Medal of Honor (Undaunted Valor 2)

“Okay, now if the artificial horizon is working, it will show you if you’re straight and level, nose high or low, right or left turn. All the other instruments combined tell you the same thing, but the artificial horizon does all that in itself. Only problem is most of them don’t work. The RMI gives you a stable compass heading and will show you if you’re in a turn to the left or right. Forget the mag compass as it’ll be jumping all over and isn’t the least bit stable in a helicopter. Understand?” Mike asks.

“Yes, sir,” Kelly answered, staring at the instruments.

“If you find yourself sitting here in the cockpit, then the shit has hit the fan. Hopefully one of us will be able to talk you down, but you’ve got to be able to do it on your own. Could you find your way back to Lai Khe if you had to?” Mike asked.

“Oh, sure, or Quan Loi or Phuoc Vinh,” Kelly responded, looking over at Mike. When he did, it hit him that Mike’s hands weren’t on the controls. He was flying the aircraft. The aircraft started a slight left turn.

“Okay, relax your grip. When you saw that I didn’t have the controls, you tightened your grip, which pushed the cyclic slightly to the left. Just relax your grip and think—think about moving the cyclic to the right.” The aircraft started a slight correction to the right. “Yeah, just like that. Now think about leveling off, and head to Lai Khe.” With that, the aircraft stabilized on a track towards Lai Khe.

“Good. Now let’s practice some ascents and descents. You want to lower the collective just a bit and watch the vertical speed indicator start to show a descent. At a rate of five hundred feet per minute, you want to pull in just a bit of collective to slow your descent and set up a five-hundred-feet-per-minute descent. It doesn’t take much to start, and there’s no rush, so slight pressure down and set it up.”

Kelly applied pressure on the collective, and the vertical speed indicator showed a two-hundred-foot-per-minute rate of descent. The aircraft started to drift to the right again.

“Watch your heading,” Mike told him. “You have to scan your instruments and then scan outside. Don’t fix your eyes on one instrument. Scan them and make any correction you need while looking outside. Then come back to the instrument. When you scan outside, scan the horizon and not the ground under you. Looking at the horizon will show you quickly if you’re on course or in a turn. Use your other senses besides touch and sight as well, such as hearing. If you’re slowing up, the sound is different, and if you’re speeding up it will also be a different sound. If your senses tell you that your speed is changing, glance at the airspeed indicator and make a slight correction, scan and come back to see if the correction was sufficient.” As the aircraft approached a vertical speed of five hundred feet per minute, Kelly started pulling up on the collective.

“Good, make a correction and see what it does. Good. So you have a five-hundred-foot-per-minute descent going. Your airspeed’s okay. Lowering the collective shouldn’t affect your airspeed unless you push the nose down. Okay, let’s stop our descent. Come in with a bit of collective and see how much of a climb you get.”

Kelly pulled up on the collective, and the rate of descent began to decrease, passing through zero descent and indicating a two-hundred-foot-per-minute rate of climb.

“Take us back to twenty-five hundred feet and hold us there,” Mike instructed. Kelly’s eyes were scanning the instruments and then scanning outside. He was holding his heading towards Lai Khe, and he was getting the hang of altitude and airspeed control. Mike called Lai Khe Artillery.

“Lai Khe Arty, Chicken-man Two-Five, over.”

“Chicken-man Two-Five, Lai Khe Arty, go ahead.”

“Chicken-man Two-Five is Song Be to Lai Khe. Request a free-fire area for approximately thirty minutes, over.”

“Chicken-man Two-Five, wait one.” A few minutes passed. “Chicken-man Two-Five, west of Highway 13 is wide open from the highway west ten klicks and north of Lai Khe to Chon Thanh. You are clear.”

Mike plotted the area on his map. “Roger, Lai Khe Arty, we will be hot in the area.” He put his map away and turned to Kelly. “I got the aircraft. Take a break.”

“You have the aircraft.” Kelly released the controls.

“Okay, Conrad and Reid. We’re going low-level and you can open fire on my call.” With that, Mike lowered the collective for a seven-hundred-foot-per-minute rate of descent at ninety knots airspeed. As the aircraft crossed Highway 13, Mike was about one hundred feet above the trees. The free-fire areas were areas that no friendly forces or civilians were located within. Aircraft were free to shoot as much as they wanted in these areas. Of course, Charlie was allowed to shoot back as well.

“Okay, you can open fire whenever you want. Reid, let’s see you hit the water hole coming up at eleven o’clock.”

Reid raised the barrel of the M60 machine gun and sighted the weapon on the water hole, pulling the dual trigger. The gun jumped to life, throwing lead at the water hole but not hitting it even though he was aiming directly at it. Conrad, on the other hand, was pulverizing the water hole he was shooting at.

“Hey, Reid, what’s your problem? Can’t shoot, I see,” said Mike with a taunting tone in his voice.

“The sights must be off on this gun. I had it right in my crosshairs,” Reid whined.

“Did you compensate for the forward motion of the aircraft?” Conrad asked. Reid was silent.

“No, whatcha talking about?” Reid finally asked.

“You have to trail the target, because of the forward motion of the aircraft. Your aim point should be behind the target, and let the rounds fly into the target due to the forward momentum of the aircraft. If you aim directly at the target, the rounds fly past. Aim behind the target and let them fly into the target,” Conrad coached. On the next water hole, Reid did as instructed. Some rounds hit and some impacted beyond the target.

“That’s an improvement,” Mike said. “However, best you stick to flying and let them do the shooting,” he added with a chuckle as he initiated a steep power climb, trading airspeed for altitude, quickly climbing bac

k to one thousand feet and turning back towards Lai Khe, which was five miles to the south.

“Okay, Kelly, you have the aircraft. Let’s continue to Lai Khe and execute a running landing. You’re not going to come in and hover but make a shallow approach down the runway so you’re sliding onto the runway at about twenty knots airspeed. I’ll talk you through it. Okay?” As Mike was talking, Kelly’s hands and feet were moving back to the controls.

“I have the aircraft,” Kelly said, indicating positive control.

“You have it. Turn and get us lined up with the runway,” Mike directed. Kelly gently, almost timidly, turned the aircraft so it was pointed at Lai Khe while Mike called the tower for clearance, indicating they were making a running landing. The tower wanted to know if the aircraft had battle damage, as that was about the only time a running landing was requested. Mike explained that it was training, and the tower gave him clearance to land.