Two scary landings in a C-123K Provider (assault transport) in Laos on the same day in 1970. From my journal:
Fri 20 Mar - Fly 4.3 (4 sorties). Operation Commando Pepper. From Udorn to landing zone and return, twice. Two different landing zones. No radio aids. A long day.
There was very bad visibility to the first landing zone [LS-117 New Xieng Dat, 19-26N 102-44E, 1300 x 90 feet of clay runway, land heading 060, takeoff heading 240], because it was the “smoky season” on the west side of the mountains. I had to put my head out the side window and look straight down to see enough to navigate. There was karst all over that area (limestone columns as much as 1000 feet high), but we were well above them — for the moment. When we were about five minutes away, I gave the pilots the heading and estimated time of arrival over the landing zone. It was a wide spot in a dirt road on the other side of a ridge, so the pilot, Capt. Larry Prose, couldn’t see it until we got there and he banked the aircraft to look down for it. He set up a close-in traffic pattern to keep the landing zone in sight, and then used “commando reverse” to get down quickly (reversed the pitch of the propellers in flight). We dropped like a rock. I didn’t know any airplane could do that, and it scared the heck out of me. We had been told we were going to pick up passengers, but no one was there, so Capt. Prose got on the radio. He was told we should offload the few boxes we brought with us (they looked like vehicle or aircraft parts) and someone would pick them up. Getting out of there was also challenging. We had to climb through smoke and haze between columns of karst, with two turning points, using headings and stop-watch timing.
There was fair visibility to the second landing zone [LS-15 Ban Na, 19-18N 102-57E, 1234 x 52 feet of sod/clay runway, land heading 350, takeoff heading 170], but the approach was over a high hill with a very steep descent into the valley and an uphill landing. As we were planning the mission, an Air America pilot said they wouldn’t try to land there in a C-123 and asked how we planned to do it. One of our pilots said we would take only half a load of fuel so the aircraft would be light enough to have a lower minimum airspeed, approach using full flaps at minimum airspeed, clear the top of the hill by 30 feet, drop the nose and chop the power, then pull up the nose and add power if necessary for the uphill landing. The Air America pilot said, “Well, that ought to work, but I wouldn’t want to try it.” Several of our pilots laughed and one said, “That’s why we get the big bucks!” (Air America pilots were paid a lot more than Air Force pilots.) The approach and landing were hairy, but we did it as planned. The crew chief and I were sent out on the flanks with M-16s to provide cover while onloading refugees. Then we did the downhill takeoff, followed by an immediate sharp right turn because the hill facing us was too high to climb over. All in all, it was a professional piece of flying.
I flew in an old Air America plane once - a Helio Courier if I remember correctly. It had bullet hole patches in the skin. The pilot flew the plane weaving through the mountains in northern Luzon in the P.I. He landed the aircraft running it right up the mountain side on a bumpy grass strip cut into the jungle. The pilot was Martin Burnham - a good brother and a great bush pilot.