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Metalbasher

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  1. FYI The C-130 TCG is pleased to invite you to attend the C-130 International Technical Program Review (ITPR) which will be held in Charleston SC, October 26th – 30th 2015 at the Charleston Area Convention Center. Participation in this annual event provides opportunities for the TCG staff, DOD employees, Commercial Contractors and C-130 Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers, to discuss items of common interest and receive information on new or improved technologies important to the worldwide operation of the C-130 aircraft. Registration A special lodging rate of the prevailing Gov’t per-diem rate has been arranged for all participants. You will be provided a link to reserve a hotel room at the special rate upon successful registration to the ITPR. Please register to attend at our website link: ww2.eventrebels.com/er/EventHomePage/CustomPage.jsp?ActivityID=12630&ItemID=50624
  2. FYI Lockheed Martin invites you to attend the 27th Hercules Operators Council (HOC) in Atlanta, Georgia, October 19-22. This annual event offers pertinent briefings on the C-130B-J, L-100 and LM-100J model aircraft and encourages the global Hercules community to share operational, technical, modification and maintenance insights among Hercules owners/operators, suppliers and service centers. Registration/Event Information: HOC 2015 registration opens on June 15 and may be accessed on the HOC website: www.lockheedmartin.com/us/aeronautics/eoc/hoc.html.
  3. Here is a link for all the HOC proceedings (Years 2013,2011,2010,2010,2009,2008,2007 & 1982)...it's like 6800 slides, 475 MB. http://www.c130mro.com/#!/HOC-Compendium-Volume-No-1/p/50115335/category=12308679 Of course there is a small nominal fee associated with it too...didn't think LMCO was going to give it away did you?
  4. Robins Corrosion Flight (C-130 Paint) in Action 13 WMAZ Special Report http://www.13wmaz.com/story/news/local/robins-air-force-base/2015/02/26/behind-the-lines-painting-planes-a-patriotic-duty/24086755/ People recognize the grayish-blue of Air Force aircraft around the world. Many of those planes get their trademark color inside hangars at Robins Air Force Base. The people in the Corrosion Control shop call it their patriotic duty to put a top notch coat of paint on every plane. Inside Building 89, the hands of a 20-man crew fly over, around, and under the body of a C-130 aircraft. Its makeover in the paint shop is the last stop before she returns from maintenance to duty. "We take a lot of pride in making sure the plane does look good," says painter Tim Davis. Davis compares it to an industrial-sized arts and crafts operation replete with stencils and an armory of paint. However, the job lacks the safety of an 8x10 canvas and brush strokes. "It can be a very dangerous process," says Terry Lowe. Lowe says a lot of the action happens 30 feet off the ground. "45 to 50, once you get to the very top," says Davis. Not to mention the plane sways. Davis explains, "You feel the movement of the plane because it's sitting on its struts. It's bouncing just like it would if it was sitting out on the runway." Then, there's the chemicals involved. Electromagnetic guns spray a paint that works like a magnet. Ronnie Harrell says before the new coat of color goes on, the old comes off, or rather oozes off. A powerful chemical eats away at it. High powered pressure washers finish the drill. "I relate my job to being like a coach on a football field," says he says. Harrell, a supervisor, moves his men across every inch, no crack, no cranny left uncovered. Terry Lowe says, "May seem like a lot of confusion. You have people everywhere." Their meticulous work seals out corrosion, lengthening the life of the aircraft, and if the job's not done right, the Air Force will know. The crew inks their signature on every one. "That marking is to let everyone in the world know where this great aircraft was painted. That's Robins Air Force Base," says Davis. "There is a sense of patriotic duty that I feel when I'm painting this aircraft, because for me, this is my America. This my airplane." And Davis says there's no detail too small, no job too big to support those who serve. "That's what makes it all worthwhile," Davis says. Painting and detailing the aircraft takes about a week. Each C-130 needs about 150 of those stencils before leaving the hangar and going back into service.
  5. He did end up with a confirmed Mig Kill...it appears just savvy flying, he made it through valley and the Mig didn't.
  6. Anyone remember what unit or what the C-130 was from?
  7. The AC-130J Ghostrider Will Get A Big Ass Gun Afterall It is no secret that the AC-130 fleet is changing. Once defined by their bristling cannons, the new breed of AC-130s are all about guided bombs and a slew of smart weapons, with just a single, direct fire 30mm cannon being fitted. Luckily, sharper minds have prevailed at AFSOC and now the AC-130Js will get the massive 105mm cannon they rightfully deserve. Lt. General Bradley Heithold, the head of the AFSOC, swears by the AC-130's 105mm howitzer, told Breakingdefense.com that it's both more accurate and way less expensive than the precision guided munitions it was intended to replace. He credits the gun's precision to its lower explosive yield than even small guided bombs and missiles. The cost differential is also no secret – a 105mm howitzer shell costs hundreds of dollars, while a guided bomb can cost at a minimum tens of thousands of dollars or easily into the hundreds of thousands. Additionally, the AC-130's big shell can arrive on station in just a few seconds and re-attack rapidly, which is much faster than smart glide weapons or even missiles. 4 General Heithold's plan is to slowly retire some of his middle-aged AC-130Us (the Vietnam era AC-130Hs are already on their way out) while awaiting the introduction of his newest gunships, with hopefully the third AC-130J receiving the 105mm cannon fresh from the factory. The first two AC-130Js will have to rely on a single bushmaster 30mm cannon, bombs and missiles until they can be upgraded with the new-old big gun. This will leave a fleet of about 26 AC-130s available at any given time going into the future. Originally, the plan was to shrink the AC-130 fleet as the war in Afghanistan drew down and Iraq was supposedly in the review mirror. That didn't happen and considering a terror state controls a land mass reaching almost from the Mediterranean to the Persian Gulf, not to mention the mess that remains in Libya and the one that is growing in Yemen, there are few better weapons to take on these threats than the AC-130. In other words, demand may have dipped for the big bristling gunships, but now it is climbing again, with no end in sight. Here's to General Heithold for doing-up America's next AC-130 the right way and keeping with what is inexpensive and highly effective over what is technologically flashy. And here's to the upcoming AC-130J Ghostrider, an aircraft that is now looking more promising than ever, maturing into something more deadly, versatile and survivable, with directed energy weapons and advanced radar jamming capabilities on the horizon. Although the AC-130J is still yet to take to the skies operationally, take a few minutes and fly along on a some training missions aboard AFSOC's "legacy" AC-130 Specter and Spooky flying gunships. Top shot, 105mm perspective shot via Tyler Rogoway, bottom shot of AC-130J via USAF
  8. Air Force Special Operations Command’s top officer said he wanted to explore the possibility of adding a laser or directed energy weapon to the AC-130J Ghostrider. Air Force Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold, head of AFSOC, told a crowd at NDIA’s SO/LIC conference in Washington D.C. on Tuesday that he thought the technology was mature enough to install a laser weapon onto the AC-130J gunship. The Air Force has already decided it will mount a 105mm cannon onto the newest variant of the gunship after the Air Force chose to limit the W-model to smart bombs and the 30mm cannon. Heithold explained that the 105mm cannon was needed because it was more accurate and cheaper than firing the Small Diameter Bombs. The Pentagon has continued to expand its research into direct energy weapons, especially the Navy. Top Navy officials have remain committed to incorporating lasers onto Navy warships. The Air Force had invested in airborne lasers before former Defense Secretary Robert Gates killed the program. The Air Force had considered a program that would use lasers to protect the U.S. from ballistic missiles. This is the first time an Air Force official has discussed adding a laser weapon to the AC-130. Read more: http://defensetech.org/2015/01/29/afsoc-wants-to-research-adding-laser-weapons-to-ac-130/#ixzz3QP2ltY5d Defense.org
  9. Bob, It's my understanding that all the USCG going to the forest service are going to come through Robins for PDM/center wing box change (if required) and then they will be modified for the mission. I'm also understanding the Robins will modify the acft for MAFFS II or LMCO will for the Coulson System. I haven't heard the official selection of which system will be used. Robins has the first acft going to USFS in the PDM system now, will also be painted with USFS paint scheme.
  10. The Lingering Story of Agent Orange January 2015 By John T. Correll AF Magazine The assumption in the 1960s was that the use of herbicides in Vietnam did not pose a significant danger. The UC-123K tactical transport known as “Patches†got its name the hard way. The aircraft was held together nose to tail with repairs to the battle damage inflicted by almost 600 hits from enemy ground gunners in Vietnam... See link for the rest of the story...rather lengthy. http://www.airforcemag.com/MagazineArchive/Pages/2015/January%202015/The-Lingering-Story-of-Agent-Orange.aspx Free Itunes download of the book "USAF C-123 Veterans: VA Illegally Denies Agent Orange Claims" https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/c-123-veterans-va-blocks-agent/id680418307?mt=11
  11. This year they changed things up...presentations are all password locked. LMCO sent the password out in the email to all those that attended the HOC this year in the email indicating the briefs were posted. Really sucks because you can't even save the file on your own pc without password lock. Will see if I can find the email that contained the password.
  12. I retired 3 1/2 years ago and claimed hearing and ringing in my ears (tinnitus) (had my hearing base line changed 3 times in 25 years) and thought it was a done deal as I had heard from so many others. Turns out my hearing was very good considering my age and my time spent on the flightline and shooting rivets. I got nothing for hearing loss but I did get 10% for tinnitus...no questions asked...hard to question that as it's very hard for doctors to say you are not experiencing ringing in the ears. Deployments/combats zones may lead to tinnitus but not necessarily a requirement for compensation.
  13. Anyone have any pix of the floods at St Joe, particularly pix of the acft sitting on the ramp with all the water? I've seen some before but have lost track of them. Thanks
  14. DOD to set up 7 Ebola testing labs throughout Liberia By Chris Carroll Stars and Stripes Published: October 7, 2014 Ramstein Germany, Pallets of supplies, including water and MREs, are loaded onto a C-130 on Ramstein Air Base, Germany, to be delivered to Liberia in support of the U.S. military effort to fight Ebola in West Africa, Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2014. Joshua L. DeMotts/Stars and Stripes WASHINGTON — The Defense Department will operate seven mobile testing labs in Liberia to fight the spread of Ebola, the head of U.S. Africa Command said Tuesday at the Pentagon. Hundreds of DOD personnel are in Liberia laying the groundwork for a U.S. military mission to fight the outbreak that the World Health Organization estimates has killed more than 3,400 people. Thousands of U.S. soldiers are scheduled to arrive this month to build treatment centers and oversee logistics. The humanitarian mission is likely to cost about $750 million over the coming sixth months, Gen. David Rodriguez said. Defense officials have repeatedly said troops have no contact with disease sufferers, but Rodriguez said Tuesday that a few military infectious disease specialists would be working with contaminated blood samples in the mobile labs. “This is not just medical guys trained to do this [particular task], this is what they do for a living,†he said. One such lab has been operational in Liberia for years, while two more were recently deployed. DOD now is working to send four more labs, he said — each operated by three or four technicians — needed because Ebola symptoms can mimic other tropical diseases, such as malaria. “The testing really focuses on who you need to treat and who you don’t need to treat, because malaria shows a similar problem with the symptoms,†he said. Making sure U.S. personnel don’t catch Ebola is priority No. 1, Rodriguez said. “By providing predeployment training, adhering to strict medical protocols while deployed, and carrying out carefully planned reintegration measures based on risk and exposure, I am confident that we can ensure our servicemembers’ safety, and the safety of their families and the American people,†he said. While deployed, troops will use safety clothing and equipment and wash constantly to prevent the virus spreading. They’ll also be checked for symptoms throughout the day, Rodriguez promised. Should anyone come down with the virus, they’ll be evacuated to the United States for treatment on a specially equipped medical transport plane. The Army has announced 3,200 soldiers from various units around the United States would deploy, with the potential for up to 4,000 troops to be sent. Most of those deployed will live at the Liberian defense ministry and in tent cities at airfields or elsewhere, Rodriguez said. The mission could last a year, he guessed, saying it will be adjusted to suit changing conditions on the ground. “We have a lot of flexibility to put people in there as they’re needed, and who’s needed,†he said.
  15. C-130 Carrier Landing Trials...the rest of the story In early March 2005, a crew from Marine Refueler Transport Squadron 352 (VMGR-352) at MCAS Miramar, California, picked up a new KC-130J—the fourth new aircraft for the squadron—from the Lockheed Martin facility in Marietta, Georgia. The unit's ongoing conversion meant that the time had come to retire one the squadron's older aircraft. Like nearly every other tanker in the US Marine Corps fleet, Bureau Number 149798 had seen its share of action in Vietnam, Iraq in Operation Desert Storm, Afghanistan, and Iraq again in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Unlike most other aircraft that had served out its career, the final destination for this specific tanker was not to be the aircraft Boneyard in Arizona. This aircraft was a little different. When the VMGR-352 crew shut this KC-130F's engines down for the last time on 1 March 2005, the aircraft was parked at Forrest Sherman Field, NAS Pensacola, Florida, where it was to be enshrined in what was then known as the National Museum of Naval Aviation. "The fact that aircraft was finally retired in 2005 is proof that I didn't bang it up too badly," joked retired Rear Adm. Jim Flatley. In the fall of 1963, Flatley was the pilot who first landed this particular Hercules on an aircraft carrier. This Idea Won't Go Anywhere "There were engineers taking measurements on a Hercules and saying a C-130 was going to land on an aircraft carrier,†recalled Ed Brennan in a 1998 interview. “I didn't believe them. Later my commanding officer came around and said the same thing. I still didn't believe it, but I raised my hand to volunteer anyway. I had no idea what I was getting into." Brennan, then an Aviation Machinist Mate First Class (ADR-1), attached to Transport Squadron One (VR-1) at the Naval Air Test Center at NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, when his commanding officer made that startling announcement—the Test Center was indeed developing a program to land a Hercules on an aircraft carrier. And Brennan, along with ADR-1 Al Sieve, was going to be the two flight engineers assigned to the project. The idea of taking a big aircraft with a 132-foot wingspan and landing it on what is frequently described as a postage stamp did seem farfetched. However, there was a legitimate operational requirement to test the carrier suitability of the Hercules. The was an emergency need to resupply a carrier operating in the middle of the Indian Ocean, a common operation today but an unanticipated requirement forty decades ago. The Grumman C-1 Trader, then the Navy's carrier onboard delivery, or COD, transport, did not have the required range nor could it carry an oversize payload like a General Electric J79 jet engine, which powered both the North American A-5/RA-5 Vigilante attack/reconnaissance aircraft and the McDonnell Douglas F-4 fighter bomber populating flight decks at the time. The C-130 had both range and cargo-carrying ability so the idea of a Super COD was born. Once the project went forward, the Test Center staff had to decide whether to have pilots with multi-engine experience learn to land on a carrier or to have test pilots with carrier landing experience learn to fly multi-engine aircraft. Carrier experience won out. "Either I was in the right part of the line or the other pilots said, 'Give this one to Flatley. It isn't going to go anywhere,'" said then-lieutenant Flatley, the newly minted test pilot chosen to lead the project. "In flight test, you have to earn your spurs. I had just reported to the Carrier Suitability Branch at Pax River and this was my first project as a test pilot. It was a rather unique assignment." Lt. Cmdr. W. W. "Smokey" Stovall, the lead test pilot on another project at the time, volunteered to be copilot on the C-130 trials. The trials aircraft, 9798, was in service at MCAS Cherry Point, North Carolina, and was chosen at random. The aircraft was flown back to what was then known as the Lockheed-Georgia Company in Marietta on 8 October. Only minor modifications were made to the aircraft: the wing refueling pods were removed, a precision airspeed indicator was installed in the cockpit, and the antiskid system was replaced with the type used on commercial 727s. The aircraft was also fitted with a smaller nose landing gear orifice, which allowed for slower metering of the hydraulic fluid and made for smoother touchdowns. "The most critical guy on the crew was the flight engineer because he knew far more about the airplane than the two fighter pilots assigned to this short-term project ever would," Flatley noted. "That sounds a little cavalier for a test pilot, but, at that point, we were not required to learn the aircraft, just to learn to fly it." Practice, Practice Lockheed test pilot Ted Limmer monitored Flatley and Stovall as they made their first flight from Marietta to check out the modifications. Limmer then gave the Navy pilots their check ride on the way back to Pax River. "The aircraft is so beautiful to fly and so simple to operate and it handles so well,†Flatley recalled. “Checkout was a piece of cake, especially with Petty Officers Brennan and Sieve doing all the work and worrying." Flatley and Stovall paid a lot of attention to the ground handling characteristics of the C-130 and then focused on the slow-speed maneuvering characteristics of the aircraft in its landing configuration. The crew began practicing landings at Pax River almost immediately. Engineers from the Carrier Suitability Branch set up multiple cameras and came out to observe the first practices and take extensive measurements. "For most of the next fifty-five flight hours, all we did was go around the field practicing short field landings and takeoffs," Flatley said. High on the list of things to be accomplished during the practice landings was to determine the optimum carrier approach speed for the C-130. While the normal approach speed for a Hercules is 115 to 120 knots, a determination was made to fly the carrier approaches at five to six knots above stall speed for the planned landing gross weight. A second landing parameter that concerned the pilots was the aircraft’s sink rate at touchdown. Flatley and Stovall were used to flying carrier-based fighters that have a sink rate of about fifteen to twenty feet per second, so they were apprehensive about the C-130’s design limit of eleven feet per second. Even though the test data collected during the field trials indicated that sink rate was not going to be a problem, the pilots would not be convinced until they actually made the test flights to the carrier. One of the major challenges in the final stage of a carrier approach is mastering the so called rooster tail, the turbulent air that is the carrier equivalent of the ground effect encountered when an aircraft crosses the approach end of a runway. "If the rooster tail is not handled well, more often than not, your aircraft feels like it is being sucked into a hole right at the deck rounddown,†added Flatley. "So being able to fly the desired glidescope, right to touchdown, is critical." The crew found they could easily fly the required 3.5- to 4.0-degree glidescope on a standard approach. "It became evident very quickly that landing a C-130 on a carrier was not going to be a problem. Even the engineers stopping coming out to watch us practice," Flatley recalled. A side trip to the Naval Air Rework Facility in Norfolk, Virginia, was made so engineers there could figure out how to get the Hercules off the ship if, for some reason, it got stranded aboard the ship during the trials. It was determined that the most practical solution would be to run a steel I-beam through the crew door and punch a hole on the other side of the fuselage and run another I-beam through the paratroop doors in the back. Those two I beams would then be connected to a third I-beam suspended over the fuselage and a crane would be used to lift the aircraft off the deck if the carrier could make port conveniently. "If we had broken down at sea, the deck hands would have lifted the plane up with the deck crane and tossed it overboard," Brennan mused. "Hopefully, they would have let us get out first." To The Boat On 30 October, the USS Forrestal (CVA-59) was steaming off the Florida coast near Jacksonville. One wag at Pax River had painted, "Look Ma, No Hook," under the copilot windows of the KC-130 because there wasn't one. An arresting hook, a normal piece of equipment for a carrier landing, wouldn't have helped either because the Forrestal's flight deck had been cleared—the arresting wires had been removed to save wear and tear on the tires of the Hercules. The deck was completely empty as the air wing's aircraft were either flown ashore or parked on the hangar deck. "It was a blustery, squally day with a forty-knot wind gusting to sixty knots and huge ocean swells. The deck was heaving twenty feet up and down," Flatley recalls. "Here is where a carrier pilot with knowledge comes in handy. Every two and one-half minutes or so, no matter what the sea state, the ship will steady out. Because of the excessive wind and sea state, we did forty-two approaches to ship just to get nineteen touch-and-go landings." Those touch-and-goes revealed that there were no sink rates in excess of five feet per second, a fact that amazed even the Lockheed engineers. The Hercules crew first made touch-and-goes on the ship's 682-foot-long angled deck and then went down the 1,017-foot-long axial deck, where, on the next trip, the actual landings would be made. The first flight lasted five and one-half hours, two of which were spent in the Forrestal's landing pattern. Cameras placed all around the flight deck recorded the touch-and-goes from every angle. "We had a skull session the next day with the flight test engineers back a Pax River, and all the data looked good," Flatley notes. "It was then just a matter of rescheduling the ship." On 8 November, Flatley, Stovall, Brennan, Sieve, and Limmer approached the Forrestal underway off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. A broad dotted white line painted down the middle of the axial deck greeted them on their first approach. The Forrestal's skipper put the carrier into the wind and added ten knots, which gave the flight crew a forty- to fifty-knot headwind over the bow. After making the three warm-up touch-and-go landings, Flatley was cleared for the first full stop landing. The first approach was made at seventy-nine knots indicated airspeed. The Forrestal's landing signal officer gave Flatley the traditional "cut" signal as the aircraft crossed the rounddown at ten to fifteen feet in the air. Flatley lifted the throttles over the gate and put the propellers into reverse pitch as he settled down on the deck. At the same time, he and Stovall stood on the aircraft’s brakes so that, when the aircraft touched down, the KC-130 was in full reverse with full braking applied. It stopped in 275 feet, actually short of where the number four arresting cable would have been lying. "We stopped so short it kind of startled me," said Brennan. "It was like landing on a normal runway, but that big metal island on the side of the ship just beyond the wingtip was a bit scary." It was the first time he had ever been on an aircraft carrier. "Normally on a carrier, sailors and tractors move aircraft," Flatley says. "We simply backed up with reverse thrust to set up for takeoff. You should have seen the looks on the faces of the deck hands." Heavyweight Landings In addition to testing the basic feasibility of landing a Hercules on an aircraft carrier, the project was also designed to make landings at increasingly heavier weights to determine how large a payload a C-130 might safely bring aboard. Because the aircraft was a tanker, simply adding additional fuel increased the gross weight of the aircraft. After taking on more JP-4 to go to the next higher gross weight, the crew revved up the aircraft’s engines, set the flaps at seventy-five percent, and took off. There were only fifteen feet clearance between the KC-130's wingtip and the island. The only restriction placed on the crew during takeoff was not to rotate the aircraft until the wingtip passed the forward end of the ship's island. "Otherwise we could have been looking down on the captain on his bridge when we took off," Flatley adds. Three more full stop landings were made the first day, followed by ten landings on 21 November and seven more the next day. Stovall made three of the landings on the last day. A total of twenty-nine touch-and-goes were made on the four trips to the carrier. The KC-130 weighed 85,000 pounds on the first landing. Thereafter, landings were made in progression up to a gross weight of 121,000 pounds. At maximum weight, which set the record for the largest and heaviest aircraft landing on a US Navy aircraft carrier, Flatley and Stovall used only 745 feet for takeoff and 460 feet for landing. One landing at a weight of 109,000 pounds required 495 feet to stop and that was in a heavy squall. On the last takeoffs, the crew didn't even back up — they simply took off from the point on the deck where the aircraft stopped. The crew completed the carrier qualification tests around noon on 22 November. "We got back to Pax River and started writing the final report and collecting the statistical data. We wrote the recommended procedures so anyone else wanting to land on a carrier had the information available. We went about our business and were told not to talk about it," noted Flatley. The project remained classified officially for a year, although word got out quickly to the flying community. The feasibility of landing a C-130 with a useful payload on a carrier was clearly demonstrated, but in the end, it simply was not practical. "A carrier with no tactical aircraft on deck makes a skipper antsy," Brennan noted. "The captain of the Forrestal gave us two hours — to the minute — each trip and then we had to go home." The Grumman C-2 Greyhound, a more practical COD aircraft, entered fleet service in 1966. The Rest Of The Story Stovall was later awarded the Air Medal for his work on the project. He went on to command a carrier fighter unit during Vietnam and attained the rank of captain. He died of leukemia in 1973. Brennan was also awarded the Air Medal. He went on to become a flight engineer on P-3 Orions, accumulating nearly 7,000 hours flight time. He retired in 1976 as a chief petty officer after twenty-two years in the Navy. Four hours after his retirement ceremony, he was on a plane to Iran to work as a Lockheed field service representative on the P-3F program. He later went back to working with C-130s, this time with Coast Guard HC-130Hs as a Lockheed field service representative at CGAS Elizabeth City, North Carolina. He retired in 1998 and passed away a short time later. Sieve shipped out immediately after the program concluded to fly Lockheed WV-1s—a.k.a. Willie Victors—Warning Star airborne early warning aircraft in Argentia, Newfoundland. Flatley lobbied for years to recognize Sieve’s contribution to the carrier landing and Secretary of the Navy Gordon England approved the Air Medal for Sieve in the summer of 2004. It was presented by the Vice Chief of Naval Operations, Adm. Mike Mullins in Sieve’s hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio. A crew from VMGR-352 flew 9798 to the ceremony. Flatley was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross, a difficult award to earn anytime but especially in peacetime. He spent the rest of his Navy career in fighters. Even though he didn't have a tail hook on the KC-130F, he counts his eighteen landings in a Hercules among his 1,608 traps, which puts him in the top ten of the Navy's all-time carrier landing list. He retired as a rear admiral in 1987. He served as the chief executive officer of the Patriot's Point Naval and Maritime Museum in Charleston, South Carolina, the state's most popular tourist attraction, for seven years before retiring again. Between his twenty-one grandkids and his work charity work in Charleston, he stays active. "I stay busier than I can stand to be," he noted. After a thirty-eight-year career, the Forrestal was decommissioned 11 September 1993 and was stricken from the Navy Register the same day. In February 2014, she was towed from Philadelphia to Brownsville, Texas, for scrapping. The Navy sold the carrier to All Star Metals, a ship and oil rig recycler, for one cent. KC-130F BuNo 149798 went on to a full career, receiving a service life extension upgrade and a new center wing box in the late 1970s. It spent most of its career with VMGR-352, first at MCAS El Toro, California, and later at Miramar after El Toro was closed and the Raiders, as the squadron calls itself, moved. In November 2001, 9798 was the first aircraft to land at Expeditionary Air Field Rhino during Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. It was used on a low-altitude night helicopter refueling mission and to insert elements of the 15th Marine Expeditionary Unit’s battalion landing team near the Pakistan border. A little over a year old during the carrier qualifications, 9798 was retired to what is now called the National Naval Aviation Museum forty-two years later and right at 26,220 flight hours. Basically relegated to the status of a footnote to aviation history, the Hercules-on-a-carrier idea came back to the forefront in 2004. The CBS television series JAG featured an episode in which Cmdr. Harmon Rabb (David James Elliot) quit his position as a Navy lawyer to fly missions for the CIA. He rescues an agent and his family in a C-130 and then, after being attacked by Libyan MiGs, makes an emergency landing on the deck of the fictitious USS Seahawk. As the credits roll, real footage of Flatley's landing in the KC-130 (which can be found here) is shown along with a brief summary of the feat. At that same time, the joint Army-Navy-Marine Corps concept of Sea Basing, or pre-positioning supplies and equipment near potential areas of operation around the world, was being discussed. One idea involved a movable facility the size of a small island with a 3,000-foot flight deck. Lockheed Martin actually received a government contract to study the concept of C-130J operations from this floating runway. But, the Sea Basing concept was later shelved. "I am always running into people who say they were there when we landed, although I don't recall seeing that many people on the deck," Flatley observed. "This has always captured people's attention. There are still folks who don't believe it." This is an update to a story that originally appeared in the Volume 20, Number 2 issue of Code One, published in 2005.
  16. Commercial C-130 Hercules: The LM-100J By Jeff Rhodes The LM-100J is the civil-certified version of Lockheed Martin's proven C-130J Super Hercules and is an updated version of the L-100 commercial cargo aircraft. Assembly of the first aircraft will begin in 2015 and first flight of the LM-100J is expected by early 2017. The LM-100J looks much like its military C-130J Super Hercules counterpart. The main difference is the lack of lower windows under the windscreen, which allows the C-130J pilots to look ahead and down to see drop zones. The first civil-certified L-100 started its career as a C-130E, and made its debut in 1964. The aircraft (Lockheed company number 3946, FAA registration N1130E) was used as a demonstrator during the One World Hercules promotional tour in 1964. The aircraft was later converted into an L-100. Delta Air Lines operated a fleet of three L-100s and took delivery in 1966. The aircraft were later modified to the longer-fuselage L-100-20 configuration. The L-100s relaced Delta’s aging fleet of World War II-era Curtiss C-46 freighters that were used to transport maintenance crews and spare engines to repair DC-7 aircraft that had landed at remote airports and could not otherwise be serviced. The aircraft were also used to fill the air freighter and chartered outsized cargo hauling role. As Delta also began to operate the larger, wide-body 747s and L-1011s which could accommodate far more and larger freight than the narrow body aircraft they replaced, the L-100s didn't generate enough volume and revenue. The L-100 was phased out of Delta service in September 1973. Alaska International Air was a charter freight company that was estimated to have hauled more than one million pounds of air cargo per day during construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline in the 1970s, pioneering heavy equipment delivery to the North Slope. This L-100, the commercial variant of the Hercules, was delivered in 1966 and was later modified with a sixty-inch fuselage extension forward of the wing and a forty-inch extension aft of the wing, and redesignated as an L-100-20. The aircraft was originally delivered to Delta Air Lines. It went through several owners and lessors and was written off after a landing accident in São Thomé in 1979. Alaska International Airways became MarkAir, which was liquidated in 1995. Lynden Air Cargo is part of the Lynden group of transportation companies primarily serving Alaska and the Pacific Northwest with service extending throughout the US and internationally. Lynden transports everything from groceries to cars within Alaska through scheduled weekly service and oversized cargo worldwide through charter flights. Lynden Air Cargo carries materials and supplies to remote destinations in the Alaskan Bush and beyond. The company has flown relief missions after natural disasters and has supported customers in the mining, construction, and oil industries. The L-100 has hauled a veritable managerie of animals over its career. These camels were part of a circus that was airlifted from Florida to Puerto Rico in the 1960s. A total of 115 L-100s, the commercial variant of the C-130 Hercules airlifter, were produced from 1964 through 1992 at the then Lockheed-Georgia Company facility in Marietta, Georgia. More than fifty-five of those airlifters are still in service worldwide, being flown for civil airlift missions in places where jet aircraft operations are impractical. Here, a gorilla for the Franfurt, Germany, zoo is loaded on to an L-100, probably in the 1970s. From the beginning of its career in the mid 1960s, the L-100 has been used to carry relief supplies to multiple countries after numerous natural disasters. After the 1964 One World Hercules demonstration tour, the Lockheed-Georgia Company L-100 was leased out and is shown here delivering relief supplies to Ethiopia circa 1966. The aircraft went through several lessors and ended up serving with the Philippine military. In 1996, United Parcel Service leased an L-100 from Southern Air Transport and had the aircraft painted in its familiar brown, gold, and white livery. UPS donated the flight to transport Keiko, the killer whale that had gained international fame in the movie Free Willy, from an amusement park in Mexico to a rehabilitation facility in Oregon. Including Keiko, the transport container weighed 43,000 pounds. A second possible visible external difference between the LM-100J and the C-130J is eighteen small, lightweight, strake-like devices on each side of the aircraft’s aft fuselage near the cargo ramp door and horizontal tail. These devices, called microvanes, are a way to improve fuel efficiency on a Hercules. Adding the microvanes equates to about a twenty-five gallon per hour saving. Microvanes are being looked at as a customer option on the LM-100J. The L-100s service a very specialized market, delivering oversize cargo, such as oil and natural gas drilling equipment to short and often unimproved airfields that have no infrastructure other than maybe a forklift and a flatbed truck. In addition, L-100s are also used for humanitarian aid, airdrop, aerial spray, VIP transport, aerial firefighting, and for other, similar operations. The LM-100J, shown here in artist concept releasing retardant on a wildfire, will be able to fulfill all of these same missions. Analysts predict that Latin America, Africa, and countries in the Middle East will see double digit growth in air freight business over the next decade. Overall, the world’s air cargo trade is expected to grow by four percent annually for at least the next several years. Even higher growth rates are predicted for niche operators. The L-100 is highly regarded for operations on dirt and/or unimproved fields or short runway and other operations at the edges of the commercial air cargo spectrum. The LM-100J, shown in artist concept landing on a dirt strip, is expected to do the same. Engineering and detailed design of the LM-100J will be completed in 2014. Assembly of the first aircraft will begin in 2015 and first flight of the LM-100J is expected by early 2017. The Dublin-based ASL Aviation Group, signed a letter of intent for up to ten LM-100Js at the at the Farnborough International Air Show in England, on 16 July 2014. The aircraft will be flown by SAFAIR, an ASL-associated company based at Johannesburg International Airport, South Africa. The external tanks shown on this LM-100J artist concept are available as a customer option. Engineering and detailed design of the LM-100J will be completed in 2014. Assembly of the first aircraft will begin in 2015 and first flight of the LM-100J is expected by early 2017. The Dublin-based ASL Aviation Group, signed a letter of intent for up to ten LM-100Js at the at the Farnborough International Air Show in England, on 16 July 2014. The aircraft will be flown by SAFAIR, an ASL-associated company based at Johannesburg International Airport, South Africa. The external tanks shown on this LM-100J artist concept are available as a customer option. The LM-100J is the civil-certified version of Lockheed Martin's proven C-130J Super Hercules and is an updated version of the L-100 commercial cargo aircraft. Assembly of the first aircraft will begin in 2015 and first flight of the LM-100J is expected by early 2017. From delivering food during the Biafran relief operation in Africa; to spraying dispersant on the waters of Prince William Sound in Alaska after the Exxon Valdez oil tanker disaster; to carrying Keiko the killer whale from a Mexican amusement park to a rehabilitation facility in Oregon, crews flying the L-100 transport have done many hard jobs in oftentimes the hardest of places. A total of 115 L-100s, the commercial variant of the C-130 Hercules airlifter, were produced from 1964 through 1992 at the then Lockheed-Georgia Company facility in Marietta, Georgia. More than fifty-five of those airlifters are still in service worldwide used for civil airlift missions in places where jet aircraft operations are impractical. The L-100s service a niche market, delivering oversize cargo such as oil and natural gas drilling equipment to short and often unimproved airfields that have no infrastructure other than maybe a forklift and a flatbed truck. In addition, L-100s, recognizable by the absence of the two lower windows underneath the aircraft’s windscreen, are also used for humanitarian aid, airdrop, aerial spray, VIP transport, aerial firefighting, and other, similar operations. Analysts predict that Latin America, Africa, and Middle East countries will see double digit growth in air freight business over the next decade. Overall, the world’s air cargo trade is expected to grow by four percent annually for at least the next several years. Even higher growth rates are predicted for niche operators. Enter the LM-100J While the L-100 is highly regarded for operations on dirt/unimproved fields or short runway and other operations at the edges of the commercial air cargo spectrum, the existing fleet today has some operational challenges. The first is Communications, Navigation, Surveillance/Air Traffic Management, or CNS/ATM, compliance. CNS/ATM is the evolving group of systems and regulations used to provide air traffic control services over large geographical areas, including large sections of oceanic airspace. The avionics in the existing L-100s will have to be retrofitted to accommodate the CNS/ATM regulations. Second, the Allison (now Rolls-Royce) T56 engines powering the L-100 fleet don’t meet the FAA’s Stage IV noise requirements for civilian transports because of the engine-propeller combination, nor do these engines meet today’s more stringent emission standards. Even more than passenger airlines, air cargo operations operate on razor-thin profit margins. The twenty-to-forty year old L-100s do have higher direct operating cost relative to the ex-Soviet-bloc An-12 transports operating in many parts of the world, as well as the ubiquitous 737 airliner, many of which have been converted to freighters. However, the 737s need special cargo ground-handling equipment, which adds cost and time and are limited in areas where the Hercules operates most effectively. To respond to these challenges, Lockheed Martin officials submitted a Program Notification Letter to the Federal Aviation Administration on 21 January 2014 for a type design update for the Model L-382J transport, a civil-certified variant of the C-130J Super Hercules. This commercial variant will be marketed as the LM-100J. What’s There The LM-100J looks much like its military C-130J Super Hercules counterpart. The main exterior difference is the lack of lower windows under the windscreen, which allow the C-130J pilots to look ahead and down to see drop zones. The new airlifter has the same Dowty R391 propellers with six scimitar-shaped composite blades and a black de-icer boot at the base of the vertical fin. Internally, the LM-100J, like the C-130J, features an Enhanced Service Life, or ESL, center wing box, enhanced icing protection, and the numerous reliability and maintainability improvements that are a part of the basic C-130J design. The LM-100J uses the same Rolls-Royce AE2100D3 engines as the C-130J. These engines, rated at approximately 4,637 shaft horsepower each, or roughly 150 more horsepower than the legacy T56 engines, feature a full-authority digital engine controller, or FADEC. The engines are expected to exceed FAA Stage IV standards, so there is significantly less fly-over noise with an LM-100J than with an L-100. The LM-100J has the same automatic engine thrust control system as the C-130J.This system automatically adjusts for asymmetric thrust conditions—in other words, if one engine loses power, the other engines automatically compensate to keep the aircraft flying safely. The Northrop Grumman low-power color weather and ground-mapping radar data is presented to the two-pilot flight crew on any of the four head-down color displays on the flight deck. All primary flight information, including altitude, heading, and airspeed is presented on two see-through head-up displays in the crew’s field of view. The LM-100J, through the digital autopilot/flight director can take the aircraft down to Category II minimums, generally considered 100 feet decision height for landing with 1,200-foot visibility. On the flight deck, the LM-100J will have a microwave oven, like on the C-130J. However, inclusion of a coffee maker is a customer option. What It Doesn’t Have On a commercial air freighter, any equipment that doesn’t need to be on the aircraft is extra weight that can be eliminated. Less aircraft weight means fuel saved. Less equipment equals less complexity and reduced maintenance time. That’s why nearly all of the military-specific hardware found on a C-130J has been removed or disabled on the LM-100J. Some military-specific software functions, such as a computer-aided release point, or CARP, for airdrops is retained, however. In the cargo compartment, the LM-100J has an unobstructed, flat floor with tiedowns and provisions for roller racks for palletized cargo. There are no litter stanchions for casualty evacuation, as casualties are usually evacuated on military transports or dedicated civilian aircraft. The flush toilet has also been removed because it takes up space and adds weight and most LM-100J flights are relatively short. The LM-100J will have fuselage doors at the rear of the aircraft, but these doors won't be operated like the paratroop doors on the C-130J. The paratroop air deflectors mounted ahead of the doors on the LM-100J are deactivated simply because they’re not needed, and the engineering cost to remove them completely would be substantial. Every C-130J includes provisions for defensive systems such as chaff and flare dispensers, which are not needed for a commercial transport in nearly every case. Secure communications and electronic warfare equipment, racks, and wiring are all eliminated. Rather than a complex liquid oxygen tank and the associated ground servicing equipment, the LM-100J crew will use a simpler gaseous oxygen system with two walk-around oxygen bottles for emergencies. Crews flying the LM-100J will generally fly single-ship operations, so the low-voltage formation lights on the C-130J aren’t installed, as is the Station Keeping Equipment, or SKE, which is necessary for formation airdrops with the C-130J. What It Does (Or May) Have At the back of the aircraft are external controls to open the cargo door and lower the ramp to reduce time on the ground and to allow for maximum loading capacity. Internally, the LM-100J crew will be separated from the cargo compartment by a door, unlike on the C-130J which simply has a cutout in what is called the 245 bulkhead (i.e. 245 inches from the nose). The LM-100J will likely have a cargo net able to withstand 9-g force, so it can contain almost anything. The aircraft will also have provisions for widely used commercial cargo handling systems. Rather than sound-deadening and temperature-controlling insulation blankets used on C-130s, the LM-100J will have a hard liner that is essentially like a bedliner in a pickup truck—able to withstand repeated bumps and scrapes without requiring regular repair or maintenance. The LM-100J avionics system includes a commercial Traffic Collision Alert System; the latest-generation CNS/ATM equipment and software; commercial takeoff and landing data; and GPS position data reported to the aircraft’s emergency locator transmitter, so if there is an accident, the system sends out exact coordinates to rescue crews. Structurally, the LM-100J will have reinforced bird strike plates around the windscreen and a commercial standard, bird-resistant windscreen. Externally, the LM-100J will have an INMARSAT radio and commercial GPS antenna on the top of the fuselage. For nearly every commercial flight, the crew will know in advance whether their cargo for the day is steel pipe, bags of grain, or a truck, and whether they need rollers or a flat floor. The Enhanced Cargo Handling System, or ECHS, in the C-130J allows crews to rapidly change from rollers to tie downs. However, the flip-over roller trays do add some weight. Although the ECHS is not a part of the original baseline LM-100J design, it may still be offered as a customer option. With aircraft, drag is a bad thing. Lift and thrust have to overcome gravity and drag for an aircraft to fly. A possible second visible external difference between the LM-100J and the C-130J seems to be counterintuitive: installing eighteen small, lightweight, strake-like devices called microvanes on each side of the aircraft’s aft fuselage near the cargo ramp door and horizontal tail. These roughly ten-inch-long vanes create minimal localized drag. However, working as a group, the microvanes slow the natural, much larger drag-creating vortex that forms as airflow goes over and under the wing and swirls around the aft end of the aircraft. The net result is a fifteen-count reduction in drag at long range cruise speeds, which equates to about a twenty-five gallon per hour saving. Microvanes are being looked as a customer option on the LM-100J On The Ramp Time and payload equal money to air freight operations. Anything that puts more cargo in an aircraft and gets that payload it to its destination faster means more money in an operator’s pocket. All of the features of the LM-100J result in a civil-certified transport that will carry one-third more payload, with twenty percent or more greater range, and at ten percent faster speeds than the L-100. As a practical mission example, a crew flying an L-100 with a max normal gross takeoff weight of 155,000 pounds and a 35,000 pound payload will cruise at 18,000 feet at a speed of 280 knots. The crew in the LM-100J with a 35,000 pound payload will take off at a max normal gross takeoff weight of 164,000 pounds; reach a cruising altitude of 28,000 feet, where the engines are more efficient, in less time than it took the L-100 crew to reach 18,000 feet; and fly at 310 knots. Hugh Flynn, the chief executive of the Dublin, Ireland-based ASL Aviation Group, signed a letter of intent for up to ten LM-100Js at the at the Farnborough International Air Show in England, on 16 July 2014. The aircraft will be flown by SAFAIR, an ASL-associated company based at Johannesburg International Airport, South Africa and Air Contractors, also located in Dublin. SAFAIR currently operates a fleet of six long fuselage L-100-30 aircraft. Air Contractors currently operates one L-100 under the Oil Spill Response, Ltd., brand. Engineering and detailed design of the LM-100J is currently underway. Assembly of the first aircraft will begin in 2015 and first flight of the LM-100J is expected by early 2017. Because much of the flight test done to civil certify the C-130J in the late 1990s will be directly applicable to the LM-100J, testing and certification of the newest Hercules variant is expected to take about twelve months. The LM-100J is expected to start earning its keep for commercial operators shortly after the certification process is completed.
  17. That would be the European 1 paint scheme...common up until circa 92-94.
  18. I was told it is, just under a different name/program associated with the ECs.
  19. Was just out at Waco 3 weeks ago and 65-967 is there being retrofitted to a EC-130H flying test bed as we speak. It was approx 50% complete with the work when I saw it. Given the extent of the mods required for configuration control, they were able to justify a complete re-wire of the acft...nose to tail and wingtip to wingtip. And it will have the AMP and glass flightdeck too.
  20. I wouldn't necessarily assume that things will not be affected by the cold. It all depends how cold. I've heard where the units operating in Operation Cold Freeze have experienced problems in the past with gear retraction due to the grease becoming extremely stiff and not operating as designed/advertised. All depends on if the respective grease used is designed to be used in extreme cold environments.
  21. [ATTACH=CONFIG]4267[/ATTACH] Lockheed Martin is anticipating its forthcoming LM-100J aircraft to garner demand for some unique missions, including oil spill clean-ups among other roles. The aerospace and defense manufacturer will also make a major announcement regarding its latest non-military aircraft program at next week's Farnborough International Airshow. In February, Lockheed announced it will be pursuing an amended type certification from the FAA for the LM-100J. The aircraft is a modern version of the L-382J—which was a commercial variant of the C-130J Super Hercules that went out of production in 1992. Now, the company is ready to re-enter the commercial airframe market, and is working closely with the FAA on a project-specific certification plan, according to Ray Fajay, director of air mobility business development at Lockheed Martin. "Following the type design update, we envision the LM-100J serving a range of customers as broad as the aircraft’s multi-role capabilities," Fajay said in an interview with Avionics Magazine. "Growth provisions built into the LM-100J enable it to support a variety of operations that include: oil spill clean-up, oil exploration logistics, mining logistics, aerial firefighting and delivery, humanitarian relief and aerial spray for oil spill response." According to Fajay, the military components and capabilities of the C-130J "are removed for this civil variant." If Lockheed keeps the latest glass cockpit avionics setup from the C-130 for the LM-100J, it will feature flight management systems, displays, autopilot, weather radar, and a Traffic Alert Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) from Rockwell Collins. The LM-100J will also be in the "stretched" configuration of the C-130J with a cargo floor measuring 55 feet in total length. That could lead to the most demand for the aircraft coming from air cargo operators, Fajay said. "We anticipate the demand for the LM-100J to exist in the air cargo market," said Fajay. "The LM-100J is designed to support - with minimal material handling equipment — rapid on-load and off-load of cargo at truck-bed height." Lockheed expects flight testing of the LM-100J to begin in 2017, followed by entry into service in early 2018. View original article: http://www.aviationtoday.com/av/topstories/Lockheed-Anticipates-Civil-Mission-Roles-for-LM-100J_82618.html#.U8bGOEAwLFY
  22. They were both H models. Acft 74-1665 (delivered in 75) sustained severe damage to the forward nose section (FS 245 forward) due hard landing. Acft 74-2072 (delivered in 76) was destined for AMARG, so they took the forward fuselage from 74-2072 and put it on 1665s fuselage. After the nose swap, they put the damaged nose (from 1665) on 2072's fuselage, hence the color mismatch between the forward fuselage and aft fuselage (aft of FS 245) and moved it to warrior air base training area for EDMX/CLSS training.
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