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larry myers

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Everything posted by larry myers

  1. I can state from personal experience, that a T56 engine with zero psi power section oil pressure will run less than 60 seconds before it seizes. I learned this the hard way after being on duty 20 hours and not ensuring the drive spline was in place prior to installing the replacement pump on the agb pad. Shame on the cr ch and fe for not cw the -6 and -1 pr flt ck list item which says check all cbs for proper setting. Further, what were the AC, CP and FE doing as #3 engine comes on speed and the power section oil pressure is still zero. It's been a very long time since I started a T56 engine but as I recall after I saw enrichment cutback the next thing to look for was positive indication of oil pressure. There were specific limits but don't remember them.
  2. At the end of the flying day the way I closed the oil tank so valve was to pull the T handle with only DC power on the acft. This precluded unnecessarly exercising the prop feather motors. With the valve closed would then pull the oil tank so valve cbs. I did this for the most part so as to preclude having to service engine oil right away when I really wanted to get on with the post flight/recovery. However, as you say this also prevents oil from leaking into the power section if there is a leaky check valve, a not uncommon occurance. The best part was I could service eng. oil the next morning at my leisure after which would reset the so valve cbs. On more than one instance took grief from flt. line supervision when they saw me servicing oil knowing the bird had landed the previous evening.
  3. larry myers

    B-52 MITO

    Don, Was surprised to see that bomber units still do this. From 58 to 62 was stationed at Mt. Home in the 9th BW. This was a B-47E outfit and we did MITOs the same as in your clip. As I recall there were three acft. on the runway at a time. One just lifting off, one at mid runway, and one just starting takeoff roll. I always thought this procedure took balls as after the first couple of acft. visability was nil. Just like earlier series B-52s and 135s, 47s used thrust augmentation for takeoff. However, on a 47 this augmentation consisted of 70% water and 30% alcohol. This mixture created a much darker exhaust trail, with nonexistent vis. As much as we did this over a period of several years there were no acft. losses. Although several times I thought a dipped wing tip was going to touch the ground. During winter on alert when the oat reached 29 degrees the water/alcohol tanks had to be drained. The only way to do that was to crank up and burn it off. So, at o dark thirty we would have 12 alert airplanes in the alert area running at takeoff power with water. One had to be very carefull not to get wacked by a flying B4 stand, MD-3, pickup or crew chief. Later there was a TCTO that installed a manual drain. I guess the point of all this is when one considers how much tactics change over the years here is one that hasn't changed in 50. How often does that happen?
  4. larry myers

    B-52 MITO

    When I was in the 36/37 TAS, 66/68 & 69/70, we practiced special weapons loading a lot. I remember quite well how pickey the evaluators were. It didn't take much to fail. Participated in one real mission. On rote to Mildenhall flew to a German Air Base in northen Germany to pick up their special weapons as their runway was closing for repair. Was surprised to find out, athough the weapons would be delivered by the Germans, they belonged to the USAF. The WSA was manned entirely by the USAF, including air cops, munitions maintenance, ect. When they delivered the bolsters to the acft. it was as if the stuff on the forklift were pallets of cornflakes. Plenty of security but no cordon. Nothing even close to how was it was practiced at Langley. Once on the acft., however, the LMs did their thing, by the book. Your right, big pain for the loads. Believe they used every chain and device on the acft. Once loaded we delivered to a base in southern Germany. Both bases were F104 bases so there wasn't much ramp space for a C130. On taxi in had to get out and pull concertina wire back from the taxiway. We flew one sortie per day for about three days. RON at the southern base were we met a German pilot. This guy took really good care of us. He was roughly the same rank as a USAF TSgt. Flew a G91. Looked like a small F86. Don't know how he did it, but he hung with us till the wee hours and still flew the first go, or so he said.
  5. Without AC power on the acft. there is no way the prop will feather. The prop feather motor runs on three phase AC.
  6. polcat, Anyone with a C-130 question, this is the place. There is info that can be found here and nowhere else. Don't care what it is someone on the site has been there done that. I'll wager no one in the sqd. knows more about those little gizmo's on the vertical fin than you.
  7. That's the gentleman's way of puting it. I would probably call it a "FU".
  8. Looks like a CLSS repair-one time flight to home station.
  9. Ooops! Engaged keyboard before brain. Looked closely at photo again. Missed polcat's highlight. What he's highlited is in fact the top latches for the infamous vertical fin ladder.
  10. Don't know what this is, (nav. aid?) but pretty sure it's not the ladder attach point. If memory serves, ladder attach points (there were two sets) were flush on both sides of the vertical fin. The bottom attach points were about waist high. The top points were about 1/4 from the top of the ladder. With the ladder installed it was just forward of the rudder. Don't think anyone would argue this was a crappy piece of support equipment. Someone said they changed an anti collision lite using this ladder. I tried that once, but failed, no balls. If it takes two hours to get a cherry picker, I'll wait. Some years later, however, was forced into using it repeatadly at CCK to cw with an urgent action TCTO on rudder attach point bearings. As I recall it was stowed in the 780 shop.
  11. Tinwhistle, I'm not sure if we are talking about the same time frame because frankly I don't remember. On my second tour in the 37th ended up as the nite shift line supv. This was a difficult period as the sqd. was very undermanned. However, on my crew were several 431 troops, mostly Sgt/SSgts just back from SEA, that were nearing the end of thier enlistment. Every nite these guys amazed me with thier technical ability and work ethic. There wasn't anything these guys couldn't do, run engines, replace nesa glass, ect. You name it they could do it. They didn't need a lot of supervision. Tell them what needed to be done and they went and did it. The down side to all of this was thier appearence. They were all getting short, so uniform maintenance was not on thier priority list. In fact they were quite a motley looking crew. I had trouble with this at first but then came to understand it would not be on mine either. I knew if sqd. leadership saw these guys we would all be in trouble. So, at the beginning of each shift would have them get in the truck and wait for me on the line behind the most distant parked aircraft. I would get the work load from job control, go to where they were waiting, assign tasks and away we would go. I'm wondering if you might have one these guys.
  12. The AD Senior Enlisted Advisor and I were attempting to get the General to endorse the FMS welding shop NCOIC's APR. The General declined. I asked him why. He replied the NCO failed to meet 35-10 standards. I asked him to be more specific. He said he had seen the NCO and observed numerous holes in his fatigues. I explained the NCO was a welder and such holes were an occupational hazard. No luck. This nimrod also would not endorse any APR/OER if the poor bastard did not belong to thier respective club. What a sterling leader.
  13. Not only that, but did the Gen. have his aid check to make sure the Gen belonged to the O club. My my.
  14. Bob, Your right. Thanks for the clarification. Memory somewhat foggy about when/which sqd. was in. Arrived the summer of 66 and assigned 316 OMS. Don't remember when, but sometime thereafter, most all Air Force acft. maintenance was reorganized and all mx. troops were assigned to the flying sqds they supported. I ended up in the 36th. Believe the commander was Ferrier. He made full colonel and became the wing king at Dyess. If memory serves he was fired after mx. burned the nose off one of thier new 74models. I considered him one of the best commanders one could have. I did one rote to Mildenhall with the 36th one with the 37th. Sometime in late 67 early 68 transfered to the 37th. I remember Meyer helping wash my aircraft at Mildenhall and was thinking we were in the 37th at the time. However, as you pointed out, not the case. Left the 37th Dec. 68 for Phu Cat. Read about Meyer's adventure in the Stars @ Stripes while at Phu Cat. Returned to the 37th Dec. 69. Reassigned to CCK Feb. 71. Remember Mulkey well as flew with him on several trips. Believe this was prior to him assuming the CC position. Recall him as a very compenent AC who thought everyone on the crew, including the cr ch should know how to fly the aircraft. And everyone got thier turn. Not a big deal for the CP but it sure was for me. Regards, Myers
  15. Dan, Opps, poor choice of words. What I should have said was, unlike ABCCC mission equipment which could be removed/installed at the unit level, albiet, with great difficulty.... By the way was the sqd. ever tasked to do this? When I was TAC Hqs. our involvment in SEA was winding down. When the ABCCC mission ended the plan was to return the acft. to the TAC airlift fleet. Because we were in the middle of the -4A dual rail mod I included these tail numbers in the TCTO. WR ALC and PACAF questioned this at length. Don't know what the outcome was as I moved on to the AMST test team soon thereafter. One thing I'm learning, when you post on HerkyBirds, you better know what the heck your talking about. My guess is there is at least a million years of experience here. No matter how mundane the question there is someone out there with the answer. Thats a good thing. Regards, Myers
  16. I was a crew chief in the 06th from 62 to 66. The unit disbanded June 74. By this time I was stationed at TAC Hqs. in the C-130 shop. I was aware all C-130A II acft. were being demoded and assigned to the reserve forces. Thought the sqd. that gets these old Rivet Victor acft. are not going to be happy when they see what they are getting. They were all high time airframes. When I departed the sqd. in June 66 my aircraft was approaching 10,000 hours. Average sortie duration was 8.7 hours. The average ute. rate was on the order of 150 hours a month. They had never been airlifters. As they came off the line at Lockheed they were delivered to E Systems and converted to the II configuration. In addition to not having airlift/airdrop capability they were non standard, i.e., liquid oxygen, AC generator on all engines, APN 99 Doppler, custom cargo compartment air conditioning system, 450 gal. bladder fuel tanks in the wings between the inboard engines and the fuselage, ect. I often wondered it the sqds’. were ever able to get these aircraft to a point were they could declare them FMC? Somewhere on another thread someone asked about the four AC generators. The third generator powered the back-end equipment and the forth was a spare. One of the before taxi checks was a generator bus tie check. The FE had be alert when he complied with this check as sometimes it was possible to get two generators on the same bus at the same time. Not a good thing. Unlike ABCCC, the mission equipment was not pallet mounted for easy roll on roll off. But was permanently bolted to the acft. In fact the cargo ramp and door were permanently closed and only opened manually at PDM/modification. A plus was the acft. were treated with much tlc. Very well maintaind and flow. No assault landings, no LAPES, ect. We did operate at or near max. gross weight. One of our acft. (535) was so heavy it took 45+ minutes to reach cruise altitude. Take off, climb to cruise altitude, throttle back to 150kts. Not unusual to see total fuel of 1,000 pph. Set 10% flaps. 8.7 hours later call ATC for decent clearance. Having said all the above, have to say have no knowledge of acft. configuration at time of delivery to the Guard/Reserve. So, depending on conf., perhaps none of the above was, in fact, a problem. The 7406 has a web site you may find helpfull, "7406 Suppron.com". In any case, hope this helps
  17. If I'm 45 minutes from home and get a prop low oil lite I'm caging the eng and heading home. CP & FE, prepare for three eng. landing at home base. If, however, I divert, am not taking an acft. that has an visable leak that mx signed off as serviced. Further, as the maintenance honcho I would not permit such corrective action.
  18. Fryguy, As you already know, true story. The person in question, Paul Meyer and I were in the 37th TAS at the same time. I guess because our names were similiar have met people that thought he was me. I wasn't on that rote because I had been reassigned to SEA. I read about it in the Stars & Strips. What a shock. However, I did know him well. He was a hard worker and a good flt. line tech. His personal life was a basket case. Caused in large part by his heavy drinking. I recall on a prevous rote to Mildenhall his drinking was very problematic. One night about dinner time my wife came into the living room and in a huff told me there was a women on the telephone. This women thought I was Paul. She proceded to tell me Paul's girlfriend's (later wife) husband knew they were in Florida on vacation. That I was an innocent bystander was a very hard sell to my wife. When I finished my tour was posted right back to the 37th. Talked to many of the troops who were there and those who saw him that night. All said he very drunk. Someone told me they were surprised he was able to get the ladder out of the aircraft and remove the mooring chains. I thought this strange as don't remember ever mooring aircraft at Mildenhall. Considering drunks cannot keep a car on the road, it's remarkable Paul was able to taxi from the hardstand to the runway, line up, set flaps, attain takeoff speed, rotate and climbout. With regard to how the acft. crashed I talked to several people who were in a position to know. Without exception they all claimed ignorance. Lots of theroy's though. My thought is as drunk as I know he could get probably just flew the acft. into the water. Last time I heard the CO was selling real estate in Louisville.
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