Reasons Why the USA Lost Thousands of Helicopters in Vietnam? (Part-1)

The US military used various types of helicopters in the Vietnam war. In total, approximately 12,000 helicopters served in the war. According to the results of the research conducted by the Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association, exactly 11,827 helicopters took part in the Vietnam war. This number was the numerical value that emerged when looking at the special tail numbers given to helicopters assigned to the Vietnam War. 5,086 of these helicopters were disabled during the war for various reasons, and many of them crashed. I would like to present to your attention the reasons why American helicopters crashed and the difficulties experienced in helicopters during this war.

1) The pilots are young and lack life experience:

Most of the young men flying helicopters in Vietnam were only 18-28 years old. Even individuals who had just turned 18 were enrolling in flight school. Lack of life experience caused young pilots to take more risks and fly. Many of the young pilots were able to volunteer to perform incredible missions. Lack of life experience gave young pilots excessive self-confidence and ambition. This sometimes caused young pilots to achieve incredible flights, and sometimes caused them to lose their lives.

2) Extreme fatigue and insomnia:

Some pilots could fly a lot during the day; there were pilots who flew day and night and slept only 4 hours a day. Helicopter pilots who were not fully rested due to their flight intensity could easily lose situational awareness during the flight, causing them to have fatal accidents more easily.

3) High Stress Environment:

The stress of flying combat missions in Vietnam and flying helicopters was immense. Pilots were under constant threat of enemy fire and were often forced to make split-second decisions that could mean the difference between life and death. Pilots who could not handle this stress and manage it well could make fatal mistakes.

4) Mental health problems:

Many helicopter pilots who served in Vietnam suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the war. The stress of war, the constant threat of death, and others have taken a heavy toll on many pilots, the biggest of which is the guilt of surviving when their friends have lost their lives. Although mental health problems seem to occur after the war, it would be a huge mistake to say that they did not occur during the war in Vietnam and did not affect the pilots.

5) Viewing Angle:

When helicopter pilots fly with VFR (visual flight rules), the visual angle of the helicopter pilot is very important. When helicopter pilots were flying low, especially in Vietnam, visibility was vital. When flying low, you had to fly by combining your visual references with the changing terrain structure, mountains, hills, structure of the forest, the length of the trees, the density of the trees, adverse weather conditions for the flight, rain, fog, the direction and intensity of the winds received by the helicopter, the height of the helicopter to the ground. However, the factors I have mentioned could change if you wanted to live in the war zone, as the information you learned in flight school in Vietnam.

A memory of Chuck Gross, who served as a UH-1 helicopter pilot in Vietnam, will help you understand this issue better. In Vietnam, the vehicle commander, whom we call AC, flew from the left seat. The co-pilot, whom we call the second pilot, was flying from the right. Most helicopters like the Huey were designed to be flown from the right seat, but in actual combat experience in Vietnam the military discovered that it was advantageous for the AC to fly the Huey from the left seat. Pilot visibility was crucial when flying in Vietnam, especially when flying low or trying to land in a narrow landing zone. Because of the way the instrument panel was designed in the Huey, there was better visibility. Have you ever been told to do something you didn't want to do and then felt glad you did it? That's exactly what happened to me, and I'm extremely grateful that I did as I was told. When learning to fly in the United States, we were taught to fly with our seat high for two reasons.

First, the high seat position gave you a better view, allowing you to see the top of the instrument panel.

Second, this elevated position would allow you to rest your right arm on your right thigh. Doing this gave your arm more stability in controlling the loop, which is the control rod located between your legs that is used to send control movements to the rotor head. But in Vietnam, the high seat position was very dangerous because it exposed more of your body to the enemy.

Contrary to what many people thought, Huey had no armor. This would be impractical due to the weight of the armor. The only type of armor the Huey had was armored pilot seats. To avoid obstructing your back, hips and access to the control panel, It protected part of your l side, and if you were the copilot, your right side and part of your left side. The crew also carried what we called chicken boards. The chicken board was an armored plate about an inch thick that fit into a vest that you could wear across your chest. It weighed about fifteen pounds and was impossible to wear all day; It would wear you and your back out when you did that.

In the photo below, the view of the armored seat on the left side of the cockpit of the UH-1H Huey helicopter.

Luca Canossa in the photo above. Armor plates of the seats on the UH-1H helicopter facing the interior of the helicopter. We were pretty much naked except for the armored chair and the chicken board. Therefore, any exposure to enemy fire was dangerous.

From the first day I started flying in Vietnam, most of the pilots I flew with advised me to lower my seat. I resisted this because lowering my seat would change my body's position relative to the controls. This new position would make it difficult for me to fly. Being new, trying to learn to fly under unfamiliar conditions like heavy gross weights and strong winds was difficult enough, let alone dealing with a new seat position. One day I was flying as co-pilot. McCarragher and told me to lower my seat. “No, thank you,” I told him. This wasn't going to work on McCarragher. He ordered me to lower my seat; I had to learn to fly with the seat down. At that point I realized I had no choice and lowered my seat. As expected, flying in this new position was very difficult and different. With the seat fully down, the angle of vision I developed for shooting approaches changed and my body's relationship with the controls became different. I spent the rest of the day trying to get used to flying with the seat down.

The next morning when I arrived at the helicopter and sat in the seat I thought about lifting the seat up and I did but decided to lower it and try again. It was a typical morning. We took off from our flight line, headed north and headed towards the unit we were assigned to for the day. We met with the unit commander and he gave us information about our mission of deploying and removing troops from different locations in the operation area. It was noon and we were busy dropping infantry units into the LZ (landing zone) when we started firing. We had just finished evacuating the troops and were starting to leave the LZ(Landing Zone) when I looked out the windshield and saw him. Charlie (a slang word for the enemy, taken from Victor Charlie, the Army's phonetic alphabet for VC or Viet Cong) stood just in front of the helicopter along the perimeter of the LZ. I watched as Charlie raised his rifle, aimed it directly at me, and fired. He was twenty meters ahead of us and we were about twenty meters high when he fired. His shot entered the helicopter's nose balloon and hit, and while these exchanges were taking place, I changed the direction of my altimeter, which was right in front of me at chest level. The bullet then ricocheted off the windshield wiper and lodged in the bulkhead about an inch above my head. If I had been flying with the seat up like I always did before, I would have received a direct blow to the forehead. A second bullet rose from the ground and missed our gunner's leg by half an inch. The third projectile hit the helicopter and hit the fuel cell. Thank goodness the fuel did not explode. The crew chief shouted over the intercom: “We've been hit! We're leaking fuel! It's everywhere!” I turned my head to look and I could see fuel flowing all over the cargo hold. AC radioed that we were going down to a helicopter assigned to rescue the downed crew. He chose an open area and moved towards it. If that fuel ignited, we were gone. We were going to celebrate the 4th of July a few weeks early and it was going to be the grand finale.

When we landed our damaged bird in the field, the helicopter that came to save us was floating next to us. We took our equipment and weapons and ran. As soon as our entire crew was on board, our helicopter took off and we returned to base to get another bird so we could continue our mission.

It was my first time getting hit in a helicopter. I've always wondered how I would react when caught in a real conflict. Would I be brave? Would I be afraid? Would I be a hero? Or worse, would I be a coward? The funny thing is, I was neither. It happened so quickly that we did our job and continued our mission. My first thoughts were why was Charlie shooting at me? I didn't shoot at him. Until now the war had never felt personal or real to me, but now it was starting to change. I felt like there was.

The drawing below shows UH-1 Huey variants.

Pictured above, a squadron of South Vietnamese Air Force transport helicopters approaches an airstrip near Vi Thanh in the southern Mekong Delta to pick up infantrymen who will conduct a screening operation during the Vietnam War in May 1969. The helicopters were recently given to the South Vietnamese by the Americans. (AP Photo/Henri Huet)

6) Problems caused by wind direction and intensity;

For helicopters, wind direction and strength are very important at every stage of flight because they affect the helicopter's lifting ability and controllability. Especially the direction and strength of the wind, landing planning has been made and the landing is started.

Opposite Winds; Landing with a headwind helps the helicopter land slower and more smoothly. Headwinds are when the wind blows directly into the nose of the helicopter. This is the preferred wind direction for helicopter takeoff and landing due to the extra performance it provides to the rotor.

Side Winds; Crosswinds are when the wind comes from the left or right relative to the helicopter. When the wind is not directly headwind, crosswinds are the pilot's second best wind direction option. Crosswinds coming from the left or right can cause the helicopter's tail rotor to spin out of control without being corrected if the pilot is not paying enough attention and paying attention to the pedal controls. It may cause LTE (loss of tail rotor efficiency). Strong crosswinds will try to push the helicopter sideways, which can be annoying when trying to land the helicopter in a precise spot. Especially if the landing zone is narrow and there are obstacles around it. What are these: trees, buildings, hills, tents, walls, fences, wire mesh, ditches, etc.

Tailwinds; It is very convenient when covering large distances as it can significantly increase your ground speed. By looking at the Upper Wind Forecast, a pilot can easily double ground speed by flying higher in a strong tailwind condition. A good push from mother nature can really reduce the time you need to travel. If the pilot does not realize that there is a tailwind, it can also cause problems for the helicopter coming to land. When the wind blows from behind, it can push the rotor wash created by the helicopter's main rotor towards the front of the fuselage, causing the helicopter to descend into its own turbulent air. This is very similar to the Tail Rotor Vortex Ring Condition, but this streamlined condition is called the Main Rotor Vortex Ring Condition. If allowed to develop, the helicopter may enter a very high rate of descent, and if the pilot does not quickly recognize and move the helicopter away from this turbulent air, the helicopter can easily crash at a high rate of descent. He may land hard on the ground and lose his skids. In harder landings, the damage to the helicopter increases significantly and the crew and passengers may be injured or killed.

Updrafts; It is created either when the ground heats the air and creates a column of air that moves upward through convection, or when the terrain forces the wind to flow upward, acting like a ski jump off a mountain. Updrafts can actually cause passengers to leave their stomachs behind and can be quite uncomfortable. Landing on a mountaintop using updraft can become quite dangerous, especially if the updraft is interrupted at the wrong moment and the pilot has not planned an escape route.

Downdrafts; Downdrafts are primarily a result of storm activity or winds blowing over mountain tops. Very strong downdrafts may cause the helicopter to descend at high speed and the pilot may not be able to stop the descent. Therefore, it is recommended to always direct at least 25 nm around strong storm cells. Downdrafts in mountains can be strong on the leeward side of the mountain. An unexpected downdraft while approaching a mountain landing point can be truly dangerous if the pilot has not made a planned approach for the downdraft.

Wind shear; A wind break is when the wind suddenly changes direction without any warning. The worst type of wind shear is when the wind blows as a headwind and suddenly changes to a tailwind as you approach land. If the pilot has limited power due to heavy, high-altitude, and/or humid conditions and is using headwinds to enhance performance, the sudden loss of wind assistance may cause the helicopter to enter a high descent rate. If not corrected early enough by the pilot, the available engine power to reduce the helicopter's descent speed may be exhausted and a hard landing may occur.

In general, it is always best to land with a headwind if possible. This is the safest and most controlled way to land the helicopter. If there is a strong headwind, the pilot may need to land with a crosswind or tailwind. In these cases, the pilot must be extra careful and operate safely.

He must use the controls precisely to get down.

Some other factors helicopter pilots consider when landing in windy conditions include:

a) Size and weight of the helicopter

In the photo below; He runs towards the helicopter to pick up the wounded soldiers evacuated to Dak To during the Vietnam War on June 11, 1966. The wounded soldiers were part of a group trying to get out of the forest after their communications were cut off for two days. Captain William Carpenter of the 101st Airborne called for a napalm attack on his position by the US Air Force.

In the photo above; During operations against Viet Cong guerrillas in the Mekong Delta in December 1964, U.S. Army UH-1 helicopters are seen landing South Vietnamese troops in a rice field in Long An province. (AP Photo/Horst Faas)

b) Pilot's experience

c) Terrain structure, natural obstacles and unnatural obstacles in the landing area

In the photo below; UH-1 Iroquois brings helicopter reinforcements as Troops continue to search for Viet Cong forces in Tay Ninh, South Vietnam, December 8, 1968. It can be seen how difficult the helicopter's landing area is. Photo: Shunsuke Akatsuka/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images.

In the photo above; A U.S. Army UH-1 helicopter responds to reports that Viet Cong 140 mm rockets are within range of Saigon. One of the helicopters kicks up dust and dried grass, reducing visibility as the U.S. 25th Infantry Division drops troops west of the capital in March 1967. (AP Photo/Henri Huet)

d) Visibility conditions (Dust, Cloud/Fog, Night/Dark, Rain, Glassy Water/Visual Illusions)

Wind plays a huge role in the flight of any aircraft, especially a helicopter. The helicopter's unique design allows it to achieve incredible things, but a pilot must also be aware of how important the wind is for a safe flight. Especially if he was flying a helicopter in Vietnam, he had to pay attention to the maximum wind and its consequences. In Vietnam, visibility, wind direction and wind strength were the main factors affecting the approach angle and approach speed during landings. Small carelessness could cause deadly trouble to helicopter pilots.

In this life, you either stir up dust or swallow dust!

(To be continued)