| Helicopter Running Landing by Larry Hatch |
FIRST TWO UH-1H AIRCRAFT ASSIGNED TO 15TH MED BN
WO Arthur Martin and I were flown to Vung Tau to take delivery of the first two new UH-1H
helicopters; an improvement over the D model’s L-11 engine versus the much more powerful L-13
engine. We both had a crew chief along to assist and fill the other front pilot’s seat.
While flying the two aircraft in trail formation up the coast line towards home base, the helicopter I
was flying lost all of its hydraulic fluid and the hydraulic warning light came on. Beings you can’t
hover the aircraft with the hydraulics out, they teach running landings in flight school to deal with
these situations. So, when I was adjacent to Cam Rahn Bay Air Base, I radioed the Army Airfield
next to the base for permission to make an emergency running landing. I made a shallow, 12-
degree approach, keeping my airspeed up until touching the aircraft’s skids down on the very first
part of the PSP runway. I had to get the crew chief to help put downward pressure on the collective
stick to help take pitch out of the rotor blades and slow us down. As it was, the helicopter slid down
three-fourths of the runway before stopping. I made a picture-perfect, flight school, text book
landing. The Major in charge of the airfield came running out and chewed me up one side and
down the other for landing at “his” airfield. Well, excuse me. Mr. Martin let him have both barrels.
We left the broken helicopter there and flew home in the other one. Mr. Martin flew back the next
day with maintenance personnel and fixed the helicopter. When the helicopter was being built, a
mechanic crimped one of the hydraulic line fittings so bad that it leaked at the fitting. The leak wasn’
t found after the helicopter was first test flown back in the United States. My 45 minute flight was all
it took to pump out all of the hydraulic fluid.
Unbeknownst to me, Mr. Martin had saved the crimped hydraulic fitting and had it made into a
plaque that I was given when I departed Vietnam in December 1967. That plaque is hanging on the
wall in my den.
MAJ Larry G. Hatch (USA Ret)
WO Call Sign: Mercy 11
