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Apache: Inside the Cockpit of the World's Most Deadly Fighting Machine

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Overview

Apache is the incredible true story of Ed Macy, a decorated Apache helicopter pilot, that takes you inside the cockpit of the world's deadliest, most technically advanced helicopter in the world--the Apache helicopter. In the cockpit of an Apache, hands, feet, and even eyes need to operate independently. As strong as a tank and, equipped with two Rolls Royce RTM-322 engines, the helicopter is remarkably fast and nearly impossible to shoot down. And thanks to a powerful array of weapons and cameras, the Apache helicopter can spot prey from miles away--and kill the enemy with a flick of the finger.

In 2007, Ed's Apache squadron was dispatched to Afghanistan's notorious Helmand Province, with the mission to fight alongside and protect the men on the ground by any means necessary. And when a marine goes missing in action, Ed and his team know they are the army's only hope of bringing him back alive. With a soldier strapped to each side of two gunships, they must land in the heart of Jugroom Fort, a Taliban stronghold, and come face-to face with hordes of their unrelenting enemy. What follows is a breathtaking rescue, unlike any the world has ever seen.

Editorial Reviews

Macy, retired after 23 years in the British army, does for the Apache helicopter's gunships what Dan Mills did for the infantry in Sniper One: he puts readers in the cockpit of an aircraft that requires great skill and attention to keep in the air. Macy takes readers to Afghanistan's Helmand Province: remote and mountainous, a center of the world opium traffic and chosen battleground of the Taliban. His squadron's eight Apaches faced both modern missiles and 19th-century rifles while supporting ground troops too few for a mission never clearly defined by the government. The book's climax comes when a British marine is listed as missing in action. In an unauthorized mission that reads like pulp fiction but whose details have been independently verified, Macy and another pilot fly into a Taliban fort to bring him out--dead. When the four crewmen are awarded the Military Cross, Prince Philip asks, Are you all mad? But since the days of Alexander the Great, Afghanistan has taught invaders two cruel lessons: never leave a man behind, and never count the cost. 16 pages of photos; maps. (May)
Copyright (c) Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Author Information

Bio of Edward Macy

Ed Macy left the British Army in January 2008, after twenty-three years of service. He had amassed a total of 3,930 helicopter flying hours, 645 of them inside an Apache. Macy was awarded the Military Cross for his courage during the Jugroom Fort rescue--one of the first ever in Army Air Corps history. Apache is his first book.

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Additional Info

Imprint

Atlantic Monthly Press

Filesize

2.96 MB

Number of Pages

400

eBook ISBN

9780802199966

Excerpt from: Apache by Edward Macy

Training to fly the Apache helicopter was the hardest thing I had ever done, or will ever do. Some of the best pilots I've known fell by the wayside during Apache conversion training. Cranchy was an instructor for twelve years. He failed. Paul was the chief instructor for an entire regiment, and he failed.
Why was the aircraft so hard to master? In a nutshell: because of the unimaginably demanding need to multi-task. Taking an Apache into battle was like playing an Xbox, a PlayStation, and a chess Grand Master simultaneously--whilst riding Disneyworld's biggest roller coaster. U.S. studies found that only a very small percentage of human brains could simultaneously do everything required to operate the aircraft.
Information overload was a major issue. At least ten different new facts had to be registered, processed, and acted on every few seconds in the cockpit. We were constantly bombarded with new information--from the flight instruments, four different radio frequencies chattering at the same time, the internal intercom, the weapons computers' targeting, the defensive aid suite's threats, and the Longbow radar.
Then there was the challenge outside the cockpit too. We had to know the position of our wingmen, the whereabouts of other allied jets and helicopters, spot for small-arms fire flashes on the ground, remember friendly ground forces' positions, and keep a visual lookout for the target.
All this not just for a minute or two, but for three hours without a break. Miss one vital element and you would kill yourself and your copilot in an instant.
U.S. pilots called flying an Apache "riding the dragon."
If you got something wrong or irritated the machine, it turned around and bit you. A cool temperament was even more important than a good pair of eyes and ears--the ability not to panic no matter what was being demanded of you. The second great challenge was physical coordination. Flying an Apache always meant both hands and feet doing four different things at once. Even our eyes had to learn how to work independently of each other.