rsq herk Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 I don't know if I should laugh or be amazed.A fellow on the crew chief site said he was on a C-130E that was at 61K doing HALO drops.I questioned it and he affirmed that was what he said.I spent quite a few years on Herks,The best altitude I was ever at on one was during Apollo13 support off of Samoa we were at 37500.and literally hanging on the props.Anyone ever seen 61k in a C-130? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
straygoose Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 The most I remember in a MC-130E was about 33000. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BRlang Posted May 19, 2016 Share Posted May 19, 2016 I was crew on Elwood"s "High Altitude" flight in Vietnam and 34,500 was all we could get. He wrote about it on his blog. We Left Da Nang empty with minimum fuel. He did our typical level at 50 feet, gear up, flaps up hit 200kts and pull the nose straight up with a wingover left turn. Felt like about 4 Gs on climb out.. We went up pretty good to about FL28.5 then stair stepped a couple of hundred feet at a time to 34,500. I almost passed out in the back putting away chains and stowing gear..FE said we were holding 8,500 cabin pressure. That was in my 2 pack a day days and I couldn't catch my breath. Two amazing things happened that day.. ALCE let us come home empty and we got over 34,000 feet..We wouldn't tell anybody our FL. "Spare 634 say flight level" We ignored them till we got down to 20,000..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimH Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 My AC (Capt. Latterner) got us up to 32,500 one day -- we were empty from DaNang to Tuy Hoa... It wasn't going any higher than that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobdaley Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 I never went above 27 but I have the information somewhere on a test crew at El Centro making a drop from 44,500, I think it was a B Model, I'll look. Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Retired Talon F/E Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 I think your crew chief is a wannabe or smoking something. I did a HALO from 32K over Spain in a Talon back in the 80's and let me tell you it was no pic nic. I calculated and we took off with 26k on fuel and I can tell it was the worst flight I was ever on. 2 no-drops with all the prebreathing and the old helmets it was miserable. At that altitude you had to get clearance from the Doc. and he with a med tech had to be on board. 61k, now that's a joke. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frank t Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 bob, i think your right. around 1968 the marines had an " F" model out in elcentro doing halo jumps at fl440. I had an empty "T" model belonging to vr-62 up to f/l 380 from elmendorf direct navy brunswick 7hrs 42min. we were hauling ass. frank thomas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Atouk Posted May 20, 2016 Share Posted May 20, 2016 We were able to get to FL 310 during a cross country of the US. Just hanging there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rsq herk Posted May 21, 2016 Author Share Posted May 21, 2016 8 hours ago, Retired Talon F/E said: I think your crew chief is a wannabe or smoking something. I did a HALO from 32K over Spain in a Talon back in the 80's and let me tell you it was no pic nic. I calculated and we took off with 26k on fuel and I can tell it was the worst flight I was ever on. 2 no-drops with all the prebreathing and the old helmets it was miserable. At that altitude you had to get clearance from the Doc. and he with a med tech had to be on board. 61k, now that's a joke. Absolutly not my crew chief,I totally agree with you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sonny Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 No real Crew Chief would make a statement like that. We Crew Chief's know better. I may have embellished a few things in my time but you have to make sure they are believable Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DC10FE Posted May 21, 2016 Share Posted May 21, 2016 Back in the mid-1970's, while flying empty from Jeddah to Dhahran, Saudi Arabia in a spanking new 1974 H-model, we got to 44,000'. We were trying for 45,000, but at 1,000' short, a turbine overheat light blinked. I must've gulped down a liter of LOX! The airplane was literally hanging on the props. I can't remember the AC's name, but he was really cool. He got out some time later, built a cement boat and sailed to Honolulu. Don R. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve A Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 Crew chief may have been at 61k, bet the airplane was at 6100' Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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