OVER GROSS WEIGHT
To those of you who haven't piloted a Huey there are a couple of things that I must explain. One is that there is an engine and rotor tachometer in one instrument. The two needles don't split while the engine is running so I will mention only engine tach speed. In normal flight the tach is at 6600 rpm. If you pull more power than the engine can maintain, it will "bleed off." The tail rotor works as an anti torque blade. If you bleed off below 5800 rpm you can expect to lose tail rotor control. The aircraft might still fly without spinning on its axis if your airspeed is up to about 35 knots. However, the lower your tach goes the slower you blades go and the less likely you will stay airborne.
The second is that the "D" model Hueys had an older L-11 engine which was not as powerful as the L-13 in the "H" models. This meant that the weight in relation to the density altitude of the surrounding air became critical. In this particular situation my aircraft could not get off of the ground with more than 7 fully loaded pacs (a term we used for passengers).
Finally, we had two M-60 machine guns on bungi-chords on each side of the aircraft. This was the last mission which didn't have them on mounts.
There were five ships in formation; we were the last, tail-end Charlie. When choppers fly in formation they are stacked higher than each other as you go back (the opposite of fixed wing) because of the rotor wash. Tail-end Charlie is usually last to touch down and the first to lift off. This particular PZ was especially hot and it was decided to extract the unit and attack from a different direction with a larger force, after pounding the daylights out of them with arty first.
As we approached, the flight commander called and told the troops not to overload the last aircraft. Of course, in the confusion and most notably after the tree line opened fire on us, we ended up with 8 fully loaded pacs.
As I tried to lift off, I couldn't get to a stable hover, much less come out with the formation and all the disturbed air. I had to wait. This creates an extremely hazardous situation as the (2) gunships cannot cover the outgoing flight and a stranded bird. I had to hover back to the beginning of the PZ by "bouncing" the aircraft in order to take full advantage of space and come out into the wind (it's also called translation) or what we called free air. Bouncing the aircraft until enough speed was attained I exited the PZ, sort of.
My chin bubbles and skids were making a heck of a racket as we passed through the trees. My tach was at 5400 and we were almost sideways. I could visibly see the blades as they came around and wondered what kind of a wish and a prayer kept us airborne. At this juncture one of the Rebel gunships radioed the C & C aircraft and informed him that we will need to get an extraction team and troops to recover the tail-end Charlie aircraft as he was about to crash into the trees. We called the gunship and told him not to give up on us just yet as we were still in the air.
It was about then that we noticed the river. I nosed the bird down and built the airspeed up enough to make a gradual ascent out and join up with the flight. As you might expect, I was greatly relieved but still slightly concerned as I knew we took several hits in the aircraft. None of the warning lights came on and control functions were OK, but I couldn't wait to get to Phu Loi and see where we were hit.
The Crew Chief and Gunner went in to clean their weapons and my first pilot and I stayed to inspect the bird. I knew I had felt them, but couldn't find them until we looked under the aircraft. There they were, but they looked like they came out rather than in.
Closer inspection revealed that all of the "hits" we had taken were from the Crew Chief as he followed his target into the aircraft and UP THE BACK OF MY SEAT!!! The last bullet had hit the armor plating about two inches from the top. One more round and he would have gotten the back of my head. Even more interesting was the fact that he didn't even know it. The door mounts were installed on all birds afterward.