Choppers

     This week's fatal helicopter crash in L.A. that killed nine, including the pilot and NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, brought to mind the times I've spent in rotary wing aircraft, first in Vietnam and later in Alabama.

       I generally felt safer in choppers than in small fixed wing aircraft  because when trouble occurred, there were more options in a chopper. Under good conditions, a good pilot could "auto-rotate" a chopper to the ground. 

     That's what happened to the small Hughes chopper in which Steve Sanders was reporting traffic for WERC in 1975. The pilot was forced to bring the craft down in East Lake, and although there was significant damage to the chopper, neither the pilot nor Steve was seriously hurt (though the blades, bent down from the force of the crash, hit Steve in the back as he rushed to get out.) Steve later moved into TV, and then, in 1982, to WGN Chicago, where he still works!
  

   For some reason (!), Steve no longer wanted to fly around Birmingham after the crash, and that was one of the factors that resulted in me being hired by WERC late that year. We had good pilots, and I almost always felt safe. (Though there was that one time flying in an ice storm about 1982 that I questioned my sanity) 

      Helicopters were everywhere in Vietnam, where I served from 1970-71. Even now, long before others notice it, I can hear the distinctive sound of a chopper's blades furiously beating the air in the distance to provide lift for the aircraft.


     An online group of former Armed Forces Vietnam Network (AFVN) veterans recently distributed a list of the number of various kinds of aircraft that crashed, either in combat or accidents between 1962 and 1973...and it is an eye opener. Choppers? 

HU­1 Huey (ARMY, USMC) ­ 3254
OH­6 Cayuse (ARMY) ­ 842
AH­1 Cobra (ARMY, USMC) ­ 277  
OH­13 Sioux (ARMY) ­ 150 
CH­47 Chinook (army) 132
CH­46D Sea Knight (USMC) ­ 109 
OH­23 Raven (ARMY) ­ 93 
OH­58 Kiowa (ARMY) ­ 45
CH/HH­53 Super Jolly (USAF) ­ 17 combat, 10 non­com
CH/HH­3 Jolly Green Giant (USAF) ­ 25 combat, 9 non­combat
CH­21C Shawnee (ARMY) ­ 14 
CH­54 Skycrane (ARMY) ­ 9 Lost
CH­53 (USMC) Sea Stallion ­ 9  
SH­3 Sea King ­ 8 combat, 12 non­combat
HH­43B Pedro ­ 8 combat, 5 non­combat
H­37 Mojave (ARMY, USMC) ­ 4   

That's about 4,963 choppers down...more than one a day for that decade. 

       No numbers from that list for the total number of casualties in those crashes, but some 2200 chopper pilots died in the war. 
     And of course there is an untold number of military personnel whose lives were saved because they were quickly flown to medical care. 

UPDATE: the most radical chopper flight I took was from Los Angeles to Birmingham....early 80's. The company we leased the chopper from was buying a new one, and it was cheaper to fly it back than transport it by truck. I begged my way onto the trip and had a ball. (Note the upper right photo of me is not from that trip). We basically followed the interstates. Took 3 days, stopping overnight twice.