'Shot Down'? Apache Longbow

[Charlie]

Interesting chat with somebody in the aircraft maint field.

Quite a few are of the opinion that it wasn't shot down at all.........more a fuel problem.

1 farmer with his musket shouldn't be able to bring an armoured, multiple redundancy systems machine down. It is supposed to be able to withstand fairly heavy clibre stuff, with it's kevlar etc

If is was shot down, wouldn't there be some form of blackening, scarring of the bodywork, rotors etc.

Thinking about it......I suppose they have a point.......maybe Elmer ran out of avgas after all.

El Prez and Derek B......as our aviation guru's..........?

[Topper]

If it was shot down then the AAC should cancel those 67 AH-64s! But the AH-64 on the news didn't seem to have any visible external damage and some old numpty in a field with a .303 won't do a thing. I'm sure the destructive testing of the tail rotors is far more demanding than a lucky shot .303 round. But i'm sure the Chopper guys on here know more on this than I.

[Topper]

And why didn't the crew use the visible ordanance to supress the local defences so that they could do a runner. Surely isn't it a court marshall offence to leave a Helicopter abandoned in such a manner?

[barryc]

Do the Iraqis have traffic wardens? They would just love that sloppy parking. If they haven't got any yellow perils there are a fair few here in the Smoke we can send them. Perhaps they are not actually interrogating the pilot but getting him to fill in an insurance claim.

Joking aside (THAT was a joke?) best wishes to any of the troops the rag heads get their hands on, here's to a quick resolution and repat of prisoners.


Barry

[Charlie]

I suppose that's why you get a lot of burnt scousers. Others nick the radio, then torch it!

[Rotary Booty]

Right Charlie.......... no.... that looks as if I'm calling you a 'Right Charlie'.

Start again.... OK Charlie

I have pm'd Rob on this, and discussed our answer at great length, as he has actually sat in an Apache, and thus is far more qualified to answer your query than me, as I only designed the Apache while doodling one day.

In his opinion, and I agree to a certain extent, it is obvious from the look on the faces of the two crew that even they don't know what happened!

We reckon a forced landing, caused by an unknown technical defect, into the middle of a 'Farmers Weekly' meeting. No, ......seriously!

[Rotary Booty]

Sticky

Not really, but I never flew in the scenario that those guys were in, in a piece of high tech hardware like they had. I am surprised though that if they were grabbed before they could destroy the aircraft, that it wasn't subsequently destroyed by bombing. (While they were filming it would have been a good time in my view. )

Charlie's post reminded me of a village sweep we did in Aden, and I was the heli support. It was called 'Hearts and Minds' but we were really looking for signs of rebel activity. One of the sections brought over a huge, ancient, muzzle loader rifle they had found, with a long piece of cord attached to the front sling swivel. The cord had about 5 knots tied in it at varying distances. A tribesman explained that these knots were the aiming off points for the various aircraft types that flew by. He pointed to my Sioux, and then to one of the knots, laughing fit to bust!
They didn't mean us any harm, but they were riflemen who just wanted to see if they could hit us! The lead ball in that rifle would have taken the rotor head off, or the engine out, I wouldn't have needed to trash it!

[Rotary Booty]

Cheers Sticky, I hadn't heard that they'd bombed it. What a waste, Rob and I could have enjoyed ourselves in that.

The Iraqis are still claiming they got two of them!

[Rotary Booty]

Further to my previous post about that rifle and being shot down, I have now found the photos I was looking for. I was carrying 45's unit photographer to a search area on a jebel in Aden in Feb 1966 when we suffered an unknown technical failure whilst in the hover, over a slope. I still have no recollection of getting out, but neither of us were hurt; not even a scratch. The only thing that stopped us going over the edge was the fact that one of the rotor blades stopped, pointing down the slope, and the wreckage was gently rocking on it!

Every tribesman in the area claimed he was the one who shot me down!

[El Prez]

What a waste, Rob and I could have enjoyed ourselves in that

Wrong, I would have enjoyed myself, you Blevins would bend the back so that I might more easily enter the comfort of the cockpit. You would then wave frantically but forlornly at the departing presidential warmobile.

Okehampton today. 3 Seakings doing troop drills. One was shut down and a mech attached a blade sock, he was holding it like a dog lead, so I enquired "Now you've caught it what are you going to do with it?" Blank Matelot look! Doh

[Rotary Booty]

Rob and Harry

You are discussing this subject elsewhere in a thread that I am unable to respond to because I am not allowed access!

The Apache rotor head was at an unusual angle, as Harry remarked, but I would guess that was a result of the forced landing. It was too severe for the aircraft to have remained in one piece if it had happened pre-forced landing. Logic wins!

[gash-hand]

I spoke to a mate of mine last night who works over at Boscombe Down and apparently there's some known issues with Apache reliability. 23 of them went down in Afghanistan, due to an undisclosed mechanical failure - which was obviously never reported.

He knows this as he was part of an aircraft maintenance team tasked with stripping down the UK Apaches to be sent out to Afgan for spares.

Incidentially theres a 'melt down' button in all Apaches that completely frags all the electrical components on board - so if it does get captured it'll be of no use.