Helicopter Flying Story

A friend requested another flying story. This goes back to my few hours of bootleg dual helicopter lessons.

First, a bit of background. The Engineer Group I was part of had an Aviation Section. One of the pilots, a Captain, had serious career aspirations. He was embarrassed by his rifle qualification, Marksman, and was eager to qualify as Expert. He offered to give me unauthorized helicopter lessons for shooting instruction.

In every unit I served in, I was always one of the top three shooters. In one of the units, there was a Camp Perry champion. I couldn’t best him, but could hold my own. In high school, was in the NRA Junior program, and a state champion. My weakness was the near total inability the detect camouflage. Hell on paper.

We had Sunday access to a range and access to inexpensive, often free, ammo. Started the Captain on a .22 and started on his problems. His mechanics were all wrong, he had a serious flinch, and no grasp of “squeezing” the trigger. Took four sessions before he was ready for center fire. He used my personal rifle, a Model 39A Mannlicher Schoenauer .308, with a very thick butt pad. Four more sessions and he was ready for a M-14.
Two sessions with that and he was ready for qualification where he shot Expert. Not by much, but he made it.

My lessons were in an H-13. Ignorance is bliss. His first lesson was one power off autorotation after another. I didn‘t know their purpose was to scare me. In total, he was able to give me five lessons. I flat couldn’t master hovering; couldn’t even come close, and never got any better. I’m glad I had the opportunity. Later, I was encouraged to apply for the Warrant Officer program but was then a “short timer” and they couldn’t guarantee me fixed wing training.

Hope this wasn’t too boring. A word about the M-14. Whatever that weapon is today, the first ones the Army received were crappy. The balance was wrong. The stocks would break at the pistol grip. When they got hot in sustained fire, they jammed. Never fired a full auto M-14A. We weren’t issued the neat stuff, being Engineers.