Well, from all accounts, I was a UH-1H crewchief for 5 years and I say your full of chit. During Desert Storm we regularly carried 8 with rucks plus me, a gunner, guns, ammo, survival kits with no problem. Huey really only gets into trouble when it gets in high altitudes and the temp is relatively high. Tends to run out of tail rotor authority. Running summer missions into the Cascades to hoist out mountain climbers and other tards was always an adventure.
That being said, the Huey's cargo hook is rated for *way* more than it could ever be expected to carry. You would have to really strip the inside and run on an ultra low fuel load to hope to get even close to the hooks max capacity. You might be able to carry 4,000 lbs, but you won't have anything inside, to include armament and crewchief.
Internal loads are much easier to get aloft than external loads. You can do a running takeoff, just skimming the ground until you reach the point of translational lift, where the rotor disk moves into undisturbed air. Then the rotor system becomes much more efficient and you're able to lift more. This isn't possible with an external load.
Huey was and is a damn good bird. I still miss flying on them. But the Blackhawk is leaps and bounds better.
