Video Captures Dramatic Apache Crash

U.S. Army Aviation has never conducted attack mission NOE (nape of the earth) let alone up on a mountain top. Extremelly difficult and dangerous. The helicopter cannot stay covered and concealed. The helicopter is solo, isolated and visible from a long ways. The appache does not have other helicopters or airplanes covering him. The helicopter must fly solo "skimming" the ground and obstacle so as not to be visible and yet still be able to engage the target.

The appache helicopter is not "showboating." He is apparrently on a support mission. the ground vehicle is retrieving supplies. He is approaching his own outpost. Another military personnel is holding an orange 4 foot square orange cloth target -- helicopter target.

Apparently, a very experienced instructor pilot trying to figure it out for the first time ever and budget cuts.

The village is three miles away on a higher mountain top.

you can see him approaching using a deep draw in the terrain. the same one he crashes into and cartwheels into and dissappears into all the way down the mountain. very good for concealment.

If you watch his collective pitch from the start at overfly of the target cloth he is attempting what looks like an NOE quick stop -- nose pitch up and bottom collective pitch. Clear the summit -- not give the target visible aquisition. The pilot also looses visual with the target another very diffucult factor.

However, it is obvious the pilot is trying to improvise everything after overflying the target cloth.

returning to target was very difficult he lost sight of it and improvising everything would not let him regain visual on the target again.
and he has bottomed the collective pitch. The pilot does not know the correct position for collective pitch at the bottom of the turn even more difficult factors.
(agricultural pilots in airplanes sometimes call it a hammerhead turn)
(agricultural pilots in helicopters just call it an ag turn)
The pilot must always know what the correct position for the collective pitch is at the bottom of the turn. He will never have enough time to get it right the turn is that quick.
Army Aviation needs a very experienced agricultural pest control pilot to show them that turn correctly on that mountain.
Then Army aviation must set up a one step at time syllybus that can give that skill all by it self.

Any ways. The pilot bounces hard the first time in between the ground support vehicle and the personnel holding the orange cloth target.
And with brilliant instinct the pilot pulls the collective maximum up to the stop tearing the guts out of the engine and transmission at that moment he is flying an accident clear of innocent civilians.

if he was show boating he would never have had those instincts.
and then cartwheels down the mountain a very long way.

I would never have been that good.
Send that pilot up again. The job is his, thank-God, not my job.

So this is a once in 20 -30 years classic test pilot aviation safety no-no video.

Oh you know. The test pilot is ordered to crash the OH-6 protype. Ooops, sorry not enough data. Can you do it again, please!?

And on that job on that mountain I would never have bottomed the collective, just nose it over cyclic past the summit same elevation for 100 yards then cyclic up and turn. Trying to keep the same angle and spot of overflight on the summit.
That would let me return to target with very litte exposure time