First Combat Assault

Company A

227th Assault Helicopter Battalion

1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile)

NIGHT FLIGHT FRIGHT!

by Aircraft Commander, WO-1 John L. Keller, 1st Flt Plt, A/227th

Veterans Day, November 11th, 1966 was almost a tragic loss of a really good UH-1D! Our Platoon had been flying with the Company out of LZ Oasis since November 1st. All of our missions had been the usual; 'hash and trash,' combat assaults, mosquito spraying with DDT, and some C&C work for the Brigade and Battalions we were supporting. All of our missions had been accomplished during daylight hours. Today, that was about to change!
1LT Bill Pearson and I were paired to fly in 63-08742 for a night pickup of troops in a single-ship PZ about 20 'clicks' away from Oasis. It was really dark, with no moon, but many stars. There were eight aircraft from the Company and four gunships from D/227th providing suppressive fire for the extraction. I flew the first lift and we were landing to a Pathfinder's 'flashlight' that provided us a small beam to follow to the ground. It really wasn’t much ground as it was downed trees and tree stumps. I really didn't like the PZ very much because we had to spread out in a very long, trail formation to allow for the loading and timing.
On the second flight into the PZ, 1LT Pearson was flying and a ship in front of us went around and then flew in front of us by about 200 feet to reposition for another try. Since there were hills and valleys all over, we maintained about 2,000 feet AGL until on a glideslope into the Pathfinder's flashlight. When the UH-1D flew in front of us, 1LT Pearson had hauled back on the cyclic and 'zeroed out' the airspeed to avert a mid-air! I told him, 'Zero airspeed' and he pulled pitch and forward cyclic to get back on a very long final to the PZ. The Huey was doing about 50 knots when someone in the PZ shot up a hand held flare that was absolutely blinding! Almost instant destruction of our night vision had taken place.
1LT Pearson yanked back on the cyclic to stop our forward motion and again, the airspeed went to ZERO! I called to him,' Bill, your airspeed is ZERO!' He responded, 'Yea, Yea, I got it!' I didn't have my hands on the controls at the time, but the next thing I heard was, the Crewchief exclaim,' We're falling, we're falling!' I grabbed the controls and shouted to Bill, 'I've got it, I've got it!' Bill let go of the controls and I realized that the nose was pointed about 85 degrees UP, the collective was at the full pitch mechanical stop and the cyclic was full forward! I was not a test pilot before, but I was one now! We were falling backward at a high rate of sink and I looked at the rotor and engine tach and the needles were joined and indicating 5,700 RPM! I could only think of lowering the collective, neutralizing the cyclic and applying FULL right pedal. The nose started to come down and RPM started to pick up as we did 'the pylon rock!' At 6,200 RPM, I turned on the searchlight and landing light because I wanted to see what we were going to hit! They had been set at a down angle, so I cranked them UP and then I saw that we were in a narrow valley looking up at the tops of dead trees! I flew down the valley while the RPM's were regained and we slowly climbed back up to altitude and announced to the rest of the flights that we were headed back to Oasis to check out any damage that may have occurred.
Once we landed, our Maintenance Officer was there along with the Bell Tech Rep. Once we reported our situation with RPM and flight attitude, the bird was thoroughly checked for damage, but none was found. Later the next day, the Bell Tech Rep had told me that our blades may have been producing only 20% of their inflight lift capability. Needless, to say, neither 1LT Pearson nor I continued to fly the rest of the extractions! In the next two months, two other UH-1D's in our Company would get into the same situation during IMC and come down in the clouds in that tail low attitude. Both cases were instrument failure induced vertigo while in the clouds. Luckily, one aircraft with Captain Primm and WO-1 Lamonica at the controls was able to break out of the clouds and recover before hitting the ground near Bong Son. The other aircraft, flown by two 'RLO' pilots at night, recovered about 50 feet above the ground, but still hit some trees southwest of LZ Hammond. They had the tower at Hammond turn on the beacon so they could fly to the airfield. All of us survived without injury, but maybe a little wiser to the tenacity of the UH-1D to take a lot of unusual punishment and still keep flying. Most of us learned about day or night vertigo; especially when there is an attitude instrument failure. All of us in A Company survived to fly many more hours in our trusty steeds!