OpenTube

OH-58D Kiowa: The Unglamorous Work of a Cold War Aeroscout

Aeroscout 88-93

1,353 views

‪@Aeroscout8893‬
Join me as I fly a less than sexy mission in the OH-58D near the end of the Cold War. I put together an alternate history scenario to show the techniques and tactics we actually used as aeroscouts. Follow me from startup to debrief as I deal with typical poor European weather as I fly from my old duty station in Schweinfurt, Germany, and gather intelligence for the squadron commander.

Visit my thread on the ED Forum:
https://forum.dcs.world/topic/309705-obser...

Chapters
0:00 History ETOA
2:02 Walk to bird
3:23 Startup / brief
7:13 Briefing
13:45 Taxi
17:30 Takeoff
19:17 Outbound low level
21:55 Fence in
28:45 Approach Obj 1
29:45 Obj 1 recon
32:00 Enroute Obj 2
34:00 Approach Obj 2
34:30 Obj 2 recon
36:45 Enroute Obj 3
37:30 Obj 3 flyover
38:00 Fence in
38:25 ETOA approach
39:00 Base
39:25 Short final
40:45 Taxi / land
42:45 Land / debrief

9 Comments

@MikeKilo1969 2 days ago

@aeroscout, I served as a 58DR aviator with 1/1 Cav, right down the street in Budingen from 2000-2003. Great video, the start up was scary realistic.

@yurgon15723 5 days ago (edited)

Wow, fantastic video, super informative! And thanks to Mrs. T-Bone for the ATC work. :)

@JonBloor7 2 weeks ago

Fantastic. Loved the entire mission, introduction and narration. Subbed.

@stab74 13 days ago

Former Army commo guy here. I was part of one of the early Stryker brigades 2004-2010. Did a lot of training at Yakima Training Center in Washington state and frequently saw Kiowa's flying around. Cool chopper!

@HeHasAPoint 12 days ago

Absolutely awesome video. I’m not even done yet and you’ve already got a new subscriber. Keep it up, man 👍

@cowboy10uk 3 weeks ago

Out of intrest, was it common to have the doors off while flying in Germany?

While I appreciate the visibility would be better for recon with them off, obviously the weather conditions in Northern Europe are not exactly the best for flying around without doors. You guys would be pretty hyperthermic by the time you ended the mission.

@Aeroscout8893 Creator 3 weeks ago (edited)

@cowbot10uk Great question! So for this mission it was 9C which is pretty cold, 48F I think. For general movement or with good visibility, doors would definitely be on but in this scenario, visibility would be more important than comfort. A couple of wool layers and gortex, it would be like riding a motorcycle in those conditions but not as wet. In one take I explained doors off here in more detail but had to cut for time. We could still run the bleed air heat with the doors off and feel a little warmer air swirl around the cockpit.