"Wings at War"

hsjrev · Post by **hsjrev** » Wed Jan 15, 2003 8:17 pm

Saw a really interesting episode of "Wings at War" on the Discovery Wings channel about Forward Air Controllers in Viet Nam. It had lots of really neat footage of Bird Dogs flying and landing in the jungle plus a lot of crashed Bird Dogs and some that made it back with battle damage. Also had interviews with the pilots who flew the FAC missions. It's scheduled to show again on Jan 31st at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. The title of the episode was "The FACs"

zero.one.victor · Post by **zero.one.victor** » Thu Jan 16, 2003 1:48 am

I was looking thru one of the books about the history of Cessna's,and found a whole chapter on Bird-Dogs. Some cool photo's,including one of a Bird-Dog just about broke in half from a hard landing & a couple of an Air National Guard unit's Bird-Dog demo team doing some fancy formation work. Also a story of a So Vietnamese Army officer landing a Bird-Dog on a carrier during the bugout from Saigon with his entire family on board.
Bird-Dogs are awesome! Of course,what do you expect from the offspring of the 170? Too bad they're so spendy.

Eric

wa4jr · Post by **wa4jr** » Fri Jan 17, 2003 2:58 am

And just to think about that lovely L-19 being pushed off the carrier into the sea

Makes me sooooo mad to think people used to crumple up perfectly good aircraft up like a tin can and throw them away! I can remember seeing photos of troops digging holes and bulldozing perfectly good bomber and fighter aircraft into them....to darn lazy to fly or otherwise transport them back to the USA. Then those pictures of all the German aircraft stored up on European airstrips for destruction...perfectly good machines. How STUPID could we have been? If only I could go back in time and bring back a few of these great machines before the short sighted lunkheads destroyed them all.....

Post by **GAHorn** » Fri Jan 17, 2003 1:42 pm

Yes, but what would we have eaten all those yummie TV-dinners in?

zero.one.victor · Post by **zero.one.victor** » Fri Jan 17, 2003 5:51 pm

Talking about pushing perfectly good aircraft overboard--a Bird Dog goes for around $60-$80K nowadays,but a UH-1 Huey goes for what,about a quarter mill?
For those who don't know what we're talking about,from what I've read about the big US pull-out from Saigon in 1975,there were so many aircraft trying to land on US aircraft carriers,the troops on board were literally pushing aircraft overboard after they landed & unloaded to clear the flight deck for incoming flights.

Eric

Curtis Brown · Post by **Curtis Brown** » Fri Jan 17, 2003 8:49 pm

That L-19 that landed on the carrier during the Saigon dugout was not pushed off into the sea.. It is at the Navy Aeronatical Museum in Pensacola, FL. It is the only non-navy airplane on display there. I have a picture of it on disc if anyone would like to see it. The history and story of the event is posted on a plaque at the museum. By the way... if you ever get the opportunity, the museum is a must see. I have been there three times and there are always some changes and improvements that make it interesting to see again and again.

Curtis Brown · Post by **Curtis Brown** » Sat Jan 18, 2003 1:32 am

I thought I could post a picture here but I seem to not be able to.[/img]