Sorry to disappoint... Back in the day, when I was an Army helicopter pilot in Vietnam, when there was a scheduled departure time for a mission, we referred to that time as when we were to "pull pitch".... regardless of when the individual aircraft in the flight actually "cranked up." You were expected to be ready to go, to "pull pitch" as a group. It was just a commonly used term that needed no explanation........... As for the puff of smoke.. I am at a loss for a definitive explanation... I'm not a gas turbine technician. But I have witnessed it many times when an idling engine throttled up and it was never an issue.

​@fufoot Thank you for the explanation... Welcome Home Sir!!!

Me too.... But the AH1G Cobra was my dream since the first time I saw one. When I was selected to go to the transition course upon completion of flight school, my dream came true.... I still think there were only two types of helicopter pilots in Vietnam... Those who flew Cobras, and those who wished they could. heehee ;-)

Did you serve as a pilot in Vietnam?

@@fufoot No, for better or worse. I joined in '77 and first went straight to the Huey. Then, most Hueys and Loaches we flew had plenty of patched bullet holes.

Hey Charlie... ( 70-71 B/7/1 CAV, Callsign: BIG UGLY 15)....If you ain't Cav, you ain't S____ ! ... I was class 71-23 at Rucker. Flew snakes with C/7/17 Cav (later re-flagged as H Trp 10th Cav in April'72) in II Corps. I watched plenty of Loaches doing the crazy dance when taking fire and saw a few go down, not always crashing. Loach crashes are relatively survivable, provided you didn't crash into something solid and there was no fire (and you weren't seriously wounded by gunfire). In spring of '72. I watched two of them, in separate incidents, get shot up, crash and erupt in balls of fire... and man do they burn! I covered the teams who went in to recover the crews. That's tough duty for the guys who have to put what was left into body bags..... I've gotten some stick time in the Loach in this video, as recently as July 2021. They are great fun when flown at tree-top-level in an environment where nobody wants to shoot you. But I have arthritis in my right wrist and that cyclic was brutal... and it has way too much feedback for me... I much prefer the hydraulics in Snakes.

@@fufoot my roomie was a Snake driver and I went up often with him to fly Firefly...and got some back seat time too! Sweeeeeeet airplane! Interesting that you saw scouts burn, are you sure you weren't seeing 58's? Those Bell products were the burners...I never heard of an OH-6A burning, but that's anecdotal, of course. I crashed in one straight into the ground and walked away, another time had a tail rotor failure in a revetment (now, THAT was scary!)...*many* of my fellow scouts augered-in ($5 to Yeager) and nobody ever burned and *most* walked away...one guy got shot down 10 times! Well, whatever...Welcome Home brother!

@@CharlieGroh ... I never saw a 58 in RVN. We were a typical Air Cav unit with OH-6's, Snakes and Slicks (with a blues platoon). Both of the crash and burn incidents I witnessed were the immediate result of catastrophic volumes of ground fire from crew-served weapons.... the first one (19APR72) was trailing smoke before impact, when it immediately erupted in flames, both crewmen were probably shot to shit, and there was no doubt they had been killed. The second incident (25MAY72) occurred on the south side of Kontum. The Loach, flying on the deck, was shot-up, crashed in an open field, directly in front of the bad-guys who likely continued shooting. The fire erupted within 3 seconds... This was during the Easter Offensive of '72 ( www.thebattleofkontum.com/ ) and the bad guys we were up against (Regimental strength NVA units) were well trained and equipped.... tanks, radar controlled 38mm Anti-Aircraft guns, SA-7 shoulder-launched heat-seeking missiles, you name it, they had it.

@@fufoot Steve, I believe! They took my troop from the Delta to the DMZ to do Lom San 79...*that* was bad sh*t and we didn't need to "scout" anything, we *knew* where they were! And they, also, were well equiped and trained and in force!

It served in Vietnam with C Trp 7/17th Cav until April'72, then H Trp 10th Cav until the end... That man in the front left seat, messing with the camera, was one of the C Trp loach pilots who flew it. I also was in C Trp, and then H Trp, thru 18Aug72.... Cobra pilot.... click on this url for photos> museum.vhpa.org/17thcav/7thsquad/7thsquadCTroop.shtml

I was a Cobra pilot: museum.vhpa.org/17thcav/7thsquad/7thsquadCTroop.shtml ... I originally hoped I would have a career as an Army Aviator, followed by another career in civilian aviation... It wasn't in the cards. A single 12.7 mm armor piercing round through my left ankle and right foot cut my Vietnam tour short and ended my career as an Army Aviator. I was medically retired as a CW2 at the age of 23. I ended up getting a degree in accounting and became a bean-counter. I hated it. I envy anyone who was able to make a career in rotary wing aircraft. I know many who did. Three of my Air-Cav troop-mates went on to fly for the airlines... That's like driving a bus. :-(

Do you know who owned quite a bit of shares of Bell Helicopter back in the mid 60's? Lady Bird Johnson...wife of LBJ.

Aero-scouts, low level observer/hunters..Read more about them here... www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/the-loach-was-one-of-the-riskiest-helicopter-assignments-in-vietnam/

@@fufoot thanks

I think it will remain for much longer, it's always been ahead of it's time and fills a role nothing else really can.

@@casual9982 drones can, without the expensive pilots on board.

great little helo..

Oh OK!!! let's just stay in the 60's forever

I,m not positive but I think Camp Eagle may have been at Bien Hoa AB ,,,Part of 101st Airborne

@@WestendAngst That makes sense. He wore a 101st shoulder patch. I was thinking that he said it was someplace called Phu Bai but not willing to trust my memory.

These two aircraft are the prized possessions of a friend of mine, a man of considerable means, and they will remain together for as long as he is capable of maintaining and flying them. He is the pilot of the OH-6 in this video. I shot this video nearly six years ago. Since then, I have shot many more videos of them, most recently on July 30, 2019. I expect to return and fly in them again and shoot more video this next summer.... While serving in Vietnam (Nov'71-Aug'72), I was a Cobra pilot and this particular OH-6 was one of the aircraft that flew with our unit (C Trp 7/17th Cav) while I served with them. Undoubtedly, I covered this 'Loach' on many occasions while operating as part of a 'pink-team' in Indian Country. Great times!