UH-1H with a personal story.

[FLYBOYJ]

In 2001/2002 I was a crew chief on a civilian flight test program where the company I was working for provided flight test services for a company developing a passive Infra Red (IR) antenna. You can see by the photos the antenna prototype was as big as a refrigerator and the program was nicknamed "The Flying Refrigerator."

I was on this program for several months and got to fly several times a week, sometimes 3 and 4 days at a time and sorties ranging from an hour to several hours in the air. The rear portion of the aircraft carried 3 engineers as well as a bunch of test equipment. The flights were recorded and tracked and the data taken from the IR antenna was compared to live video.

Fast forward 20 years later. Recently I was at a local hobby store and saw a 1/72 Hasegawa UH-1H kit. The light bulb came on. I completed the kit stock and made the "refrigerator" antenna from foam and then sealed it with a thick coat of white enamel. I scratch built a few antennas and items that were on the top of the fuselage and on the antenna itself. This build was very rewarding to me as I was actually involved in this aircraft.

 

[fubar57]

Very cool one of a kind mod Joe

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Very cool one of a kind mod Joe

Thanks George, a lot of memories building it.

 

[rochie]

Looks good Joe and a cool project too !

 

[Wurger]

Great, Joe! The Huey is still on my to do list.

 

[Airframes]

Nicely done Joe, and that antenna is a bit on the large side - rather like your flight helmet !

 

[FLYBOYJ]

Nicely done Joe, and that antenna is a bit on the large side - rather like your flight helmet !

Yea - tried to get that antenna smaller, kept breaking the sprue or losing a piece of it. After 4 attempts I said "screw it."

Now the helmet - helicopter helmets are always big - made for the heads of most helicopter pilots!

 

[Airframes]

And to allow for more movement around the head, due to all the bl**dy vibration !!!

 

[FLYBOYJ]

And to allow for more movement around the head, due to all the bl**dy vibration !!!

After a day of flying in that thing I could swear my fillings were coming loose. We were never able to get a tracking vibration out of it because of the airflow around the antenna.

 

[MIflyer]

The local sheriff's dept got a surplus UH-1H that originally had been equipped with some kind of big radar underneath and fixed it up for their use. Then they got another H model and got it flying, too.

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work Joe!

 

[FLYBOYJ]

The local sheriff's dept got a surplus UH-1H that originally had been equipped with some kind of big radar underneath and fixed it up for their use. Then they got another H model and got it flying, too.

We flew that thing along highway 58 in a restricted MOA north of Edwards AFB (we had an authorization to do so). We would fly over over the center median or off to the left or right of the roadway, amazing how the cars slowed down when they saw us!