Memorial Park On Hwy 78 Near Tallapoosa, GA.

Allison and I went to Atlanta for the Rockabilly Luau recently and on the ride home decided we would take Hwy 78 instead of the Interstate for most of the way. This is always a good idea when you have time because you run across really neat stuff that gets missed when you're "trying to make time". One of those neat places is Helton Howland Park near Tallapoosa, Georgia. I was driving along and saw the tank first and thought "that's cool" THEN I saw the Mighty UH-1H Huey on the pedestal. THAT got me to almost run off the road getting stopped. We turned around and went back to check things out a bit. It was pretty damn hot by this time of day so we didn't wander too much, but I did take a LOT of pictures of the Huey. Some of you know that I was a Huey Crewchief for almost 10 years in the Army and still have a big soft spot for them. Over 1000 hours of flying in an aircraft will do that to you ;-) There were a few other military vehicles in the park as well, but I didn't like the pics I took so only the M-60 Tank made the cut.

"Standing Guard"
I took this pic from up the hill where the Huey was located. It was just too hot to walk all over the place. I used the zoom to get the picture and then used Photoshop to take out some posts and other junk in the foreground. The way the tank is located on a hill in front of the flags impressed me. Just like our current Military members, standing guard, watching over us and protecting us from evil.

"Glorious Huey"
The way they have their Huey displayed is VERY nice. Most displays like this just have a post with a rack that the aircraft's skid tubes sit on. Their display actually mounts into the hellhole on the bottom of the airframe and I'm sure it attaches to the cross-member that holds the cargo hook when installed. They had American flags all around the park and I liked how they framed this view of the aircraft.

"Fly By"
From here it looks like the Huey is flying at you. They have the rotors turned instead of lined up with the airframe and it REALLY makes it look great. If it wasn't such a pain to get rid of the post with all those trees and plants around it I would make this one really look like it's flying. Oh yeah, they also have mannequins in the aircraft in flight gear to add to the look.

"Take Off"
This view really does look like the Huey just lifted off from a Firebase to go drop some C-Rations somewhere else. When I crewed I usually sat on this side and flew with the doors open. When we had the guns mounted I sat on the rear seats in the gun well, but most times I sat on the bench seat mounted across the interior.

"Lift Off"
In this one I did get rid of the post and also added some motion blur to the blades to make them look more like they are moving. I'll probably play with it some more later and blur them a little more.

Just included this one so you can see the mannequins on board. They need a little work, it looks like they are slipping from the angle they sit at and the helmets don't fit quite right. Maybe I'll go back and volunteer to take care of that for them ;-)