Your best ever sortie

[Head Turner]

Everyone of my flights I have enjoyed. Those flights in bad weather I have enjoyed the landing at the end.
My most enjoyable flight was in Kenya flying an AS350B2 as part of a world rally team, flying above and infront of the rally car, spotting for domestic and wild animals, pedestrians and vehicles. The helicopter, the scenery, the experience and the enjoyment during the flight was most memorable.

What was your most enjoyable flight?

[Blind Bob]

My best trip was while working for White Nile Ltd in Padak. I had to recce the River Nile from Juba taking GPS co-ordinates of all the forks in the river ( a wrong turn could take you 15 miles to a dead end).
This was so they could use their Zodiac boat for re-supply. There's no roads open during the rainy season and the airstrip gets closed for at least 24 hours after a downpour.
120 miles of twists and turns at about a 100 feet. Great fun. :)

[SASless]

Several stand out....but three are probably the kind you are thinking of.

Night flight across the English Channel from Gatwick to France taking a spare part for a company Puma that had gone U/S. Gin clear weather, dead of Winter, nearly full Moon, snow on the ground. As the French coast came into view....could not help thinking many a Bomber Command crew had seen the same thing.

The others were on June 14, 1970.....I survived them.:ouch: :)

[RINKER]

About six years ago my mother inlaws husband was dying from cancer and I had arranged to take them both on a scenic trip with my wife .The day before it snowed all day and night.Next day the sky cleared and the wind was completley calm,so I picked them up from Fife airport with permission although it was closed to fixed wing.Then flew them around the Trossachs area in Scotland in clear calm blue skys with a fresh blanket of snow covering the whole area like a Christmas card.The gentlman who is no longer with us really loved the experience as we all did,a memorable and poignant flight.
R.

[BRASSEMUP]

I had a spare seat on a trip in Bosnia, so I took a member of the Multinational HQ with me. She loved it………………Ended up marring her! Lucky chick.:ok:

[TheFlyingSquirrel]

The others were on June 14, 1970.....I survived them

Sassy - tell us more........

[SASless]

In a place far away, many years ago, I had one of the most interesting days one can have flying. I was flying Chinooks in the border area bounded by a Special Forces camp named Katum, a Cambodian town named Snoul, an LZ atop a mountain ridge north of LZ Snuffy and Bu Dop. We were doing finally, what should have happened long before, that being taking ground, destroying infrastructure, and decreasing the enemy Order of Battle. You know of it as the Cambodia Incursion. Monsoon had arrived shortly after we moved north and west out of An Loc, Loc Ninh, Tay Ninh into the sanctuary areas in Cambodia.

That morning I was flying an artillery firebase move just north of Katum....weather was not good and caught us halfway in the move. Thus, we had to carry on in despite the low ceilings. We were violating the rule of never fly the same track twice and either stay high or very low. Hauling a 105 howitzer with an A-22 bag of ammunition under the gun, prevents one from flying low enough to be safe.

Towards the end of the move.... we got shot at by a guy with a 7.62 Machine gun....he pointed the thing up and cut loose with a very long burst. My bad luck was he knew what he was doing and he hit from the FM antenna on the nose clear back to the ramp. That was the good news. The bad news was he hit some fuzes for the 105mm projectiles and they went bang. The sling load naturally was trailing behind the cargo hook and the explosion filled the cabin and cockpit with smoke and a bit of flame. It also pushed the aircraft into a very pronounced nose down attitude.

Me and the co-pilot jointly but without coordination each pulled the cyclic back....like to the mechanical stops back since the trees were really getting close.

Next thing we see is nothing but gray sky in all the windows....just a slight over control which in hind sight seems excusable. We/I/he...leveled the aircraft and we began to seek a parking place as we had also had an engine failure combined with a hydraulic failure of one flight control system.
The SF base at Katum appeared just off our track and I made the first arrested landing of a Chinook as I landed in front of the barbed wire perimeter and immediately dragged up what seemed like miles of concentina razor wire, trip flares, and Claymore Mines.

We repaired the hydraulic line, watched fuel drain from one tank on the failed engine side, took bolt cutters to the barbed wire....apologized profusely to the infantry who were going to be busy for the rest of the day rebuilding the perimeter. Once we lightened ship by offl loading the moveable contents, guns, ammo, water igloo, rations, armor plate, the crew chief and gunner....burned off un-needed fuel in the good side....we flew single engine back to our base and switched to a different aircraft.

The Flight Engineer was the only guy hurt.....a piece of shrapnel knicked him on the very tip of his nose...one tiny little drop of blood.

This being my second tour in Vietnam I considered having had the morning's fun and games that I was now safe to carry on. After all, we were flying Chinooks and thus not always exposed to such mis-adventures as say...Huey Pilots or Gunship pilots. We grabbed another aircraft....shook hands with the luckiest guy in the Army. He had taken hits that morning as well.

One of his hits clipped a hydraulic line just where the lines to the main flight control actuators entered the actuator housing. Despite the 0.5 inch thickarmor plate separating the two lines...the second line had a dent in it. Had both of those lines been shot away it would have been all over but the Condolence Letters.

We left home....went to Bu Dop SF camp and flew a couple of runs, finished our tasking for the day about mid-afternoon and prepared to head home for Miller Time. (Black Label time actually!:ugh: ) While we were shut down for a maintenance break, a 1st AirCav guy came up and asked if I could fly a couple of sorties for him as his Cav Chinooks had all gone home because the weather was below their minimums.

I agreed and off we went with a sling load of bullets and beans for an LZ on top of a plateau in Cambodia. We climbed up and went IMC utilizingn a GCA site to guide us to the location. We were in and out of the clouds as we flew through small holes that we could see the ground in but only for a second or two. Alas, a brother of the guy from earlier that morning was every bit as good as the other one. This must have the "Big Brother" as he was shooting a .51 Caliber.

We only took one hit thank goodness....but a very serious hit. It passed through the rear edge of the chin bubble on my side....removed the brake pedal from the left pedal (leaving a stalk that looked like a Jet Ranger pedal) and departed stage right. That was the good news. The bad news was it started a hyraulic fed fire as it passed through. Along with the pedal it took out sections of the supply and return lines to the utility hydaulic system which operates the brakes, engine starter, ramp, and winch systems on the Chinook.

We dealt with the fire....violated the SOP's for the unit...that being "Use the Checklist". Wound up doing an actual GCA back into Bu Dop. This time I was the guy hurt. The aircraft was damaged bad enough from the fire being blown back along the side of the aircraft that it had to be slung to the shipping port for re-build.

Thus.....as I say....a very memorable day all and all.