From: chance wolf (chance_wolf@shaw.ca)
Date: Fri Dec 03 2004 - 09:37:21 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: "sandman9" <sandman9@optonline.net>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 8:47 AM
Subject: [MV] UH-1H in CA F/S
> http://gsaauctions.gov/gsaauctions/aucalcat/
> John Peterson
> MTA
> CJMMP
> MVPA
Yup. Minus every nut, bolt, screw and washer they could nick. I just read
that the UH-1 'Huey' fleet is forecast to be officially retired at the end
of FY2004, which means Davis-Monthan will be sitting on top of rows and rows
and rows more.
They're actually at a bit of a loss to figure out what to do with them all,
as police departments are finding them too expensive to operate where
something like a Jet Ranger will do just as nicely, and the FAA doesn't want
to see tons of them released onto the market because they don't want to see
the military-origin parts find their way on to regularly flying existing
civvy-side 204s and 205s because "they're maintained to a different
standard" (or so I remember reading - I don't claim to be any sort of
expert.) Foreign (friendly) governments have little interest either, as
they've been the beneficiaries of a lot of later model Bell-family ships in
the more modern 'Twin' configuration (Bell 212s and 412s) thanks to the
largesse of the U.S. Government through the years, so going back to aging
singles can't be too attractive a proposition regardless of the price.
Some have been doled out to local small museums across the U.S., but if one
fellow I know of is any indication, the Homeland Security pricetag that
comes with them isn't worth the trouble. He told one of our members that
The Authorities came by something like weekly at little or no notice to make
sure his museum exhibit hadn't suddenly flown off its pedestal or
disintegrated into a pile of black-market parts, so he told them to take it
back. If it were me, I think I probably would've suggested an appropriate
fleshy hangar too. :)
In terms of a domestic swords-into-ploughshares market, I think they run int
o trouble there too because of the different maintenance schedules they had
during their life in the military vs. what an equivalent Bell 204/205 would
have to have undergone in x-number of years of flying over civvystreet. I
*think* the FAA restricts non-Governmental use of the singles to things like
helicopter logging and pleasure flying under the 'Experimental' category,
but doesn't allow much else. In any event, I *think* it's illegal to fly a
single commercially over a populated area unless it's a Gov't agency doing
the flying (Police Dept., Dept. of Forestry., FEMA, etc., etc), so again,
any potential commercial market seems a narrow one.
I'd very much like to see some of them make it into collector hands as
either 'Experimental' category flying restorations for those with deep
pockets, or static examples so people can get a closeup of a huge part of
rotary wing history (and the first new chapter in modern military mobility
tactics) without having to travel half the country to see it. Knowing the
rampant paranoia in official circles at the moment though, I bet they either
sit at Davis Monthan until they're baked into aluminum puddles, or DRMS will
decree they're getting into the aluminum beer can business. That would be a
shame. Some of those ships have some serious (and documented) history
behind them back to the rice paddies of Vietnam, and the U.S. Gov't should
be aware that there are people who would line up to help preserve that if
given the opportunity.
(The U.S. had something like 960-plus left on the books in FY2003 from what
I remember, with only some 330 of those in operational-ready condition.
That number's set to become zero by next April.)
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