Dan don't know how I missed this back in 2012. I was a phrog driver in the Marines back in the early 80s and had a couple of old salt HACs in HMM-264 who were former Vietnam pilots. Some of those maneuvers you described, when coming into a hot LZ to avoid small arms fire, they demonstrated to me in a 46. The first time we went spiraling straight down in that flat spin, I was just holding on as the HAC cooly described the maneuver and the control inputs he was using to effect the rapid descent and ball control. Just when I thought we were "going to hit dirt" . . . grin he cleaned everything up and smoothly flared into a perfect landing. Later in my tour, when I was a HAC, I used to practice that approach, letting my co-pilot know that I learned it from a Vietnam pilot, like I was some big shot. Ha! The thing I am really sorry about is that I did it with a full load of grunts from Camp Lejeune, that I bet peed their pants thinking they were going to die. I had a problem convincing myself that I was just a "bus driver" in that 46 and should not be trying to fly like a frustrated jet jockey. Great story, and I salute you and the men with whom you served. God Bless America!

"All that the South has ever desired was that the Union, as established by our forefathers, should be preserved, and that the government, as originally organized, should be administered in purity and truth." – Robert E. Lee