Yep I loved the Huey too, did about 6 years on them worked on the last B models at 3AD and H 's at 9 Sqn and 5 Avn, great machine and super reliable but my favorite is the Blackhawk , I never had a Blackhawk go tits up on me out bush in 5 years of bush ops and yes Jessie I to recovered more Blackhawks in Hueys than the other way around (not my Blackhawks other crews!!) and the problems with the so called maintenance problem in the Blackhawk was not the A/C fault, when the Helo's went from RAAF to Army the system let them down not the RAAF and not the Army, no spares ordered, experiance levels of tradies going up and down like a yoyo in the Sqn's and high flying rate, at one stage at 5 Avn we had 8 Blackhawks out of 30 due 500 hrlys and no people or spares to do them, the press come out and say they have a servicability problem , yep when the system f.....up to that extent nothing would have flown!
When the Blackhawk was chosen it was between the Blackhawk and the AS332 Super Puma , thank goodness we chose the Blackhawk i've worked on Super Pumas for 8 years and the Blackhawk is a class above , it is a full generation ahead of the S,puma in design and systems.
And as Mr Torquer said do I have a point . Yes I don't like Eurocrap, good helos but sh.t support, and that is what will bite us on the ass the NH90 is a very capable helo but with almost all other NH90's the other side of the world we will be the poor cousins to other operators, and the Tiger is worse no hot and high performance and all the work the Aust Army has done to intergrate US weapons systems in them, the french are laughing all the way to the bank!
When the Chinook was reintroduced to Australian service they were delivered in US paint scheme not the Australian 3 colour scheme and operated under the US Army maintenance scheme not the AAP system for one reason ...ease of support and interoperability with US forces, (the force we have worked closest to for the last 40+ years) then we go and throw that plan away and choose the NH90 and Tiger , if the ADF chose the UH60-M, and AH64-D and the Navy went with more Seahawks and MH60-S's the ADF would have operated 6 differant airframes , AH64,UH60,MH60,S70-B2,SH2G(A) and CH47 and 2 engines T-700's and T55's all US equip with interoperability with regional forces (US,Singapore,Korea ,Japan etc to name a few), but no!! we get NH90's, Tigers with the Blackhawks,Seahawks,Seasprites and Chinooks, 6 compleatly differant airframes and 4 engines, T-700, T-55,RTM322 and TM MTR390, what will the cost be over 20 add years to maintain such a mixed fleet.
That gentlemen is my beef , but to all of us who worked or flew the Huey have a beer and remember the good times, I'm lucky I'm on S-92's (yes a fat Blackhawk!!)and if I see a Super Puma again its too soon!! (oops spoke to soon i'm on Puma ****boxes again next month!) ;-)