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http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/08/110808fa_fact_schmidle?currentPage=all
A taste:
It's a long read but worth it. Oh, and you were all wrong. They predominately used MP7s with some H&K round designed to compete with the 5.7 but not be wuss round. Very few MP4s.
The article has a lot of insight into the basic crap that can go wrong. Like in the above paragraph with practicing with a chain link fence instead of building the compound from scratch to be identical. It makes Carter's supposed flub in the desert with the aborted hostage rescues seem more understandable.
A taste:
When the helicopter began getting away from the pilot, he pulled back on the cyclic, which controls the pitch of the rotor blades, only to find the aircraft unresponsive. The high walls of the compound and the warm temperatures had caused the Black Hawk to descend inside its own rotor wash—a hazardous aerodynamic situation known as “settling with power.” In North Carolina, this potential problem had not become apparent, because the chain-link fencing used in rehearsals had allowed air to flow freely. A former helicopter pilot with extensive special-operations experience said of the pilot’s situation, “It’s pretty spooky—I’ve been in it myself. The only way to get out of it is to push the cyclic forward and fly out of this vertical silo you’re dropping through. That solution requires altitude. If you’re settling with power at two thousand feet, you’ve got plenty of time to recover. If you’re settling with power at fifty feet, you’re going to hit the ground.”
It's a long read but worth it. Oh, and you were all wrong. They predominately used MP7s with some H&K round designed to compete with the 5.7 but not be wuss round. Very few MP4s.
The article has a lot of insight into the basic crap that can go wrong. Like in the above paragraph with practicing with a chain link fence instead of building the compound from scratch to be identical. It makes Carter's supposed flub in the desert with the aborted hostage rescues seem more understandable.
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