Excitement in Eritrea!
Once upon a time, a long, long time ago…………….. (when I had hair LOL); I didn’t get shot down, but my pilot did. We were doing survey work in Northern Ethiopia, out of Asmara and this particular trip was down to Massawa on the coast and back again. The machine in question was an A/Bell 47J2, stripped of all the engine cowlings, with ‘elephant ears’ added to improve cooling for the engine 
(the significance of this will become apparent in a minute, be patient). The aircraft was painted in glistening white with a HUGE red cross on the belly to simulate an airborne ambulance, since we didn’t want the ‘dizzies’ (dissident tribesmen in Eritrea both then and now) shooting at us. WRONG! - the significance of the Red Cross was lost on them and provided a useful target. 
About half-way there all was uneventful and going just fine, albeit noisily as 47J2s normally are. My pilot reported two ‘cracks’ followed rapidly by an expletive from the Scandinavian surveyor (Nils) behind him, as he looked with astonishment at the torn map he had been holding up to orientate himself to the destination. That’s one bullet through the open cabin windows (in through one, out through the other). 
The second bullet was considerably more serious. In through the port window (again) at an angle. Passed through the cabin rear bulkhead, forward s’steel fireshield for the LH fuel tank, through the tank skin, out through the inboard skin, then through the inboard s’steel firewall. And then what was left of its energy (not very much), bounced into the rotating scissors of the swashplate. 
The upshot of this was Avgas pouring down over the open-ported exhaust 
, but because of the ‘elephant ears’ absorbing airflow from the rear of the engine compartment, the mixture was too rich to ignite.
!
An immediate autorotation to the bush. The crew then found some form of transportation to a sleazy hotel bar in the middle of nowhere. The bar was adequately equipped with a plentiful supply of White Horse whisky. I received a drunken phone call later from my pilot who was pissed-off big time - two tours of Nam, strikes and damage but always got home. Then off he goes to do some African survey work, and gets shot down for his troubles…………….. 
Fly safe ~ VFR
Last edited by vfr440; 23rd Feb 2014 at 07:34.
Reason: Paragraph-isation added!