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C-130A forward cargo doors


m.mccann08
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I was at Sewart when one of the doors came open and A2C Gary Back got sucked out and fell to the ground.

There were steel plates placed oner the latches on the bottom of the doors so they couldn't be opened.

As I recall they were operated by a hydraulic hand pump only.

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They in the main were a useless idea.

Were operated by a handpump which was a slow way to open and close.

We found in the RAAF they were seldom used and used to give false door warning lights.

Also if you left them open when loading heavy items they would not close correctly and often one had to taxi the airplane to get all the locks engaged.

We were very happy when they were permantly closed by a TO in 1960 I think it was.

Only the very first of the E models had them. The concept was not a bad idea, but in actual practice there was no real gain by loading through them.

We where more than a little wary of them as we were told that the airplane which lost the door, that it also came back and hit the No 2 engine and prop.

Regards

Col

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Not sure of the nomenclature, but we used roller sections (10'X2" maybe) that had what looked like metal roller skate wheels on them and would stack them up centerline in the cargo compartment when not in use.
We called them roller/conveyers.
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We called them roller/conveyers.

That is what we called them also. Skate wheel rollers.

I think some were bolted to the floor up to the front of the main wheel wells. Passangers sat in the front part of the cargo compartment.

I also heard that later on with the Dual rails the cargo was moved forward and passangers sat to the rear.

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The door on 55-0022 c/n [cn]3049[/cn] had 128 internal wrenching, countersunk screws around the door edges and 4 lock mechanisms at the bottom which were tightened with 7/8" bolts. It was a pain to open and close but there was no way it was coming open.

[ATTACH]664[/ATTACH]

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The very first C 130 without the front cargo door was 62-1784. It was stationed at the West Virginia Air Guard in Charleston at the end of the VN War, also with the famous 62-1787. It you remember reading the -2s many of the TOs said 62-1784 and up in certain sections of the TOs this is why. I believe it is still active at the training side of LRAFB

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When I first started flying, the 815th had 62-0360, -0365, -0366, and -0552. On one of my first preflights after coming straight from LR, I remember my IFE asking if I had checked all my hydraulic reservoirs. I answered yes. Then he proceeded to chew me out for failing to check the forward cargo door reservoir. WTF?! I was really confused. I was one their first "baby" engineers without any prior engineer time and they seemed to forget what a true newbie was (previously I was a crew chief on A-10's, not 130's, as another handicap). I tried to explain that LR never mentioned a forward cargo door, but I don't remember that mattering to him.

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WxFe,

Are you talking about the 815th WRS at Keesler? The sns look like the WC-130Es that used to be with the 53rd and 54th WRS before they were deactivated. I didn't think that any of the WC-130Es went to the 815th. But if so, the sns would be 61-2360, 365, 366, and 64-0552. The first three would have had the doors, although they had long since been sealed. I worked on all of them in the mid seventies at Keesler with the 53rd or on TDY to Guam to the 54th WRS. Being a MET/ARE repairman, I was with the 3380th AMS at Keesler and TDY to the 605th MASS at Guam.

One thing that I remember about the WC-130Es and the 815th. CMSgt Joe Waller was shop chief on the Reserves side of the Met shop and he had come over from the active side when it had started up. I remember hearing talk that the Reserves had resisted accepting any Es.

Best wishes,

Grant

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The very first C 130 without the front cargo door was 62-1784. It was stationed at the West Virginia Air Guard in Charleston at the end of the VN War, also with the famous 62-1787. It you remember reading the -2s many of the TOs said 62-1784 and up in certain sections of the TOs this is why. I believe it is still active at the training side of LRAFB

The TO1C-130A-9 is another good source for serial number breaks beginning at 62-1784. Both it and 1787 are with the Little Rock ANG. 1787 is mentioned in another thread as being slated to go to the USAF Museum upon retirement.

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WxFe,

Are you talking about the 815th WRS at Keesler? The sns look like the WC-130Es that used to be with the 53rd and 54th WRS before they were deactivated. I didn't think that any of the WC-130Es went to the 815th. But if so, the sns would be 61-2360, 365, 366, and 64-0552. The first three would have had the doors, although they had long since been sealed. I worked on all of them in the mid seventies at Keesler with the 53rd or on TDY to Guam to the 54th WRS. Being a MET/ARE repairman, I was with the 3380th AMS at Keesler and TDY to the 605th MASS at Guam.

One thing that I remember about the WC-130Es and the 815th. CMSgt Joe Waller was shop chief on the Reserves side of the Met shop and he had come over from the active side when it had started up. I remember hearing talk that the Reserves had resisted accepting any Es.

Best wishes,

Grant

Grant,

Thanks. I was going off of my faulty memory. Actually looking at my flight records (I didn't keep a personal log until later) it shows my last flight on a WC-130E was on 10 Nov 93. What's interesting is that the the 53rd WRS had been resurrected as a Reserve unit on November 1! So the WC-130E's flew with the 53rd again, at least for a little while. What's odd is the serial is listed as 553. Looking closer, I see 553 listed several other times. Was there an 0553 WC-130E?

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yes 64-0553

there were 6 WC-130E's

61-2360 is broken up at the Aviation Warehouse in CA

61-2365 now flying for Snow Aviation in Columbus OH as N307SA

61-2366 turned into beer cans at the HVF scrap yard Tucson

64-0552 now flying in the Belgian AF as CH-13

64-0553 now chopped up parts in Tucson

64-0554 an Aircraft Battle Damage Repair aircraft in the Boneyard at DM

I heard too that 62-1787 was going to WP Museum, what is it famous for?

Bob

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Grant,

Thanks. I was going off of my faulty memory. Actually looking at my flight records (I didn't keep a personal log until later) it shows my last flight on a WC-130E was on 10 Nov 93. What's interesting is that the the 53rd WRS had been resurrected as a Reserve unit on November 1! So the WC-130E's flew with the 53rd again, at least for a little while. What's odd is the serial is listed as 553. Looking closer, I see 553 listed several other times. Was there an 0553 WC-130E?

Willow Grove ended up with the WCs for a little while, but I'm not sure what time frame. When the Grove closed, they were shifted to other places. I remember seeing a few at March last year. I believe they all ended up with Nashville in their training squadron to be reverted to slicks. Provided the money appears that is....

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Willow Grove ended up with the WCs for a little while, but I'm not sure what time frame. When the Grove closed, they were shifted to other places. I remember seeing a few at March last year. I believe they all ended up with Nashville in their training squadron to be reverted to slicks. Provided the money appears that is....

Those are/were WC-130H's (formerly '64 & '65 HC-130H's), not the older E models that (some) had come off the assembly line with forward cargo doors.

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LC-130F 148319 with the forward cargo door open on the ramp in Christchurch, NZ in the early 60's.

The three Navy LC-130F's still have the structure, hydraulic lines, pump, reservoir, actuators and locks.

At some point in time a couple of the aircraft were re-skinned, you can no longer see the forward door from the outside.

The doors were bolted closed (bolts through the door and door frame), the locks were bolted closed.

Edited by LC130LOAD1
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  • 6 years later...
On 11/22/2009 at 7:02 PM, ang012 said:

Early E models had them also

We had 61-2367  (3712) and 61-2372 (3717) at CCK in '71 to '73.  Both had sealed forward cargo doors, but the hand pumps were still in place.  Come to think of it, i think other early "E" models had the pumps installed, although the door had never been installed.  Aircraft assembled by a committee?

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