F.I.G.A.S. Hueycobra - FINISHED (story & pics)

[PR19_Kit]

Need some white strips on the top of the rotor blades.

Not in a British Overseas Territory, they may be required in the US, but not on the Falklands.

[Weaver]

This is the whatif site, right?

Absolutely it is: I was just asking you to expand on your comment because I didn't understand it.

[Weaver]

This is the whatif site, right?

Absolutely it is: I was just asking you to expand on your comment because I didn't understand it.

One of my NCOs was a crew chief in VN, he told me that they used white marking on the blades so that other A/C could easily see them from above.  In the US a lot of helicopters use markings on the blades to avoid collisions.

The reason I suggested this, is that it would add a little more color to you A/C.

I see what you mean now - cheers. However I don't think I'll be going down that road. The yellow tips on the blades would be quite distinctive, and the red colour scheme would pop out against a Falklands background of scrubby grass and/or snow. Also, it's a limited flying environment, with only a few planes in the air at any one time and all under strict control: pretty much everybody knows where everybody else is.

[sandiego89]

Well done Weaver, she looks great.  I love "field" conversions that fit a particular backstory.  Some of the most interested real world one-offs were exactly that- no fancy full blown conversion. 

[Captain Canada]

Gorgeous ! She looks a natural. What a lovely finish. Congrats !

[Mossie]

Nice work Harold.

[Weaver]

The F.I.G.A.S. Hueycobra




In the mid-1970s, the Argentine Army got into a dispute with the Air Force about the provision of close air support during counter-insurgency operations and ended up converting orders for a dozen of it's Bell UH-1 Huey transport helicopters to AH-1G Cobras. Four of these machines were shipped to the Falklands in the immediate aftermath of the 1982 invasion. Two were destroyed on the ground during the SBS raid on Pebble Island, and a third was shot down by a Blowpipe missile while attacking British ground forces. The fourth machine, operating from a remote location on an island off West Falkland, conducted three sorties but was then grounded for lack of fuel since it's base could no longer be resupplied. The crew did a good job of camouflaging it, and it wasn't discovered until after the Argentine surrender.




The fighting in Port Stanley had left the town's population in a precarious position and the British with a serious restoration task. Argentine forces had demolished the power and water facilities, and mining, both on land and in the coastal waters, made moving heavy equipment and supplies into and around the islands difficult. The innovative idea of using the captured Hueycobra as a flying crane was proposed by an Army Air Corps Gazelle pilot who's own machine had been written off by small arms fire, and who was familiar with the AH-1 due to a prior exchange posting with the US Army.




The conversion was perfomed by Army Air Corps ground crew under difficult circumstances and with limited resources. The most immediate problem was that the Cobra lacked a sling hook fitting. With no local manufacturer or engineering support, they decided to play things very safe and go for an over-engineered solution, which consisted of U-shaped steel straps attached to the stub wing mountings by short I-section bars. These straps in turn held a square plate to which the cargo hook was mounted. The hook itself and the lifting straps came from a Chinook spares kit, shipped on a different vessel, that was surplus to requirements following the destruction of all but one of the Chinooks on the Atlantic Conveyor. All unnecessary weight was removed in order to improve the payload fraction, including the turret system, the stub wings, and the cockpit armour. Two truck mirrors were mounted to the sides of the fuselage to help the pilot monitor the load.






The "Hueycrane", as it was christened, performed sterling service during the initial reconstruction phase, and then, once things were on a more even keel, it, and a captured UH-1G transport, were handed over to the Falkland Islands Government Air Service (F.I.G.A.S.). During it's AAC use, the machine had retained it's olive green paint, but with a large orange stripe painted roughly on the side. For F.I.G.A.S. service, it was repainted in the service's standard red (the only colour available) with white markings. This paint job was somewhat rushed, and deteriorted in a relatively short time.




F.I.G.A.S. found the two helicopters very useful initially, but as things got back to normal there were fewer and fewer jobs that required them and the running costs began to bite. In 1986, both machines were therefore put up for sale on the commercial market. The Hueycrane was bought by an Australian company who's stated intention was to use it for fire fighting. However no fire-fighting actually appears to have taken place and the company went out of business, the Cobra subsequently passed through the hands of a variety of owners, some distinctly dubious, but that's another story.

Model: Special Hobby 1/72nd AH-1G Huey Cobra Special Simple Set (no box or decals)
Decals: S&M Silk British Antarctic Aviation (these markings belong to a UH-1G in real life)
Paint: Humbrol Satin 174
Seatbelts: masking tape
Hook: Hobbyboss Hawker Seahawk catapult hook
Brackets and rotor mounting: scratchbuilt from Evergreen

[Glenn Gilbertson]

That looks really good - and I liked the story.
F.I.G.A.S. is famous!

[sandiego89]

Perfect!  Love the scratched up cargo hook set up!   

[NARSES2]

Nice one mate