Epic Huey Night!

[Charly_Owl]

One of the most fun nights I ever had flying the Huey. I had a real blast. :D

 

We had a couple of huey slicks (transports) dropping troops in a hot LZ, supported by Huey gunships providing fire support. We continuously went back and forth to help support the grunts on the ground, because the minute they were out of reinforcements, they would get slaughtered. We set the city ablaze with our side gunners, flying close formation. Guys, it was just beautiful. You really had to be there to realize how awesome flying hueys with guys who know what they're doing really is.

 

We probably dropped about 100 troops in the center of the city, often under heavy enemy fire. We also had to evacuate stranded troops surrounded by enemy units, also had to fly some medevacs. We got shot up pretty badly on some runs, while on others we flew between the buildings to avoid fire concentrations. It was pure, sheer madness. At some point I was shot up so bad that I even had to do one landing with a hydraulic failure! Your helicopter will start wobbling left and right, and it is increasingly difficult to keep control of the chopper. I also had to do an autorotation landing when I was on final at a friendly airfield... I landed successfully (because I trained so many times on how to do an autorotation landing before) but the satisfaction of not exploding on touchdown was exhilarating. It was very, very cool! I was so proud when I succeeded in landing it in one piece back to base!

 

The best part of this night was when there were 2 or three of us landing close to one another, doing a perfect combat landing and dropping troops on the deck of a Port. The next thing we know, we are called to evacuate wounded soldiers 10 klicks from the LZ. We immediately took off, rescued the wounded and landed back to base safely. I really felt a certain sense of accomplishment that I don't usually get when I'm shooting down or bombing stuff. It was an awesome feeling.

 

Among those I remember who were there were JimTM, Maverick, Soap, another Huey guy and 2 (or was it 3?) other folks from EVC57. It was a LOT of fun.

 

First fly-by over the city... bullets missed my pilot by inches!

 

Landing the grunts

 

I could hear the bullets peppering my fuselage as I dropped my troops in the hot LZ.

 

Third sortie... my gunners took out many enemy insurgents but were killed by machine-gun fire...

 

An Apache warming up while I am getting rearmed and refueled.

 

One of our gunships... shot up pretty bad. He made it back to base, but his landing was a bit too rough since he had no skids left.

 

Damage model is pretty impressive!

[Ovenmit]

Nice! Is there a mission file you can share? Or what mission?

[Charly_Owl]

Nice! Is there a mission file you can share? Or what mission?

 

I think it was called Air Assault Co8. It was on the EVC57 server. My track got corrupted so the only thing that I got were these few screenshots I took in the heat of action.

 

We basically had to help ground forces retake Novorossiysk from insurgents.

[joebloggs]

100 troops? What was the lagg like with that amount of ai troops? This is why I'm really longing for DCS 2, because that amount of troops would lagg so bad for me.

[Charly_Owl]

100 troops? What was the lagg like with that amount of ai troops? This is why I'm really longing for DCS 2, because that amount of troops would lagg so bad for me.

 

Oh it was just fine... most of them got killed by the enemy infantry anyway. We would land maybe 20-30 troops for one combat drop, about 10 men per ship.

[Charly_Owl]

Yet another epic evening.

 

I was able to bring 44 men safely in a hot LZ... but the fifth sortie proved to be fatal when a volley of bullets from a BMP killed my co-pilot, tore my tailboom in half and forced me to smack the helicopter into the side of a destroyer. That death was very Hollywood. :D Still had a blast though. Visibility was shite, LZs hard to spot, but the Vietnam feel was nice.

 

I think tonight I learned the hard way the importance of gunship support. We were only flying slicks (transports), so we were extremely vulnerable. I had to fly between buildings to avoid major enemy pockets of resistance, which was really scary.

 

Overall, the lesson learned from tonight's mission: any LZ should be blasted by minigun and rocket fire before any approach is to be attempted. Gunship support is not recommended; it should be mandatory.

 

[Groove]

I love AARs!

 

More please :D

[Charly_Owl]

Another flying evening with Mastiff, a.k.a. the STIFF man.

 

Flew another couple of missions in terrible meteo conditions, in a city lit up with anti-aircraft fire. Our airbase was crawling with Air Cav platoons ready for action. Mastiff and I formed up together and began loading troops aboard under the rain and a foggy sky.

 

 

We landed next to the docks of Novorossiyk, under a hail of bullets. As soon as our skids touched the ground, we could already hear the AKs firing and the artillery zeroing on our position. Unfortunately, Slick No. 2, flown by none other than the STIFF, got shot in the engine and couldn't maintain enough power for a hover.

 

 

I dropped my men and overflew his position, desperately defended by the platoon Mastiff dropped at the peril of his life. I heard my side gunners' miniguns spool up and provide covering fire, but there was nothing I could do to extract my buddy.

 

 

I flew back to base, alone... I felt miserable.

 

 

We came back for another combat landing, flying in tight formation. Mastiff could see swarms of red tracers heading towards me, but the only thing I could do was concentrate on finding a suitable place to land throughout the chaos of battle.

 

 

We dropped our men closer to the frontline, but fire from enemy BMPs forced us into a deadstick landing in the city. We dropped our men, but lost two ships in the process. The firefight furiously raged throughout the city.

 

 

We tried to bring more men by doing a sneaky detour through the area of the city that felt less defended. We flew in nap-of-the-earth. My hands were shaking with excitement as I heard the artillery rumbling in the distance. We sneaked through the whole city, relatively undetected and found a suitable LZ near a parking. We landed on the concrete, dropped our men and got the hell out of there.

 

 

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of taking the shortest way to the airbase. I pulled my collective and rose up in the air, only to be completely schwacked by AAA fire.

 

I saw the FIRE warning, heard Mastiff tell me he was seeing smoke coming from my exhaust. We flew back to base nonetheless. My instruments were shattered, I was rapidly losing power and I was way too low to even attempt an autorotation.

 

 

I crash landed (and survived) about 100 meters from the base. So near, yet so far at the same time.

 

We finally decided that enough was enough: that city had to be cleansed! We loaded up brand new gunships armed with rockets and miniguns. I took the traditionnal 7 2.5 in rocket pods, while Mastiff took the heavier ARA loadout with the 19 2.5 in rocket pods. We flew over a city covered in fog and smoke... a truly terrifying sight.

 

 

Batteries from from the four corners of the city opened up on us. The sky was lit with tracers.

 

 

We unleashed hell on the enemy positions camped near the docks.

 

 

Mastiff fired a barrage of HE rockets on a munitions depot, and it blew up right on top of us!

 

 

Both our gunships made it back. Hella battered...

 

 

But very much alive. :thumbup:

 

[wingnut]

Love the AAR and screen shots. They make you want to be there!

[javelina1]

I gotta in on some of this. Very cool pics, thanks! :thumbup: