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C-130 and Sleep.


Dutch
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I was sitting here, and I started looking back at my life and a question came to mind.

I now want to ask all a three part question:

How many of you have slept on top of a C-130?

How many of you have slept in a C-130?

How many of you have slept under a c-130?

Please tell why and where.

Thanks in Advance.

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We were on a rotation to Mildenhall in October of 1967, and we got a run to the embassy in Warsaw, Poland. Spent the night in Copenhagen - I didn't have enough money to stay in the hotel (A2C), so I slept in the airplane. The FE showed me how to start the GTC and get some heat in the cockpit - which I did a few times during the night. I don't remember the details of why I stayed in the airplane - looking back, I would have thought the AC would have paid for my room (or the FE would have let me stay with him).. I just don't remember. All I remember was it was a long, cold night...

Of course, being a LM, I generally slept in the back whenever we were flying for more than a couple of hours!

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I will tell you why I didn't sleep on it, in it, or under it. Because it is full of fuel. Better to sleep in a damp, cold bunker than on a bomb waiting to go off if the rockets start coming in. Have slept on the seats or the stretchers not in combat zone. Nets on a pallet of something soft sleep pretty good too. Deadheading back and forth I slept when we was over the pond. Not gonna sleep close to one on the ground in country.

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Dutch,

Have done all three. Slept inside sitting in fuel cell repair at Naha, Okinawa and always slept inside (with tie down straps locking all doors) whenever I was in country to prevent any midnight requisitions from happening. Cat naps under her whenever I could between hops wherever I was. Got real good at that. Sometimes I would lock down the doors with tie down straps and pop the escape hatch and sleep on the wing when it was really hot at night.

Fun question.

Sonny

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Check this....Our entire crew fell asleep over the Indian Ocean on the way to Cocos Island. It was an 8 hour leg from Thailand and right in the middle of the Ocean. Co-Pilot was at controls. A/C had feet up and I was in the bunk. Nav had dozed off with his head on the desk.. Engineer woke up first and freaked out when he saw co asleep. Lucky we didn't over fly it but were close. Nav had to figure out where we were and get us back on course...thoughts of Air Malaysia..I think a late night in Bangkok had something to do with it...

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I've slept on the hard steel ramp waiting for fuel or maintenance after 36 hours of solid work at Cam Rahn bay, slept under it waiting for the crew to arrive in Las Vegas (Nellis), slept in flight in a stretcher strung from the ceiling in a cold weather sleeping bag. I don't think I ever slept outside on the top. I've slept sitting up in one of the cockpit seats waiting for maintenance people. Some times it was my "home".

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Slept on lower bunk on flight deck for a solid week in dec '67 or '68 at Nellis while on "Harvest Reaper" ...out in back once a day to Love Field LTV... some days only picked up a single UPS size parcel at Love Field that they needed for the F-111 flight tests... Engineer on ~3d day made me go downtown to hotel and take a shower...I was saving money for Christmas... I found out that the Desert gets Very Cold when the Sun Goes down in Dec...

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I had a very hard time sleeping on a Herk period. I probably did at times, considering how many hours we spent on them --especially at CRB. But that's not to say I didn't try. I took a seat cushion or two up on top and tried sleeping with my leg hanging down in the hatch in case I did fall asleep. I also tried sleeping on the ramp with a cool? breeze. I used to open the windows in the flight deck, hooked all of the headsets up and listened to the radio turned up! Even turned all of the lights down to dim for the mood, but the damn MD-3 still made too much noise. But once I got that baby launched in the morning, I would fall asleep on the bus going back to Herky Hill!

I once tried to sleep on the plane (56-475) in fuel cell at CRB at night with no power etc. All I could do there was sit on the the crew steps and watch for sappers etc. It was probably the worst night I ever had trying to even relax!!!

You're right nascarpop, those birds were home, but not for sleeping for me!!

Ken

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Great subject!

I slept on top in Kano, Nigeria during Gemini 9. I don't like spiders and snakes. We were there for a week and It was too hot to close up the bird to sleep, and I wasn't going to do tents so I climbed up top.

I also slept on top in Puerto Rica. We came in late and I loaded until about 3:00AM. The rest of the crew had left and I was too tired to head in to quarters for a couple hours sleep, so I climbed up top watched the stars for a while and went to sleep.

Crew used to have to find me sometimes because I could always sleep during flights. I was the poster boy for "wheels up, eyes shut". I also lost my advance on slot machines in the Azores drinking green beer on St. Patricks day. We were support for the Thunderbirds and went to Nice, France and several other great stops for air shows. The crew stayed in nice hotels and I slept on the plane.

The first time I was in-country and we went to Bin Hoa I got out and walked around the plane and a 150MM fired outbound. I dove under the plane thinking it was an incoming round. I sure didn't sleep though.

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I found it difficult to sleep on the Herk when the engines were running.I did sleep in the bird on the ground while waiting for parts when cross country.The most memorable was in Nice,France while waiting for a fresh prop from Evreux.It was late at night and the bird from home was way overdue.I opened the aft door and ramp and thought I'll wake up when he taxis up to me.Didn't happen that way.He nearly had his radome in my cargo compartment before I woke up.

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Super good question!!

I seem to remember sleeping in and/or under the plane. Never slept on top. This would be in places like P.I. (Clark or MacTan), or Okinawa. In country it seemed a bit dangerous to sleep any where near a "mortar magnet", however, if I was tired enough I would doze off in the left seat while waiting for parts etc. As jconner says, wheels up, eyes shut. Don't remember having any trouble sleeping while in flight. Got the AC really mad at me shortly after take off from MacTan, I fell asleep on the bunk almost immediately and the plane flew into a flock of sea gulls, aborted the flight, I woke up and asked why we were turning back, and the AC, told me that if I had been doing my job I'd know what happened!!!!! I didn't do that any more.......

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J Conner2,,, "The first time I was in-country and we went to Bin Hoa I got out and walked around the plane and a 150MM fired outbound. I dove under the plane thinking it was an incoming roun"

Ha! John! I did the same thing in early '68 first time into Song Be with a bladder bird or a load of 175m? Shells! The guys from the !st Cav that were 'dug' in around the strip got a very big chuckle out of that as we just landed & were still loaded.... Of course every time we went in an outta there we would dust them all with the ole red clay...

Edited by Chuck
quote foor JConner2
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Super good question!!

I seem to remember sleeping in and/or under the plane. Never slept on top. This would be in places like P.I. (Clark or MacTan), or Okinawa. In country it seemed a bit dangerous to sleep any where near a "mortar magnet", however, if I was tired enough I would doze off in the left seat while waiting for parts etc. As jconner says, wheels up, eyes shut. Don't remember having any trouble sleeping while in flight. Got the AC really mad at me shortly after take off from MacTan, I fell asleep on the bunk almost immediately and the plane flew into a flock of sea gulls, aborted the flight, I woke up and asked why we were turning back, and the AC, told me that if I had been doing my job I'd know what happened!!!!! I didn't do that any more.......

Speaking of flying into a flock of sea gulls...... we had to make several passes over some of the islands in the Pacific before we landed. Lot of the small islands were Navy and the gooney birds would nest all over the air fields. When we got close enough to come in about a dozen Navy guys would run out on the landing strip and carry the birds off to the sides. Them birds were not afraid of anything. They would sit right where they were and peck hell out of anybody that came close to them. There was no way to drive them from the runway. The gooneys would decide to sit right in the middle of a path and you just had to walk around them. Everybody knew if you kicked one you would be up for an article 15. They were protected ........ and they knew it too!

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No problem sleeping anywhere in the cargo compartment. The best spot was on top of cargo close to the top. Always warm up there as opposed to the cargo seats. It was always cold close to the floor. Gear up, crawl up, settle in, eyes closed. To this day, I can fall asleep just about anywhere.

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Sleepin on the airplane is always easy for loadmasters we were usualy hungover with that said I remember on one flight going far far away the crew chief woke me up and stated in dismay that everbody up frount was sound asleep he did not know what to do , I told him to wake up the eng because he gets paid the least up there and I promply went back to sleep.

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Didn't witness this but was told of a crew of which nearly all had just gotten promoted.The entire crew went out and got really soused.Had to fly the following day.Showed up at the acft.Didn't do much of a preflt.Started engines,taxied to the end of the runway.Waited for clearance,it was delayed.Finally came through.Tower called repeatedly,no response.Ops sent a truck out to see what the problem was.Entire crew dead to the world.

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We were 18 hours into a 12 hour crew day in Dec 65. Landing at Tuy Hoa South, before the hard surface runway was built, we all fell asleep. It was the middle of the night and there were only 3 fires to mark the psp runway. We landed about 2500 feet short in a paddy, bounced over a railroad embankment and got stopped on the runway. We tore out the Korean's barbed wire fence which was wrapped around the gear. No damage to the plane.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Logged many hours sawing logs in the Herky Hilton. Not sure about doing it up top tho. Funny story about sleep on the herc... Bob McDonald, 17th TAS DOV F/E Examiner ("Bobby Beback", nickname earned after telling his wife he'd be back after fetching a loaf of bread, not to return for two days, so many bars on the Parks highway in Alaska!, but this is another story...) A smart Flight Engineer always does his homework before a checkride, of course, with Bobby if you turned up the heat in the cockpit and happened to have a Playboy magazine in your book bag, Bobby would be out like a light for the duration of the checkride and you would get a Q1. This is not to say Bob wasn't a "walk on water" flight examiner, he was. And if you didn't know your stuff he would break it off in your ass so this tactic only worked on squared away F/Es.

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