That's an awesome aircraft for sure, it would be more effective if they had better pilots using better tactics. It can't hold a candle to the Apache in terms of maneuverability.

OldArmyCT said:

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That's an awesome aircraft for sure, it would be more effective if they had better pilots using better tactics. It can't hold a candle to the Apache in terms of maneuverability.

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I have always heard a story about an incident in the '80s over in Germany where an Army cobra was having fun with a Hind. The Hind was chasing the cobra, and both of them were criss-crossing the border. Well, as the story goes, the cobra gained altitude with Hind on his ass, and then the cobra went into a steep dive which the Hind followed. The cobra, at the last minute, pulled out of the dive before impacting the ground, but the speed and weight of the Hind, who could not pull out in time, burned in and exploded.

Could be an old wives tale, but I would love to believe the above is true.

The Polish were operating the Hinds in Afghanistan where we were and we were unimpressed overall. They have a weak engine and could barely fly at 8000 where our FOB was. I think their standard payload was a half loaded of rockets and ammo for the gun and partial fuel. It took them a the full rolling take off down a runway to get in the air. They had a very short time on station as a result of the partial fuel load and couldn't hit much when they were there.
They openly laughed and made jokes about the Kiowas when they came in but the Kiowas proceeded to kick the **** out of the Taliban every night while the Hinds did little more than show of force overflights and they were so slow the contact was usually over by the time they got on station.

Yep! There are two flying hinds out there, used to be 3.

CT'97 said:

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The Polish were operating the Hinds in Afghanistan where we were and we were unimpressed overall. They have a weak engine and could barely fly at 8000 where our FOB was. I think their standard payload was a half loaded of rockets and ammo for the gun and partial fuel. It took them a the full rolling take off down a runway to get in the air. They had a very short time on station as a result of the partial fuel load and couldn't hit much when they were there.
They openly laughed and made jokes about the Kiowas when they came in but the Kiowas proceeded to kick the **** out of the Taliban every night while the Hinds did little more than show of force overflights and they were so slow the contact was usually over by the time they got on station.

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They showed up all the time at Abad to refuel.. Blond haired pilots flying Afghan marked Hinds .

I have seen the Himds numerous time at the airport in Waco. They were traveling to an from Fort Hood.

Little bit off subject, but I flew in a Hip in Sierra Leone back in the 90s. It would shake so much during takeoff that it made my teeth hurt.

McKelveysCurse said:

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I approve of this post.

I trust this will interest some of you:

June 1988, the 160th SOAG (Originally Task Force 160, the unit was later Designated a Group, the Regiment) received a short-notice directive to recover a Russian made Mi-24 Hind attack helicopter from a remote location in Chad.

June 88 - 160th SOAG Recovers Mi-24 in Chad - Soldier Systems Daily