This from one of our company pilots from Vietnam. He purchased
66-09961 and refurbished it. After 47 years, it is still saving lives.
Note the trees in the park. Not a problem for a "Nam pilot.

Andy

We all know what happened late Friday afternoon.

I was near our helicopter and watched the warbirds take off for their
heat. Except for when they pass in front of you, the race is kind of
slow. I was looking at a Navy Douglas A-4 Skyhawk when the Mustang
impacted about 300 yards away. I looked up not knowing what happened
and saw the debris field spreading across the ramp. I didn't realize
it had impacted in a populated area and I stayed in our area as most
people did. I could smell 100 octane a few minutes later. None of us
knew how extensive it was. After about 20 minutes or so, the owners
and our ground support crew started putting on the ground handling
wheels and getting the bird ready to wheel out of the display area. I
thought, you got to be kidding, what the hell are we going to do. When
someone said mass casualties, I understood. Some official mucky muck
had requested us. The aircraft was rolled out of the display area,
fuel added (the FBO wanted the credit card first), two jump seats
removed, the bench seats folded up. We cranked up and hovered over to
just outside the debris field. Two stretcher cases and two ambulatory
patients were loaded. During this time I'm trying to figure out where
are we going to land with these people. Ray and I don't know where
the hospitals are or which one we're suppose to go to (turned out to
be Renown Hospital). A guy who assisted loading the patients ended up
behind our seats and said he knew where to go, so we took him along.
While we sat with rotors turning, waiting for the patients to be
loaded, a medical A-Star helicopter landed next to us. We departed
first and headed for Reno. Ray was handling the radios and I was
flying. Pretty soon the A-Star is passing us on the right, so I kept
him in sight and followed him to Renown. He took the helipad so we
landed in a park next to the hospital where these attached pictures
and video were taken. I'm seated and Ray is outside the aircraft in a
VHPA T-shirt assisting the patients. We hauled ass back to Stead
expecting to fly another load, but were told that's it. We shut down
and the aircraft was rolled back inside the static display area.

The event was canceled and we were told don't come out Saturday, you
can depart Sunday. I left Reno Saturday morning and drove back to
Bend. The two Huey owners paid for our patients flight. I wonder how
much the A-Star team cost.

Tim Horrell


http://www.25thhuey.com/


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-14957544