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Benson Tanks


SonnyJ
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We are trying to confirm if there are units still using the Benson tanks. This mainly applies to the MC/HC guys and gals. We keep getting conflicting information and the best way is to get it from the source if possible.

Email me at [email protected] with your response please.

Thanks,

Donald "Sonny" Johnston

Senior Logistician/Level 2 RCM Analyst

Mercer Engineering Research Center

135 Osigian Blvd.

Warner Robins, GA 31088

478.953.6800 Ext 2603 or 2541 Fax 478.953.6801

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We have only one MC/P w/o IFR here at Mildenhall and that would be the only aircraft to get use out of it. IFR, stated earlier, negates the use of Benson Tanks. We only install them these days just to leak check them. There was talk of getting rid of most of them and leaving two or three, just in case, but nothing has happened as of yet.

Dave

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Come out to DM or Moody we got tons of em and qualified people to take em in and out depending on our upper vision and aircrews HA HA! Seriously yes we use them for deployments. Great big pain in the woohoo but a necessary evil all the same.

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LOL...I have had my fill of takin' those things in and out.

I was on weekend duty and we had to swap out tanks on a bird. I sent my guys to load one up on the trailer and they were having problems keeping it balanced when they lifted it up. We thought we got it balanced started lifitng some more and it tipped on its end. It was only about 18 inches or so when it tipped and it happened to tip on the drain end. Yep, you guessed it; it broke the end off the benson tank and fuel started pouring out everywhere. We contained the spill. Come to find out there was almost 1,000 lbs of fuel left in the tank. Boy that was a fun mess...

Sonny

Edited by SonnyJ
fuel, not feul...
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We had dual (side-by-side) palletized tanks for the MC-130E Talons with a connect point on the airplane that tied into the crossfeed manifold.

The set-up had dual pumps in each tank, individual circuit breakers for each pump, tank empty lights, and blue foam baffling inside; and the tanks were oriented so that the pumps were in the aft end of the tanks. This was done so that with a normal nose-up flight attitude, most of the fuel could be pumped out.

I don't know if they are still being used, but they were also intended to augment FARP missions.

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They were connected to the IFR manifold on the right side, not the crossfeed manifold.

Okay, I stand corrected...however, before IFR was installed, the Heavy Chain airplanes were configured with the Benson Tank connection at the crossfeed manifold---as I recall.....

John

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I seem to remember you getting shocked by one too, Sonny. I guess you learned turn the pumps off before lifting the tanks and removing the last bolt. Being the path of least resistance is no fun! :eek:

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Haha Casey! They were off; it was the fuel quantity harness...Tater was supposed to turn power off when we started pulling bolts. He decided he needed to disconnect the cannon plugs first. What was so "Tater" about the sistuation is he said he kept getting zapped as he was disconnecting the connector. We were underneath the tanks and didn't even think that Tater would do something like that...

...Ahhhh Tater....I can still remember sitting in the expediter truck and Becky calling over the radio to come out to the aircraft and Jeff kept asking her why and she kept saying you just need to come to the plane. Jeff said just tell me and becky said something like this: "Tater just deployed the life raft on the aircraft...". Of course when you say something like that over the radio you hear people you don't wanna hear over the radio...lolz.

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When I was stationed at Hickam w/ 6594th Test Grp back in '81-83 our 3

HC-130P models always had both benson tanks installed, our main mission of course was to keep our 6 H-53's flying and topped off. Back then the USCG out of Barbers point was still flying HC-130B's with a limited fuel capacity. On numerous occasions our "P" models would go out on long range SAR missions for the USCG, and on several missions towing along 1 or 2 of our H-53's. On one mission we sent out 1 tanker and 2 H-53's to get a crewmen off a ship, the patient had one of is arms slammed in one of the watertight doors and needed immediate evacuation back to Honolulu, the tanker and helo's were gone for over 10 hours and the finally made it back with the patient, and on less than "minimum fuel" this was one of the longest over water rescues w/ 2 H-53's sucking up the fuel at the time.

The tanks were actually easy to remove with the ODS and cargo straps, of course it was inconvenient whenever you had MLG shoe adjustments to do.

It also seemed like on Fridays, the Flt Engineer or Scanner always smelled fuel fumes coming from the benson tanks, Aloha Friday- one more day on the beach- you betcha, LOL.

Rex

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We had a young man out here forget to close the fuel shut off valve. Thats right you guessed it he disconnected the fuel line and well wouldn't you know There was just a bit more than a bucket full. Needless to say after pulling floor panels etc... the smell finally went away. The worst was he was training the FNG's we had at the time.

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  • 3 months later...

You would think they are pretty simple to put in, but within the short time I've been around them we had a couple of incidents that did not go according to plan.

They are an arse pain, and I still cannot figure out why we only have two dollies.:o Two cargo straps are real nice though. I'd like to see them on pallets real soon though.

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I don't remember ever seeing them but I do remember one flight we could have used them on.

When we took the A,s from Sewart to Clark.

We stopped at Edwards In Calif I think ,could have been Travis. CRS.

We topped off before takeoff as usual and had the externals filled

till they were almost running over.

After we got past the PONR we ran into 50 knot head winds.

The closer we got to Hickham I thought the glass face on the fuel gauges were gonna get broken. The Pilot and CoP and Fe. were all banging on them.

The Pilot declaired a low fuel emergency and we were given clearance for a straight in approach.

All the low fuel lights were on and engine # 4 flaimed out as we landed.

The Pilot shut down #1 and we taxied on to a parking spot.

I think I was too young and dumb to be afraid at the time, looking back is a different story.

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The T1 tanks got all dumped in front of our hanger on Eglin sometime in 2001 and they were still moldering out there in the weather last time I looked so I am pretty sure its a non player in the Talon playbook anymore. They do look pretty cool on the pallet and all but they are a totally different beast than the tank system on the the HC/MC-P so I dont really know how they work.

I really liked using the Benson tanks, only carried and used two tanks a couple of times but even with the IFR the tanks came in really handy.

Example being one of my flights in Afghanistan (the one the pilot blew off writing up my DFC for the SAM launch, you know who you are LOL) , we topped EVERYthing up at the tanker after taking off and headed into the helo refuel. I had burned off the 11K in the fuselage tank getting there (if you never used them, they pump and burn in the engines fine but really suck butt trying to pump off to a user).

Well our wingman bailed for some frikkin reason, our initial mission canceled and we got the help call for other users, a friggin six pak of 47's and they sucked my tanks dry - and I mean dry. I kept telling the AC "hey were offloading our get home juice dude" but he had me keep pumping since there was a tanker pretty close by.

Well our luck was really holding good that night, the 135 bailed on us as well after we pumped out all of our go juice, so it was a real pucker flight on the way back to Pakistan. First time I had ever had to go with "all pumps on and all valves open" jazz, by the time we landed I dont know what we had left since by then all the gages stopped moving down:eek:

I dont remember who came up when we landed to get fuel and lox but I got a pretty funny look from him :rolleyes:

Worst thing I had happened with a fuselage tank was on a mission out of Kirtland when I was with the 550th, we had JUST taken off with a full load of fuel, including 11K in the trunk and the load calls me up to say "hey, the Benson tank is wobbling". Got to looking and the whole front end of the cradle was cracked and any turbulence or movement and that thing was all over the place, it took FOREVER to get that stupid thing dumped before we could land.

Dan

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I havn't seen the T-1 tanks you speak of at eglin but there is a butt load of shadow tanks sitting under a canopy by the hanger on the SOF ramp. In 4 years on the Shadow the only time I have seen a benson on the AC is at Kirtland when I went through Initial qual and Instructor school. We are accually removing all of the rubber hoses and quick disconnects that are on the airplane. It will take a lot longer to install one if we ever have to do it.

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becky said something like this: "Tater just deployed the life raft on the aircraft...". Of course when you say something like that over the radio you hear people you don't wanna hear over the radio...lolz.

Ha, ha, ha! Was going over the thread and remembered "been there!" I did this trying to get the bottle to fit in the bracket. The material around the bottle was all bunched so I think I either sat on it, or put a knee to it. Then I heard a crack and a hiss. It was filling so slow we just threw it off the wing. :o

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