Hire a Huey?

I may be so far out to lunch here, but I don't know if I don't ask so here goes.

I realize that a Heuy is worth a whole lot of money, and to even be in the presence of one would be an honor, but here's my question.

Does anyone know (approx) how many are in the hands of American/Canadian civilians that are still operational?

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

RE: Hire a Heuy?

here's a for hire Huey in South Africa:

http://www.bookcapetown.com/things-to-do/air/helicopter-tour/huey.html

if I've got the currency number correct:

Live rates at 2008.03.12 07:45:30 UTC
1,200.00 ZAR =153.956 USD
South Africa Rand United States Dollars
1 ZAR = 0.128297 USD 1 USD = 7.79442 ZAR

Mike

***************
“Faith moves mountains, but only knowledge moves them to the right place”
Joseph Goebbels

Have a look at this, he brings it to some of our shows in the U.K.
www.huey.co.uk

How many? Here you go! http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinq...bell&modeltxt=uh+1&cmndfind.x=14&cmndfind.y=9

I have (unless something has changed in the past 30 days) access to 3 un-restored air frames if anyone is interested. . . By interested I mean actually know what your looking at... have the $ to buy them.. and really have a burning desire to own one...

Calling Tim Barr.

Now Chris. I don't meet all of Mike's requirements. I know what they are, would know what I was looking at and have a burning desire to own one. But, I don't have the $$ to gt one home from Florida, much less pay the sale price.

Funny you should mention me on this one. A plane went down somewhere in our area Sunday during a bad storm. The CAP has been flying just about anything with wings or rotors all over searching for the plane the last 2 days. Colton and I were outside yesterday evening painting my window/windshield frames and after about the 5th Huey to fly over. He asked me how much one was and "wouldn't it be neat if we could get a real Vietnam surplus Huey?" Then you write to me about this. I seem to recall this is how I ended up with 2 Dueces a few years ago.

By the way, they found the plane in a field about 5 miles from me. The 71 year old pilot was dead, but they can't tell if it was natural causes or the wreck. They also can't tell if he was trying to land and did it badly or it was an uncontrolled wreck.

I seen some UH-1 in a air plane for sale thing the other day for $330,000.00, there were 2 . A AH-1 was also listed for $1,200,000.00.

...and buying one is the easy part! Just like a MV, getting one is relatively easy...storing, insuring, flying - at about $1500 per flight hour for gas and maint and if I recall about 6 hrs of maintenance for every hour flown...plus they are noisy, slow, cold in the winter hot in the summer...but of all the helos I've flow, nothing is more fun than a Huey! Hmm...better go get a couple more lotto tickets.

They've been popular with some fire departments, especially out west, (LA County), for forest and brush fires. They belly the water. Something tells me they had a rotor with more than two blades, though. It's been a while.

I dont know how many there are, but Im sure there's more than a hndful.

There's a guy that has an operational one out by us that's always flying around. Also saw 3, what looked to me minus the rotar, complete hueys traveling I35 in Texas on the back of 1 ton trucks and flatbeds.

$200K - $350K seems to be the going rate for one in flying condition.

tjcouch said:

$200K - $350K seems to be the going rate for one in flying condition.

Click to expand...

So what do you suppose it would cost to hire one to fly people around for about 5 hours? I know that's probably very hard to say, but I'm looking for ballpark figures here.

Thank you.

Sounds like these folks are in that business:

http://www.armyav.org/overview.htm

As I understand it, it is very difficult - or impossible to use a Huey "for hire" when it comes to carring passengers . They are not FAA certified for that, only cargo and other non passenger - could be wrong, but I think t hat's the case.

For a nominal fee, some black pajamas, and a little red wagon to pull it home, and some beverage of choice I could find you one.
I talked to them a few years ago. 1.5 million with a complete rebuild. Most are going out of the country. Several have small arms fire holes in them. Something about putting your fist through the hole does not look like small arms fire to me. Most are army. I saw a few marine one before. Not sure what they have now.
They have around 200 on the lot. Maybe 20 ready to go.

co_rotorhead said:

As I understand it, it is very difficult - or impossible to use a Huey "for hire" when it comes to carring passengers . They are not FAA certified for that, only cargo and other non passenger - could be wrong, but I think t hat's the case.

Click to expand...

Difficult indeed, but evidently not impossible.

http://www.armyav.org/huey_rides.htm

Taking passengers for rides in a Huey

Prior to 9/11, I was a crew chief aboard Huey 658 and we flew passengers for $50.00 a pop at air shows in the Southest. The Huey was owned and operated by the Firelands Museum of Military History in Ohio. The entire staff of Huey 658 was composed of volunteers - for our services we all got to ride free; individuals with private pilot licenses were taught how to fly the Huey and subsequently became co-pilots in the left-seat. The pilot and leader of our crew was an ex-Army instructor pilot and avionics mechanic for the Huey and also flew Blackhawks for the Air Guard here in Florida. One of our co-pilots was a former Marine F-4 pilot and quickly mastered his ability to fly rotor wing - what a transition this must have been for him! It was very sad when the owner of the copter decided to sell Huey 658 to a private individual and my chances for ever getting into the left-seat of any helicopter were instantaniously reduced to zero. We were grateful for the unique opportunity to fly with this crew and took pride in all of the work we accomplished before, during and after each air show. I think if I ever came into some serious money, I would buy a Huey and get everyone back together again like it was before.

RE: Taking passengers for rides in a Huey

I looked them up and it seems there have been no updates since 2002. Is that what happened?