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new to 130's, What can I expect?


jimmy
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Whats up,

So I just received an assignment to Kirtland, 58 maintenance squadron. Im an engine guy who has only worked the flight line, C-17's and C-5's. Started out at Mcchord and am leaving Ramstein come November, just a little curious as to what I can expect? Are these things reliable? break a lot? Obviously their ancient, on par with C-5's? God I hope not. Thanks for any info.

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Welcome ,

The 130 world IMO is great place. Doing for it 19 years I would have not done it any other way. C-130 and the T56 are very reliable but I have found this is based on maintenance practices . It's what you do inshop and in ISO that makes all the difference on flightline . If you have good people that care about the plane and the motors it will be a good time.

I can tell this the C-130 especially the motors will always make a liar out of you , it's famous for it. Follow the JG , use your eyes and chances are that if it looks broke or wore out fix it .

For the most part mechanically it is a sound motor and prop assembly , focus on learning as much as you can about the TD system and the Valve Housing and how it affects certain characteristics both on the ground and inflight.:cool:

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Jimmy,

My experience on the 56 is very limited. But, follow the advice provided by MAXTORQ. Learn the engine and prop. Becoming an expert on the 56 will make you a real mechanic instead of a BiT jockey. You will gain an understanding that will make troubleshooting any other engine a breeze. And more importantly, you will learn how to think and troubleshoot, which like safety wiring is becoming a lost art.

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I started my 21 years in the Air Force with the C-130A.B, and E I am an engine troop or was as I retired in 1982. I was on the C-130 for 5 years and wish now I had stayed with it. My wife wanted to get near home so I ended up with B-52's and KC-135's after that F-4E T-33 T-39 F-106 and ended with the F-15 as flight chief in the 27th at Langley AFB. (1st unit to be active with the F-22A) The T-56 was the best engine I ever worked on followed by the J-79. You can't kill it! I have seen C-130's land with half the turbine burned out and still running.Sand in the compressor in Vietnam could not kill a T-56. I don't know anything about the new engine in the J's but I know it would be hard to get a better engine than the T-56. (I don't like General Motors parent Co of the T-56 ) This old engine troop wishes he could take your place. The best years in the Air Force was with the C-130. All but one year of my 5 was also on the flt line and loved it. Good luck!!!

Edited by ronsram
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Beg kick and scream to go to the Rolls Royce class. It will de-bunk some of the myths some of the less knowing guys will "teach" you, there is some pretty good folklore people have come up with over the years. RR can sh!tcan alot of that for you. The class is brilliant, incredible amount of knowledge to take away from it.

If you like deploying and doing TDY's, 130's are cool. Different mission than the long haulers you're coming from, meaning they don't go off station and come home next day. They go to the theater and stay for a while, and the MX guys have to go as well, keep the planes inline when they get homesick.

Any idea where you'll be working ?(FL, ISO, Backshop).I worked all the areas, and have a toss up between the FL and Test Cell. Test Cell was definently the better job,however I liked the FL and the traveling that came with it (not sure about Kirtland guys going TDY with the planes as they're mostly training out there) The shop and ISO were cool to work at, lot of different things to do/learn in there, not really my thing though. If you're doing the backshop gig I' encourage you to do some politicing...talk 'em into letting you move around the different areas after a few months of working in each. Builup a few engines, buildup a few turbines and gearboxes, do a few props, spend some time at the Cell. Do that, and see if you can move out of the shop, maybe get to the FL, or if you like the shop stay. Or if you do the FL, get in the troubleshooting books. Replacing parts takes some skill, but knowing the what and whys to change a part are essential. The 2J-T56-56, a backshop TO, has a good t-shooting refernece in the back. Good to start with as it doesn't really get into the airplane, sticks with engines...good baseline. Then read into the 60 ish (props)and 70 ish(engines) (forget the actaul #'s) Fault isolation guides, they get into more airplane stuff (wiring etc) but again, lot of good info. And get to know the limits real well, and be able to refernece them from a book. Although not ideal, these things leak all the fluids they have....knowing what is leaking, how much is leaking, can be the difference in getting a mission off or cancelling.

And put some anti-bacterail type of stuff in your bag or locker...inevitably you will bleed after working on these things...safety-wiring in the nacelle can be a bear, you will hack yur hands up and get the ol .020 under the finger nail...good to have that stuff and some duct tape to patch yourself up and keep going. Hell, I might have blood samples on half the fleet of t-56's, along with all the other mechs that have worked on them a while. Pleasant thought, huh? hence the anti stuff...

good luck and have fun,

welcome to Hercs

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Been working these engines on-and-off since 1985, about 15 years in total time. It's as

reliable as YOU make it, but it is a simple tried-and-tested power plant. Learn the TD system

and the oil system, especially the scavenge, as these are most likely to bite you. Safety

wiring in the QEC can be a b!tch, but you learn to work around most of these problems.

Welcome to Herks!!

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So your going to Kirtland and the 58th eh?

Are you sure your going to be a Herk guy? They have MC-130H, MC-130P, HC-130 AND used to have MH-53's, still have MH-60's and UH-1's.

Don’t know what happened to the 53's, I am pretty sure they all went to the bone yard; it may be possible that your going to end up with rotary wing engines.

You wont really be going TDY much since its primarily a schoolhouse for Ops Pukes, and you should have plenty of time for school if that’s your bag.

Overall it shouldn’t be too bad of an assignment other than if your flight line, you are going to end up dealing with ops students and some really anal instructors.

If you’re into the outdoors stuff, this place is great - lots of hunting, camping off-roading and other things to do; if you’re into random homicide of stupid liberals, you will find it a very target rich environment J Seems like there is always a dead hooker being found on the West mesa or in car trunks as well, pretty cool!! Oh and don’t forget the rocket scientists, those bozo’s are about the most socially retarded people you will ever meet.

The cost of living there is pretty high though for some strange reason; when you get to the base, make sure you visit the housing office and get the crime rate printout to help make your decision on where to live.

If you make it to the Herk side of the flight line, you will find the engines are pretty dependable – it seems like props were always the problem, when you did have a problem, and that wasn’t too often either.

Just remember this mantra “twenty foot torch out of the tailpipe in-flight is normal, as are huge piles of sparks - even though anywhere else it’s a really bad thing to see, that was always a real pisser and in my not so humble opinion its BS. If you haven’t guessed yet I was an FE instructor while I was assigned to the 550th SOW.

If you want to drop me a line I will try to answer any questions you may have.

[email protected]

Dan

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So your going to Kirtland and the 58th eh?

Are you sure your going to be a Herk guy? They have MC-130H, MC-130P, HC-130 AND used to have MH-53's, still have MH-60's and UH-1's.

Don’t know what happened to the 53's, I am pretty sure they all went to the bone yard; it may be possible that your going to end up with rotary wing engines.

Might be a possibility that he could end up working on the CV22. That is their latest toy.

If you’re into the outdoors stuff, this place is great - lots of hunting, camping off-roading and other things to do;

This is true. If you consider shooting at your neighbors, hunting. You can do all of that in the East Mountains.

if you’re into random homicide of stupid liberals, you will find it a very target rich environment J

Don Schrader (you remember the naked dirty smelly bathes in his own urine hippy guy who would stand outside the gate and protest every day) Well.. he pretty much keeps to the university area since 2001. However, the well to do pretentious toyota prius driving liberals have well made up for his disappearance. But they have pretty much been sticking to "why are our children failing school?" business lately.

Seems like there is always a dead hooker being found on the West mesa or in car trunks as well, pretty cool!!

True. > http://www.krqe.com/generic/news/crime/crime_west_mesa_bones_search

Eleven total.

Although it would be nicer news to hear that the aforementioned pretentious toyota prius driving liberals were found dead on the mesa.

Oh and don’t forget the rocket scientists, those bozo’s are about the most socially retarded people you will ever meet.

Hey now...watch it....there is one that is not socially retarded. Currently upgrading old fashioned methods of destruction,to be delivered via Herk. Blu daisies are really neat.

The cost of living there is pretty high though for some strange reason; when you get to the base, make sure you visit the housing office and get the crime rate printout to help make your decision on where to live.

It is pretty quiet in the east mountains. But you spend your money on fuel to town.

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So who drove the underwear hippy to hide out at the university grounds?

Did you ever see that stinking hippie's public access broadcast - I never knew whether to laugh or just shoot the moron.:eek:

I also miss the "no weapons of war" or "no weapons of mass destruction" gomers that would protest outside of the gate a couple of times a month, I really had fun with them:D

I agree, it would be much nicer to find those eco snobs on the west mesa or in trunks of abandoned cars. At least hookers perform a valuable function to some parts of our society, whereas the eco snobs are only human trash to be disposed of:rolleyes:

I thought that the 19th here at Hurlburt were going to retain the schoolhouse for the Ospreys, but then again I have been pretty much out of the loop since 2004.

East mountains huh? My first year in Albuquerque I lived in a druggie/hooker/human reject apartment (cheapest place in town - for a reason) on East Central over by the Comfort inn East. Used to be called Shalako apartments, but they changed the name sometime after I moved out.

After I PCS'ed back to the 9th following my 3 1/2 year sentence to the 550th penal colony for instructors, I ended up on a mountain trainer back to ABQ.

I kept talking about dead hookers in trunks of cars (like if we were flying and seen a cop with someone pulled over) and the crew finally asked me "whats up with the dead hooker thing". I just told them to "watch the news". Sure enough, the next day "two dead prostitutes found in trunk of abandoned car":p Yep, proved that I wasn't just making jokes LOL.

Dan

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So who drove the underwear hippy to hide out at the university grounds?

Did you ever see that stinking hippie's public access broadcast - I never knew whether to laugh or just shoot the moron.:eek:

Terrorists. Really.

Why yes I did see his public access show. Someone has posted a part of it on youtube. I actually had the unfortunate incident of meeting him, when I worked at the library. The guy who pays no taxes came in to use what my taxes pay for. He wanted to use the free internet offered by the library. I told him no, and to GTFO. You could bathe in a Taiwanese "bangzhao"(sp?) ditch and copulate with farm animals for a year and still not smell half as bad as that guy.

Wonder if I should link that youtube post - so others can experience the smelly hippy.

I also miss the "no weapons of war" or "no weapons of mass destruction" gomers that would protest outside of the gate a couple of times a month, I really had fun with them:D

Again. Terrorists. After the attacks on Spet. 11, 2001, the base gate(s) became less tolerant of the people that would protest. Unfortunately "we" also lost that nice friendly guy who would sit and wave hello at everyone going in and coming out. I believe he lived in the trailer park right there outside of the Wyoming gate.

I thought that the 19th here at Hurlburt were going to retain the schoolhouse for the Ospreys, but then again I have been pretty much out of the loop since 2004.

Maybe. ??? I know that the 58thSOW has been really pushing to get more training areas for their Ospreys, here. (Which was the reason for their little show a few weeks back) The conditions here are similar to Afghanistan.

East mountains huh? My first year in Albuquerque I lived in a druggie/hooker/human reject apartment (cheapest place in town - for a reason) on East Central over by the Comfort inn East. Used to be called Shalako apartments, but they changed the name sometime after I moved out.

Wow. You have to be tough to have lived there. The Shalako. The old sign is still up waaaay in the back. But that place has now become home to the semi-homeless and druggies.

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Wow. You have to be tough to have lived there. The Shalako. The old sign is still up waaaay in the back. But that place has now become home to the semi-homeless and druggies.

It did get interesting at times while I was living there. As for the semi-homeless and druggies, it was that way when I lived there as well.

I will say there was one certain incident when I first moved in, after that I had no problems whatsoever from the local populace:D

Dan

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It did get interesting at times while I was living there. As for the semi-homeless and druggies, it was that way when I lived there as well.

I will say there was one certain incident when I first moved in, after that I had no problems whatsoever from the local populace:D

Dan

That should be an interesting story.

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Nothing really interesting or unusual.

Some jerk decided to start body slamming my door one evening, so I opened the door and he came rushing in. Not sure what he wanted but I am pretty sure he was cranked up pretty high.

He promptly got backed out of my apartment with a pistol buried in his mouth up to the triggerguard. Once I had him bent backwards over the railing I pistol whipped the snot out of him, after he pissed himself and went running away I never had any more problems there.

You asked.

Dan

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