We had the same problem on hot days. I've seen some videos of -53's in the middle east and they do that same running take off on hot days. The engine power wasn't the problem, it was the rotors. Just hard to get lift with them in thin hot air. As they add engines to choppers, they've made the rotor blades "bigger" and in the case of the -53, when they added the 3rd engine, the also added a blade along with the "bigger" size. Yeah.. it's a blur... to "Nam was San Fran to Hawaii, then to Okinawa. Coming back is the blur... I think we even might have had a bigger plane. The stewardesses said flying the military was voluntary.. they got extra pay and they had (as I recall) a better class of passenger. We were better mannered and deeply appreciated them.

The label says "brass, copper, or bronze". Personally I've not tried it on copper or bronze. Maybe some others have.

When Google went on their mad scanning spree, usually the only PDF's you could get in a search was their's. Currently, I've had to dig down 3 or 4 pages or more in a search to find certain PDF's as the first pages are not what I wanted.

Same here, but body is way beyond factory warranty. Some days I feel as frisky as a pup and then in a matter of hours, I'm the oldest guy in the world.

Nice pic of the Freedom Bird, Lou. Yeah, that flight seemed long. If I recall, we went to Okinawa, re-fueled (had to leave the plane but couldn't go to the bar as there was none at the field. Then Hawaii, again to refuel and stock up on booze and food. Landed in LA and then a bus to Camp Pendleton. Three days later, I was on my way home.... The interior is shaping up very well. I always wondered about Huey's. Just seemed like after two gunners, two guns, ammo, there wouldn't be room for anything else.

Ah... being a short time.... "so short, I can dangle my legs off a dime".... and the ever popular: "Tell some one who gives a F.....,, I'm outa' here." I think everyone was blurry on the way home, Ken. Seems like the was a party everynight in the Sargent's Club in 'Nam with someone going home.

Excellent disclaimer. OC: Nice looking work. I hope I can do half as good when I grow up.

Hi Dan, Sent you a link to the build log. What you say about the brain is true. Memories that I thought were gone have, for the most part, come back. Short term memory still seems to be in the trash, but getting better.

I hear you. I went to the funeral of a friend from my squadron back in the 80's. They held at the VA cemetery and that with taps and bagpipers..... I know for certain I wouldn't do well.

Rats... pity that as it would have made the tightening and adjustment so much easier.

I hear you on the fleetness and uselessness of our efforts. I've been told, for example, the runway we used at our base is now part of a major north/south highway. There's not much there to see from back then although some of the grunts have gone out to certain battlefields. I've avoided going to the Wall like the plague. Not sure I could handle it. Some things are too powerful emotionally and that's one of them.

Hmm... just curious, Kevin. Regarding the tensioning... do the turnbuckles actually work?

Will this ever actually see water or is it a static display. That's an impressive amount of work to get everything working and lit up.

That was a fast build and it came out looking great. Were you working 24/7 on it or were you able to sleep and eat?

I'm just following along and watching another masterpiece....

I did some Googling in depth... gray is the water from the sinks, etc. Yes, used to flush the toilets and some cleaning. Black water is the water and waste from the toilets. I wasn't aware that the subs used sea water for cleaning but then it makes sense as sea water was/is used on surface ships.

Very true, Lou. When the locals food came, it was hot both in flavor and temperature and we were damn glad of it. Hmm.. might have been rat instead of chicken... who knows? It was lots of spices, a sauce, lots of rice and bits of meat. We didn't insult them by dragging out a spoon, some guys used chopsticks and the others of us used our fingers and everyone smiled, both us and the villagers. There was cross cultural stuff though. One village I remember had spoons for their "honored guests" who brought medicine, tobacco for the adults and candy for the children. Lovely people most of them. I've often thought of going back for a tour/vacation/sentimental journey. but never found the time or money.

Well, the helicopter is done and on the shelf and memories found and remembered. So back to Belle Poule. The shop has been cleaned up, she's on the bench and tools are prepped. Then I had one of those moments... "what the hell was I thinking?" as I looked over the balsa filler. I thought about dumping it and starting over and doing it "properly", but then I'd still have a lot of sanding to do. So.. I'll carry on from where I am. Sidenote.... funny thing about strokes. Not ha-ha but weird maybe is right word. Right after it happened, my mind was shot. But it seems like things I thought were lost (like how to do a POB) but they've come back. Not completely but reminds of a computer backup. So memory gets trashed and then can be restored by back up tapes. It's the only way I can explain it. Hopefully, pictures in a few days of the port side I'm going to finish shaping.

Chinese? Google Translate will do it. 它將使用中文。("It will work".)