From: chance wolf (chance_wolf@shaw.ca)
Date: Sat Dec 04 2004 - 11:47:41 PST
----- Original Message -----
From: "Terry Lane" <tlane@mobynet.com>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Saturday, December 04, 2004 6:46 AM
Subject: [MV] UH-1, HUEY, helicopters:
> I asked Wayne about it and it was going to be auctioned by GL and then
> it was purchased outright by a local NG for $1.00 to be displayed in
> front of their NG building on a platform.
A bunch of cas-evac ones came up at Fort Lewis a few (?) years ago but they
all got snapped up by all the various agencies that get in before the
general public. They looked pretty tired, but...no bullet holes. :)
> Like the M35A3
> that just sold, bidders must have been puffin the cheva,to go nuttso
> like that. There are M923's around for 1/5 the price!!!!!!
Where do such people get the money? They're obviously not the brightest
bulbs on the Christmas Tree, but they have more buying power than Scrooge
McDuck. Evolution will eventually guide them into an appropriate Tar Pit,
but it's taking altogether far too long for my liking.
I get the idea that GSA is flying a sort of trial balloon with this UH-1
sale to see what the interest is in terms of hard currency, and/or they know
that a bunch of better ones are about to be released and don't want to be
stuck 'holding the bag' with those junked ships. My guess anyway. It would
explain the $150,000 machine, as whatever agency currently holds that
probably knows they'll soon be able to take their pick of a few hundred
recently retired, well-maintained critters with lots of time left on them
courtesy of someone else's budget.
I found out something interesting. I didn't think AMARC at Davis Monthan
AFB sold any of them to other than Gov't agencies. I'm wrong. At least one
or two full rows of 1968-1970 Hueys were sold off (evidently minus their
tail-booms) in a light-to-mid state of cannibalization sometime between 2001
and 2003, many of which seem to have decent flight-time left on whatever key
components Uncle didn't salvage at AMARC. Some have since been resold, but
others are (apparently) still on the market in the 40-70K range.
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