10.05.2009, 13:43
My late Dad was a civilian contract instructor at Ft. Rucker in Ala during the early sixties. He had many hundreds of hrs in that machine teaching Army pilots to fly and make short field landings and take offs etc before he transitioned to helicopters during the Vietnam build up. This is a neat airplane, but it has nothing in common with the 172 other than the location of the wing. One stood in for an L-4 in the movie "battle of the bulge". At the time my Dad was flying them, the Army called them L-19s. but later all of them became O-1s after the USAF became the primary user in Vietnam. They were used mainly for forward air controllers (FAC), calling in air strikes.
I used a storch recently with a proper skin as an L-19 in my current cmpn project.
These planes were used extensively in Korea as well. Here's a shot of my Dad (on right) with two other instructors in the early sixties. He had some great stories about flying in those things, including a midair with a large hawk that spun the plane around and bent the strut pretty badly. Note the plane is in the middle of a grass field.
![[Image: withL-19andinstructorsFt.jpg]](http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b63/Enforcer572005/withL-19andinstructorsFt.jpg)
I used a storch recently with a proper skin as an L-19 in my current cmpn project.
These planes were used extensively in Korea as well. Here's a shot of my Dad (on right) with two other instructors in the early sixties. He had some great stories about flying in those things, including a midair with a large hawk that spun the plane around and bent the strut pretty badly. Note the plane is in the middle of a grass field.