If I was still a drinking man....I would have a few and recount a Chinook ride down the side of Gia Rhe Mountain northeast of Saigon.
A little over a year ago...as I was gazing at the mountain as we rode by in a tour bus....a friend leaned over and said...."Sure doesn't look ten miles high from here does it?"
While dropping off a slingload on the mountain top pad (room for slingloads or a Chinook (barely), one engine gave up the ghost and the other decided to demonstate what full blown compressor stall was all about....and off down the mountain we went heading for the rice fields at the bottom.
It turned out fine....but for what seemed like ages...the glide angle matched the countour of the mountain leaving about a one foot gap between the aft blades and the trees.
Aye Gawd Lad! It would have been quite a sight if we had gone into the trees nose down going 60-70 knots!
I think I will add a bit of hooch to my morning coffee now that I think about it.