[H2]

Originally Posted by ATC330i

Why wouldn't you call ATC for assistance? And you're low on fuel and you still won't "publicly" admit you're lost? I'm a controller and this sounds odd. I've never had a pilot be afraid to call for assistance. It's one thing to be on the ground driving your car and not wanting to admit your lost (when your life isn't on the line), but another when you're flying up in the air facing death. NO pilot has too much pride in these circumstances. Not to mention the repercussions you face by landing in a random field by your commanding officer. BTW, I spent a year at Osan AB, Korea back in my Air Force days. It's a good story, but please elaborate.

We certainly should of contacted ATC. At the beginning of being "lost," we considered it; but we figured we had time to get ourselves on track. I guess with all of our focusing on trying to determine where we were (with time and fuel running short), we just neglected to revisit the ATC option. Once we saw how low our fuel was, we just decided to go and land. I visited Osan a few times. We did joint air attack team (JAAT) training with a unit stationed there.

[H2]

As it turned out, it was my good fortune that the teacher spoke English and had actually lived in Chuncheon. We then went into the school building to use a telephone. Since I was the Platoon Leader and ranking officer (1LT vs CW2), I would have the displeasure of calling back to our flight operations to tell them where we were. Meanwhile, my copilot stayed at the chopper and entertained the kids. After a few calls back and forth (and some amount of time later), arrangements were made for a fuel truck from the Korean military to come out and refuel us. After I signed six copies of paperwork for the fuel, thanked the teacher, and gave away some chemlites to the few remaining kids, I took off and flew home. The flight was uneventful and we arrived back sometime after 2:00 am. In the flight operations area, we had a huge, nearly floor-to-ceiling map of South Korea. While we were flying back, some joker tried to draw our flight route that night on the map. His route contained lots of circles and squiggly lines, and a big "X" in Sokcho – HAHA! The next day consisted of a considerable amount of paperwork, wordsmithing, and quite a few laughs. We had a laid back company commander, so no big lectures. Through time all was forgotten, or though it seemed…. My copilot went on to fly Apaches at his next assignment, and I went on to get another Cobra platoon in an Armored Cavalry Regiment. About a year later, a new pilot showed up in my unit in Texas. He had just completed Cobra Qualification School at Ft Rucker, the home of Army Aviation, location of the “World’s Largest Heliport in the Free World,” blah, blah. Heck, Pan Am World Airways even taught some of our flight training there. Anyway, we were talking and I mentioned that my last assignment was in Korea. He then began to relay some story (with quite a bit of detail) about some crazy pilots who got lost in Korea, and he asked me if I knew them. Yes I did! You see, his instructor pilot in Cobra training was a pilot in my platoon in Korea.

THE END

Note: If my memory serves me right, at the time I began flying Cobras and various other helicopters, smoking was allowed. I believe it just wasn’t permitted during takeoffs and landings. We even had ash trays in the cockpit. I believe the Army Aviation Flight Regulations (AR 95-1), which among many things, also covered smoking in aircraft, were changed a couple years after our Korean adventure.

[Blake]

how's that LSB e92 doing? any recent pics?

off-topic, i know

[H2]

Originally Posted by Blake

how's that LSB e92 doing? any recent pics?

off-topic, i know

The M3 is doing good, though I haven't driven it so much, due to winter, etc. It's also in storage at a very inconvenient location right now. I'm buying a house and will close in two weeks. So, it will come out of storage at that time and be driven on a regular basis, and then my Mountaineer will go into storage in my garage! No new pictures. Once I get my mods done, I'll post some more. However, that won't be for another 3 months or so. But, there is some goofball at work who posted (on another forum) that he sat in my car (which was untrue) and he would take pictures of my car too prove it belonged to his boss (also untrue). So, maybe we'll see some of those pictures!

[Blake]

Originally Posted by H2

The M3 is doing good, though I haven't driven it so much, due to winter, etc. It's also in storage at a very inconvenient location right now. I'm buying a house and will close in two weeks. So, it will come out of storage at that time and be driven on a regular basis, and then my Mountaineer will go into storage in my garage! No new pictures. Once I get my mods done, I'll post some more. However, that won't be for another 3 months or so. But, there is some goofball at work who posted (on another forum) that he sat in my car (which was untrue) and he would take pictures of my car too prove it belonged to his boss (also untrue). So, maybe we'll see some of those pictures!