KILLEEN â Longtime Killeen resident David Doell served two tours in Vietnam dodging enemy gunfire as a combat helicopter pilot, but the most terrifying time he ever experienced in the cockpit was during a routine maintenance test flight at Fort Hood.
âThis was sometime in the â70s,â said Doell (pronounced âdellâ), a Texas native who grew up in the Canyon Lake area between San Antonio and Austin. âOur mechanics always wanted to go up and fly. They worked on the aircraft, but they never had an opportunity to fly them.
âEvery opportunity I had, I would always take a mechanic (for a ride). We had a new guy, and he was probably 17 years old, and there was an aircraft that came out of maintenance and I had to (test) fly it. He came out there and I asked him if he wanted to go up. He said, sure, so he did the inspection and signed off on it, and then I did my test flight inspection. When I did, I found a problem with one of the controls that goes to