Flying Thunder 2008: June 2008

Flying Thunder 2008

Please note that this blog is a work in progress. Over the next couple weeks we will be posting pictures of our amazing 23 day adventure to The Wall!

For those of you that are not familiar with Flying Thunder please visit our website at http://flyingthunder.org/index.html

The Aircraft

The Crew

The People

Flight to the Wall 2008 is a project undertaken by Wings & Rotors Air Museum’s three UH-1 Iroquois ‘Hueys’ and OH-58 Kiowa to accompany the Rolling Thunder Ride to the Wall motorcycle riders as they cross America to arrive at the Vietnam Wall in Washington, DC for Memorial Day ceremonies in May of 2008. Wings & Rotors Air Museum, dedicated to restoring ‘wings of yesterday to fly today,’ concentrates on Vietnam era aircraft. The flight of the Hueys to the Wall continues our on-going commitment to honor Vietnam Veterans, re-welcome them home and thank them for their sacrifice. It is also to remember our POW-MIAs and American Veterans from all wars.

Aircraft History - -- Bandit N832M

"Bandit 2" is a Bell UH-1B, U.S. Army serial number 62-2084, FAA registration N832M, that has been restored to its original Vietnam combat configuration including guns and rocket pods. It is painted to represent the 118th Assault Helicopter Company "Thunderbirds," Third Platoon "Bandits," at Bien Hoa, Vietnam, were it was assigned in 1965.

This aircraft flew with the U.S. Army from 1963-1984. In 1964, it deployed to Vietnam with the 101st Airborne Division from Ft. Campbell, Ky. 14 bullet hole patches were discovered during the restoration at the museum.

The museum purchased this helicopter from Lee County in Flordia where it was spraying insecticide for the Lee County Mosquito Abatement program. This Huey had been sitting dormant for 8 years in Florida before coming to California and being restored in 2003.

First Flight!

Aircraft History -- Dustoff N37995

Photo taken during Flying Thunder

This UH-1B was built in 1960 as the sixth B model off the Bell assembly line. Given bureau number 60-3559 it still resembles the UH-1A model in many ways, such as the thin door post. Military records are not too good for the early years of Vietnam. But what we have uncovered indicates that this helicopter served with the 57th Medical Detachment (Helicopter Ambulance). It was one of the first 5 UH-1B helicopters sent to Vietnam in 1963 for the 57th Med. to replace the under powered UH-1A models. They were put into service in a record 12 days after arriving in Vietnam.

The DUSTOFF call sign was acquired by the 57th Medical Detachment in January, 1964. The statistics for DUSTOFF are very impressive. 97% of the wounded soldiers who reached a hospital survived. Over 390,000 troops were flown by DUSTOFF during the Vietnam War. Average time from wounding to the surgical table was 100 minutes. 88 DUSTOFF pilots were KIA and 380 wounded.

After serving in Vietnam, this helicopter returned to the states, was rebuilt several times and served in Germany until being returned to the USA. Last flight was 16 September 1976 at Camp Robinson, AK. At this point in time it had 4927.8 hours total time. The helicopter was then transferred to MASDF, Davis Monthan AFB Tucson, AZ. We have no information on when it was sold by the Army or what owners it had until February 2000 when it belonged to Warren Dettmer who sold it to the Veterans of the Vietnam War Museum in Columbus, OH on October 6, 2003 and then to Overseas Aircraft Support April 20, 2004.

It was purchased by Overseas Aircraft Support and placed into outdoor storage to be used for parts or possible rebuild at some future date. In 2004 Larry Clark and Stan Bieleski started the long restoration process to bring this Huey back to life. Along with almost every employee of Overseas Aircraft assisting, it still took 3 years to assemble what you see today.

First flight was October 5, 2007 after 32 years of inactivity. Painted by Shane Meder, it was flown to Nellis AFB for the big airshow to celebrate the Air Force 60th anniversary in November 2007. Along with “Bandit”, it performed a simulated pickup of a downed pilot while being covered by “Puff”.

Today it is flying like a new helicopter with a T53-L-22 engine and a very light weight airframe without military radios and equipment. It is slated for conversion to a “Super B” and will be doing heavy lift work in the near future.

Aircraft History - Kiowa OH-58

This Bell OH-58A Kiowa had Army serial number 70-15258 and FAA registration N58WR. It was delivered to the U.S. Army in June 1971 and was assigned to the 7th Army Training Center in Grafenwohr Germany.

In 1978 it was transferred to Headquarters 1st Infantry Div. in Goppingen, Germany were it served for 10 years.
1988 found it flying with B Co. 7/159th Aviation Regiment for a 2 year period. Then in 1990 to D Co. 2-1 Aviation Regiment, Katterbach, Germany. From Dec 1990 to Aug 1991 it was deployed in support of Desert Storm.
In 1992 it left Germany and went to B Co. 228th A.B. Panama.
In 1993 it went to the PA National Guard were it flew until being declared surpluss in 1998.

In 2001 it was purchased by the museum from the Army as a stripped out fuselage without the engine and most of the parts.

It was restored in Atlanta, GA by Pat Rodgers and in 2002 was flown to its new home at the museum in California.

Aircraft History - Seawolf N370AS

This Bell UH-1B was built in 1963, delivered to the Army in October 1964 and assigned Bureau Number 63-12923. The early history is incomplete, but it was in Vietnam in early 1965 based upon two action reports:

April 8, 1965 took three hits in the skid. The Aircraft Commander was Gordon L. Stone flying this helicopter on that date. Repaired at the unit level.
April 27, 1965 it was brought down by small arms fire, resulting in 1 wounded.

It is believed that the helicopter was assigned to A/501 AVN during this first tour in Vietnam.

From the limited information available, it appears to have had major damage and was sent back to the USA for repairs. After being repaired, it remained in the USA.

October 1966 it was assigned to the 6th Army at Dugway Proving Grounds until March of 1967 when it was sent back to Vietnam with the lst Cav. Assigned to the 11th General Support Co. for 7 months and then with A/1/9 for three months until it was damaged in February 1968. Rebuilt by the 388th Trans. Co. in country. Then tranferred from the Army to the Navy Seawolves in November 1968

It was damaged and sent back to Bell Helicopter in Amarillo, TX for repairs from October 1969 to November 19, 1970 when it was returned to the Seavolves in Vietnam. Aircraft hours were 3198.0 at this time. It was assigned to Seawolf Detachment 9 and given Modex #324.

Names in the logbooks in 1970 and 1971:

M.C. Turner, AZ3
L. Havner, AZ2
David M Charter, AZAM
W.P. Bennett, AZ2
T. E. Claytor, AZ1
M. Lockey, AFCM

Upon further research of the records, the following was found to not be true for this helicopter. 64-13939 was the helicopter damaged by the 75 mm shell.

On May 28, 1971 it was damaged by a 75MM recoilless rifle while parked aboard YRBM-21 and was repaired in country.

The last flight in the logbooks was on February 29, 1972 by HA(L)-3 when they returned the helicopter to the 388th Transportation Company in Vietnam for shipment back to the USA.

It arrived back in the USA. in June 1972. Was in maintenance until October 1973 when it was loaned to NASA Langley Research Center until August 1975. No flights during this period.

Along with hundreds of other Hueys, it was placed in storage at Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, AZ with 4390 total flight hours.

It was sold by the Army on September 23, 1991 to J. H. Helicopters in Tucson as part of a block of UH-1B helicopters for the sum of $611.57 each. Overseas Aircraft Support purchased the airframe as part of a package of 13 Hueys in 1995 where it remained in outdoor storage until 2007.

John Boucher of Overseas Aircraft decided to restore this UH-1B to the original Seawolf configuration for the Wings and Rotors Air Museum. This project involved thousands of man-hours for sheet metal, wiring, hydraulics, paint and assembly. The T53-L-11D engine was first started on May 7, 2008 and was hovered briefly on May 10, 2008, but FAA paperwork prevented it from flying and becoming part of Flying Thunder 2008.

UPDATE: October 2009. Seawolf 324 has all the correct FAA paperwork, registrations and airworthiness certificates. It is being prepared to fly again and the armament package is being assembled with a 7.62 Mini Gun on the left mount, a .50 cal door gun on the right side, rocket pods and much more. Watch for more updates.

Aircraft History -- Bell UH-1H

History and Photos.

Media Day -- Riverside National Cemetery

DAY 1 -- French Valley, CA to Laughlin, NV

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Even with the crews working long hours, the Bandit gunship was the only flyable aircraft that started eastbound on Day 1. Back at French Valley work continued on the OH-58 and the UH-1H "Outlaw". In Lakeside, AZ the UH-1B "Seawolf" was ready to go, but paperwork problems with the FAA could not be resolve

The Crew of Bandit