Every military pilot who has flown in combat has experienced frightening and stressful situations. It happened to me one night in 1969, over Vietnam, but it was of my own creation. During the Firefly Missions, my unit provided two UH-1 gunships and a Huey with a bright spotlight array every night to patrol the river networks near Da Nang. We alternated with another unit all night long.
To prepare for the flights, preflight checks were carried out in daylight, so all we had to do was strap in and start the engine. The UH-1s have two generators, main and standby/backup also serving as the starter motor. During the systems check with the engine running, DC voltage is checked by rotating the VM knob to each position. Then the main gen is switched to Off and the standby gen is switched from Start to STBY. The main is switched back On and the standby gen is left in STBY as a backup.
