The gentleman I spoke to told me that the HIND's 560 gallon fuel tank only gave it 2 hours of flight time, but it was the fastest helicopter in the world at the time it was manufactured. He also said they bought the HINDs from Bulgaria, and that the Bulgarians were happy selling them the entire HIND, weapons and all. They had to disassemble the chin gun and leave it in Bulgaria. They're having it converted to fire propane for demonstrations.
"Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it. "
When I was in Iraq, the Polish had Hind-Ds. They used to think it was fun to buzz us at extremely low altitude when we were out patrolling (maybe they thought it was reassuring?). They were amazingly fast in a straight line once they got going.
It was pretty surreal to be taught for years in training that something is one of the most dangerous threats and then have it be a guardian angel in real life.
One of them crashed (actually broke down and 'hard landed') and our unit had to secure the site. The crew were all ok, but it was kind of odd that the attitude of the poles was basically to just write the thing off and leave it. That didn't happen, of course. It was always funny to see just how different the former com-bloc coalition partners were.
tank wrote:It was pretty surreal to be taught for years in training that something is one of the most dangerous threats and then have it be a guardian angel in real life.
tank wrote:It was pretty surreal to be taught for years in training that something is one of the most dangerous threats and then have it be a guardian angel in real life.
That is a total mindfuck.
And I'm sure it is for our former cold war warsaw pact compatriots in NATO when we do joint exercises with our Apaches too.
America is not at war. The U.S. Military is at war. America is at the mall.
....those HINDS, are they privately owned? ...guess so huh?