Where can you fly in a Vietnam Huey helicopter on a simulated mission other than by being in the military? Cape Town…..
I board a 1960’s Huey which had several tours in Vietnam and take a seat next to the open bay door. The pilot goes through his preflight-check, start, and, thumb, thumb, thump as the rotor begins to spin. There is a bouncy feeling under my seat with each thump like being in a 4D move as we sit on the tarmac. We slowly lift off, gradually climb over the Atlantic with pristine views of Cape Town and Table Mountain, and make our way up the coast.
This tour/flight is a simulated combat mission and we fly a typical scenic helicopter flight over the beach and up the coast until we get to where it’s uninhabited. There are no doors on the main hold where I’m seated. The cold air thunders in against my chest as we move along at a steady 100 knots. Then the pilot suddenly drops us, it’s the same feeling as stalling a small aircraft, as my stomach takes a bounce. The thumping turns to a loud cracking noise several times a second like someone is shooting a gun next to my ear as we make more extreme maneuvers. We dive to the deck only a few feet above the water and the rotor down thrust blows up salty spray into my face. We bank to the right and swoop nose slightly turned down and skim over the sandy beach. The pilot pulls up and we make a steep accent to miss the trees ahead.
For the next twenty minutes we go inland amongst tree’s and foothills. We come to a clearing and swoop a few feet above the ground, spin, and move sideways at the same time. My mind goes to a movie set scene, I’m looking eye level at trees. While hovering, the grassy clearing flails back and forth in our rotor wake. In action, where I’m siting I’m sure I’d be manning a gun scouting for the enemy or creating cover fire for whomever we’d be picking up. Suddenly we pull up, bank, fly straight and sideways at the same time as I’m holding onto the door frame. (I do have a mandatory seatbelt on) I guess we got our mock man aboard.
We skim the tree tops as I hang my leg out the door. It appears we’ll fly directly into the hill ahead, but just as we approach it the pilot pulls back on the yoke creating ever so slight G forces sucking me into my seat as we ascend for a wondrous scenic trip back to the tarmac.
