in vietnam did the uh-1d crews takeoff the small doors beside the large cabin doors?
they did both…they even took the front doors off too.
It wasn’t the “norm”. If it was you would see a lot more pictures of them without the doors. I know the Cav Unit next door to us at Chu Lai in “71” would take the pilot doors off their “nighthawk” bird for better visibility to see where the tacers were coming from. Other than that out of the 6 or 7 Units flying out of Chu Lai I never saw any others with the pilots door off in the five months I was there. I think in the Lam Som 719 debacle a couple of our Sharks few without the pilots doors. Best bet is to have a picture of the helicopter you are modeling or “quotes” form articles or books to be accurate. I’ve seen seveal pictues of UH-1C gunships without the pilot doors but can’t recall more than one UH-1D/H. The main reason they may have taken off the large cargo doors was the lack of replacement “sliders” that kept the door on. So they were removed before losing them in flight! They also came up with the “retaining” straps that helped lock the door in the open position.
i’m talking about the small cargo door infront of the big one. most of my pictures have these small doors removed and the large ones in the open position. my picks are of random slicks.
Curtis,
Sorry, it’s been a while since I’ve been around a “real” Huey. Yea, we referred to them as “jump” doors, why I don’t know, probably becasue they were opposite of the jump seats behind the pilots. Yes, these were almost always removed to facilitate easy egress. I had mine strapped to the front of the transmission well with a couple seat belts usually. I think most left theirs in the revetments or Platoon Conex storage container. Thanks for “clearing” that up. I guess the “fog” is starting to settle in on this “ole” Vet! Ha, ha!
thanks for the help melgyver. the uh-1d is my favorite version and now i am closer to makeing it in 72 scale. it’s odd that italeri would mold these doors on the fusalage rather than have them as separate pieces.
They most likely molded them on because most places other then Vam the were left closed
Just thought I’d show a couple of my favorite in-flight Vietnam era pictures of an Air Assault team returning to base, and one of their Charlie Model escorts. The pilot doors must have been Company policy with this unit?
http://gunsagogo.org/0009/0143.jpg
http://gunsagogo.org/0009/0145.jpg
I think these are with the 118th.
Take care,[:)]
Frank
I didn’t mean it was standard practice. I have flown with and w/o the cargo doors, jump doors and front doors…and all combinations. This was also the case in Vietnam, standards were out the “door”…no pun intended.
the extra kit decals for the german one are very well done for kit decals and also look fantastic
Thanks Frank,
Most “slicks” I’ve ever seen without pilot doors! I guess they were trying to be “cool”. Pun intended! Ha, ha!