South Vietnam Air Force pilot jumps from his Huey after dropping

South Vietnam Air Force pilot jumps from his Huey after dropping ...

After dropping off evacuees on USS Midway, a south Vietnamese pilot bails out of his Huey and into the water, 1975

No space on the carrier deck for The chopper.   Impressed with how high he jumped.... Read story 

That looks like 60’ or more

Bailing out of a helicopter is probably the coolest feeling in the world. Destroying a million dollar machine likes tossing a bike when you arrive at your destination must be awesome.

They were absolutely that expensive. There essentially has never been a turbine helicopter that cost less than a million dollars. Most cost more like 3-4mm new on the low end.

That was one of the observations by Col Hackworth in his book About Face.    The South Vietnamese allowed equipment to fall into disrepair because the upper leadership was so rife with corruption and the general attitude was ‘the Yankees will just give us more helicopters.’

Progressive cuts to military aid in the face of increasing Northern attacks after the Paris Peace Accords resulted in serious shortages of ammunition, supplies, fuel, and spare parts for the South Vietnamese.

While corruption certainly was endemic among the bureaucracy and upper echelons of the military in the early war period, by 1971, corruption had been whittled down greatly.

As for ditching, I was taught to prepare for the ditch in the usual way (tighten harness, Stow loose items etc.), then fuel shut off just above the water from a stable hover. When the engine quit, pull collective to cushion landing, then wait for all the spinny bits to stop moving before unbuckling and getting out.

Sounds like a lot to do when written down, but actually much simpler and less risky than jumping out of a Huey at 50’, imho.

I asked a navy rescue swimmer (my father),  “it’s generally bad to be in a helicopter sinking in the open ocean, if your gear gets caught on something, then you get a fast pass to the ocean floor, better to take your chances with the water impact, but then again, hitting the water at 50’ is like hitting concrete. There’s no good answer here” An interesting insight

People are notoriously bad at judging their height above water. I know of several cases where individuals released their parachutes above the water (concerned that they’d enter the water and be dragged under by their chutes) and then died hitting the water.

With that acknowledged, you now have to climb to a height above the sea where you can survive the fall and not get hit by the aircraft as it does its thing. What height is that? How are you judging it?

I’d rather take my chances inside the cab while the main rotor disk shits itself outside the cab. Either way, not a great position to be in!

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