DC10FE

One of the instructor pilots is a friend of a friend of mine.  It goes back to my Transafrik days.

Don R.

If anyone is interested, the C-130H registration is TJ-XCF (msn 4747).

Don R.

I thought I had posted this question before, but I can't find it now.  

For you old-timers.  What is the service ceiling for the C-130A?

Thanks,

Don R.

13 hours ago, hehe said:

It seems to me that the paratroop door is the limiting factor hence why they would eliminate them from the L-100 (plus the obvious lack of need on a civilian bird for paratroopers)

 

Actually, some commercial Hercs have paratroop doors.  I was an FE on a brand new one in 1991 in Angola.  They're called "aft entry doors."

Don R.

Here's a simple question for you old timers.  What's the service ceiling  for the C-130A.

Thanks in advance.

Don R.

I have quite a few hours on it when it was brand new at Dyess AFB, TX.

Don R.

You're correct!  Thanks.  

Once I get on Google Earth, I'm usually stuck there for hours.  Very addictive.

Thanks, Bill.  I'll have to check it out.  I visited that museum many, many years ago -- back in the early 1990's.  I remember looking inside the C-141 that was there at the time -- it still had all the 780 equipment in it.  The Credible Sport C-130 was there, too.

Don R.

16 hours ago, Spectre623 said:

Those were the days , huh Don? 

Yep, it was the first, but not the last time I'd been shot at.  I wish I could remember more of my adventures in both Angeles and Vietnam.  CRS.

Don R.

I was back with Transafrik, but the shrapnel may have been from when the Angolan AF requisitioned that airplane and crews for their civil war -- registered as T-312.  It was on the ramp at Catumbela AB when a soldier accidentally detonated a grenade in the cargo compartment.  It was ferried back to Luanda where it sat for a very long time and then ferried to Sogerma for repairs in Bordeaux where it sat again for a very long time.  I think when you guys got it, it only had about 6,000 hours on it.  

The Lockheed tech rep that came with the airplane said it was originally ordered by the Yugoslavian military, but the order was canceled. 

(Say hi to Chris Lockhart when you see him.  We were at Transafrik together for a few years.)

Don R.

Bill, when I was at Clark (1965 - 1967), our rotation to Vietnam was to Saigon.  Other than that, you pretty much covered it all.  

Don R.

A friend pointed out to me that the date we showed up in Luanda was not 1999, but it was 1991.  Sorry.

Don R.

On 3/9/2020 at 11:28 AM, DC10FE said:

I was an FE on it back in 1999 when we showed up in Luanda with it in Angola Air Charter colors. 

Don R.  

 

 

18 hours ago, A Squared said:

That's more or less correct Don,  but I think that it should be clarified that Lynden did not acquire Safair,

Thanks for the clarification, AA.  I was under the assumption that Lynden bought them out.  

Can I assume you're a pilot for Lynden?  Have you flown P4-LAE?  I was an FE on it back in 1999 when we showed up in Luanda with it in Angola Air Charter colors.  It had only 60 hours on the airframe!  It was registered in Curacao with Frameair as PJ-TAC.  It was a real sweetheart of an airplane.

Don R.  

According to Lars' book, it was originally assigned to the West Virginia ANG.  I never heard of it being haunted, but I've been out of the loop for quite a while, having retired in 1985.

Don R.

A pilot friend of mine told me the airplane was a Delta 757-300.  They have overwing slides stored in compartments outside the pressurized fuselage that deploy for egress down the wing's trailing edge.

Don R.

Every airplane I've ever been on, as a passenger or crew member had the slides on the inside of the doors.

An evacuation slide fell off a plane and landed in man's yard | CNN Travel

I stole this photo from another group.

Don R.

I believe that is N119TG (msn 3227).  The last I had heard, it was parked at Coolidge, AZ with no wings.  That was back in 2011 according to Lars' book.

Don R.

Gomer Pyle (loadmaster) passed away earlier this month in Niceville, FL.  He was 78 years old.

I knew him from our days in the 463rd TCW in the mid-1960's at Clark AB.  I flew with him again from the late 1990's to mid-2003 on the DC-10 at Gemini Air Cargo.

RIP. my good friend.

Don R. 

I just finished reading The Peacemakers by Richard Herman.  Besides the outrageous story line (it is a novel), it was nice to read about the C-130 by someone who has a working knowledge of the airplane.  I did find a few mistakes, but I'm a flight engineer.  The author must have been a navigator because he never calls a map a map.  It's always a chart.

Don R.

If you want some photos, got to "Gallery," select "Bob Daley's Production Number Gallery and go to page 11 and scroll down to 3942.  There, you will find 9 photos of 63-7872.

Don R.

Thank you.

Don R.

Does anyone know if this is this a FY 2018 airplane, as in 18-5863?  Thanks in advance.

Don R.

19 hours ago, larry myers said:

The biergarten I remember most was a place on the road to Zeppeinhiem at the railroad crossing.  If memory serves, we called it Freddy's as an older man whose name was Freddy was always there working. 

Larry, you're thinking of Johnny's, just past the railroad tracks on the right.  I just about lived at that place during my first assignment there (1967 -- 1970).  He was Austrian and had a girlfriend named Liz, I think.  About a quarter mile past that was a restaurant that served the best jager schnitzel.

You were on the A-models there, right?  It's a long shot, but did you ever know an FE in your unit named William (Bill) Cord?  On my second assignment there (1977 -- 1983), he was our first sergeant in the 37th TAS.

Don R.

12 hours ago, jsummers said:

anyone stationed at RM remember the name of a good german restaurant pretty near base; I have it recorded as Middledicks but i really doubt that's the right name.

we're headed back to Germany & I'd like to retrace some good memories. Thnx

Hi Jim,

Mitteldick's sounds very familiar, but like you said. I doubt if that's the name.   I think it was in Zepplinheim.

Have you checked out the air base on Google Earth?  The only familiar sights are the hotel and the star-shaped buildings where the mail room used to be.  Even the building where the American Legion used to be in Waldorf is an empty field now!

Have fun and get some pictures.

Don R.