Originally Posted by
meleagertoo
I doubt shooting at helos is particularly unusual. Hitting them probably is.
At Cranfield late one evening a CH53 landed way out of hours at dusk and shut down midfield. Some of us left the Dakota Club and wandered across to find the crew wondering at the bullet hole that had appeared in a rotor blade and caused the sudden whistling that had led them to land in a hurry. It was fullbore size surrounded by an inch or so of lost paint. They decided it wasn't in a critaical place and departed.
A few years later took a .22 round pointblank through the bottom of my Jetranger during a powerline line survey (at 30-50ft agl) in UK. Good thing it went where it did and not in a knee, ankle, arm or up my arse...
That could have made quite the whistling sound too!