Don’t Text and Fly Helos
I was doing a bout of CSAR (Combat Search and Rescue) in the UH-1H on a multiplayer server, and found myself racing against three other CSAR pilots grabbing the guys I was going after. After redirecting three times and we finally managed to pick up a downed A-10 pilot far from the front lines. Being a Hawg driver myself, I have a special affinity for rescuing them. The whole time, my co-pilot is calling out contacts – things that want to punch a lot of holes in our plane – so we’re keeping low and fast. This is in Western Syria where the trees are short but the hills are the same color as the flat ground. 100 – 200 AGL is reasonably safe as long as we don’t get too close to the angry mosquitoes.
A-10 pilot on board, we’re on our way back to a MASH Unit / FARP (Forward Arming and Refueling Point), and I start receiving text messages on the phone on my desk. Being a multiplayer server, there is no “pause” button. Dutifully, I quickly type out responses, hit send, and glance up in time to see the radar altimeter read “19” [feet AGL] with a 750 FPM dive and 100 knots indicated airspeed. In short, the ground is rushing up to say “hi” with a little less than one second before the fatal handshake.
I yank back on the cyclic (the point nose stick) and up on the collective (the go up / down stick), and that one second slows down with near relativistic time dilation.
We manage to pull out of the dive by bouncing off the ground hard enough to completely rip off the left skid, including its support struts.
We get back to the FARP, with a fully intact right skid and nothing on the left side. If we land on a flat surface the plane will roll at least enough to dig the rotor into the ground and make for a violent time. We’ve got enough control that we could touch down one skid and hold hover while they unload the patient, but we’d still be stuck looking for a place to wreck the helicopter afterward.
As we roll up on the FARP, I remember that they’re built up from the ground to make level landing surfaces. As a result, they have sides that are sloped at a 45-ish degree angle. If you’re careful, you can land on the edge of a FARP putting your flat side on the flat top, and your still there skid on the slope. You gotta match it up just right – just right enough or “close enough for government work” – based on the height of the skid and the width of your helo, but do it right and…
They unloaded the A-10 pilot, and we gently shutdown with no additional damage to the field, the plane, aircrew, ground crew, J-crew, nearby school field trips, nor passing geese.
Sim: DCS World
Region: Syria
Aircraft: UH-1H
Base: FARP Bravo