Dog Fight Cobra & LOH - Mar 1969
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Dog Fight - Cobra vs LOH: Ted Pitcher was the unit Cobra Instructor Pilot (IP) when I came up for my Aircraft Commander (AC) check ride (sometime in mid-late March ’69). The ride included putting me in the back seat and having me manage a visual recon mission with the Scout, Pooch Johnson. I don’t recall much about the actual mission, other than it was up around Trang Bang. After we completed the mission and were on our way back to Cu Chi, Pooch pulled his Loach up beside us and essentially challenge us to a dog fight.
I told Pooch that he would not stand a chance against us with our turret weapons and rockets, and he said he could out maneuver us and never take a hit, but his door gunners could easily shoot us down. As far as I recall, we had not fired any ammo on the mission, but had burned off most of our fuel load, so we were relatively light. We were at about 1500 feet AGL, and I slowed the Cobra to a hover and pointed my nose at the Loach. Pooch flew a few circles around me then dived for the ground, with me following. While he was circling us, I was able to keep the nose (and hence the wing weapons) pointed at him by doing hovering pedal turns (at 1500 feet). After about three circuits, he nosed over and we chased him to the ground – then we broke off the engagement and headed for home.
On the way home, even as a 20-year-old not very mature pilot, it occurred to me that probably doing a dog fight with my Scout during an aircraft commander check flight may not have been prudent. I commented as such to Ted and he (we?) had a good laugh. He took pity on me, and being as a number of the Cobra ACs were going home that month, leaving the unit short of ACs, he went ahead and signed me off.
Footnote to this story: Ted went home shortly after this event, leaving the unit without an IP. Mike Joest (the section leader) couldn’t find anyone else to attend the Cobra IP school at Vung Tau, so he offered the class to me – with me essentially becoming Ted’s replacement. A few months after I became the unit Cobra IP, the Standardization Instructor Pilot (SIP) for the 25th Division went home, and I was offered to go to the Vung Tau class for SIPs – thus becoming the 25th Division SIP – but that is a different story.