Huh?????
AFAIK,that is typical of all modern assault/troop carrier helicopters. They do it because they CAN'T just hit the cyclic pitch and rise straight up into the air. Neither could any of the modern US helicopters used during the VN war.
SF "Projects" had dedicated flights of VNAF helicopters assigned to them,and since they were the old pre-VN era designs,they COULD take off straight up into the air. It was like riding in a high speed express elevator. You could feel your stomach drop when the pilot put the juice to it. This was REALLY handy for recon teams because often times they would be surrounded and in danger of being overran in small areas where the more modern helicopters just didn't have the room to land or take off. The old SVNAF Kingbees would even "land" on steep hillsides where their front wheels were the only thing touching the ground,and the team would have to climb up into them using the skids.
I am here to tell you that there are American and SVN soldiers alive today because the SVNAF used those old "obsolete" Kingbee helicopters.
Sometimes "new" is what everybody wants,but sometimes you have to be careful to not throw out all the "old".
