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Crew chief took off in a 130


Fryguy
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Reed Mulkey was a great guy. I learned a lot from him. One of the best pilots I ever flew with in 34 years flying. I always let all my crew members fly and Dale Smith my FE was the best. I used to embarass know it all CP's by letting Dale show them up on landings. Last I heard Dale was in Abilene.

Bruce Ferrier took over as Commander of the 37th in Dec 69. At the same time we had Reed as the Ops officer. When Ferrier was Wing Commander at Dyess, a mechanic burned the nose of 63-7815. Ferrier was fired and hr had a heart attack and died shortly after that.

He was a good commander and always took care of his people, even if he was always sending me to the barber shop.

Bob

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  • 1 month later...
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I have seen the full report on this incident and there is no indication that he was intercepted and shot down whatsoever. He had been put through to his wife in Virginia on a phone patch and was talking to her when he reported that he had some kind of problem, and that he'd get back to her after he took care of it. Meyer had some kind of pilot's license but there's a big difference between flying a light single-engine or even a light twin and a large four-engine transport. I suspect he lost an engine or something and lost control of the airplane and it spun in. He went down off of the French coast south of the UK. He was not intercepted. Two airplanes were launched to look for him, a fighter and another C-130, but neither of them reached him before he went down.

I was at Clark when this happened and was puzzled when I read the same article in Stars and Stripes and read that he had been taxiing the airplane. When I was in maintenance at Pope Air Force policy was that maintenance did not taxi airplanes larger than twin-engine. In fact, I don't remember anyone ever taxiing one - if they needed to be moved, they were towed.

A number of years ago Martin Caidin wrote a book about ghosts in aviation and Meyer was featured in it. His ghost reportedly haunts the hardstand from which he launched.

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I was in MATS MX and TAC and PACAF as FE and I never was anywhere that CC's or FE's taxied. As a MX troop I was runup qualified on 130's and 133's but after I became an FE I never again did a run-up. Just my experience!

when i was at pope in '93, i heard a story of a cc that jumped chocks during an eng run and simply taxied it around and back in the spot. but i didnt believe it much as that would have been pretty difficult without wing walkers.

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I was TDY to the 139th AW Missouri Air National Guard this summer and found out that the engine run certified crewchiefs are taxi qualify still to this day.

i dont know who told you that info, but i was eng run qual'ed myself at pope in '93, and my instructor told us that practice had been abandoned long ago.

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I don't know about now as I'm an old fart but most of the pilots that gave recert rides at Langley would let you taxi the acft--how would you get a feel for it if you don't do it--I use to try and win beer by taxing from the right seat but if a pilot loses he lets the other guys know real quick--I never could quit turning the yoke when in the right seat had to do something with my right hand--they all laughed at me for that

Smitty

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  • 3 months later...

When I first crosstrained from KC-135's to herk's at Pope I heard the story and was told of the hard stand being haunted at Mildenhall. For the life of me I can't remember that hard stand number... But on my first rotation thats the hard stand I was parked on, but never had anything strange happen...

Anyone remember that hard stand number?

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  • 9 months later...

While stationed in the PI 1984-1989 all DCC's that were engine run qualified were also taxi qualified but only time i ever taxied was during my scheduled qualification, they let us go from one end of Clark taxiway all the way to the other end and was taught how to steer with the props and was no big deal but i did enjoy it! This was the only place that let us be taxi qualified and i was at LR, Clark, Rhein Main, UAE ,Kirtland! Wish Mike Bolton had of been taxi qualified, he caught a lotto grief for backing that bird in to that ditch in Saudi, KFIAP! I helped pull it from the ditch and you could stand in the road behind the aircraft and flat foot touch the bottom side of the beaver tail! That Maintenance Officer from Pope that was in charge of us all at KFIAP was livid, i heard him tell Mike some stuff i really do not wanta share with many people!

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I went to VRC-50 at Cubi and was engine run and taxi qualified as well - in fact the rule for the Navy was if a crew taxied the plane then both pilots had to occupy the pilot and co-pilot seat, but if an engineer taxied only the pilot seat had to be occupied.

Must have been a squadron level rule. Have sat the right seat a many times for P-3 ground maintenance taxi's. The only time I've ever seen two pilots go on a maintenance taxi, is when one is working on the qual. <new guy fresh out of VP-30 (Fleet Replacement Squadron). Zero enlisted taxi qual'ed for P-3's, very few groundpounders ground turn qual'ed. F/E's do the majority of maintenance turns. It's their "watch" during their crew duty week. Bout the only time they allow groundpounders to get ground turn qual'ed are for extended hi-tempo dets where crew rest issues with the F/E doing a maintenance turn at zero dark thirty. (No crew duty on these dets)

Doubt there are any enlisted qual'ed to taxi Hercs anymore either with VXE-6 shutdown. Don't see a need for reserves to have the need. With the op tempo/Area of Ops for Deep Freeze, makes since for enlisted taxi quals in VXE-6.

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  • 1 month later...

I was stationed at mildenhall as an AP and Admin in the CAMron squadron I was drinking with him at the time. Russ Whalen was with him also. I had to go looking for him the next morning. I seen the oil slick but no signs of him. The pilots of the C-47 told me that he was shot down. He was a nice guy. I still think about after all these years. But I have another questions. Was the reason you guys washed the aircrafts was to get rid of the Agent Orange when you guys came back from SEA rote?

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  • 2 months later...

In May of 1969 I was assigned to the 513 TAW as an "F Troop" in the aero repair shop. We assisted the Herk rote units with heavier hanger maint. I was TAD to the maint. control office at the time of the incident. Our barracks, H block was next to the TDY Sq. huts. He launched from the short runway as he barely cleared our building. I got to work and maint. control was in what you could call lock down. Shortly afterward, F 100's from Lakenheath scrambled. Never heard what the RAF did, but the 100's had to be uploaded with 20MM when they TRB. Draw your own conclusions. Meyer was a private pilot but he soon found out why this and every other Herk had Four seats in the front office. One little known fact was that the AP's pulled in front of his Herk with their bread truck broadside to him. He popped #2&3 in to reverse and sent the bread truck into the weeds post haste. They were sent to investigate the violation of Quiet Time 2200-0600. The only authorised engine noise was the midnight launch of the EC-135 Command Post bird. It was a very sad chapter in USAF history. He was denied an early return to Langley by the CO, but an A2C was granted an early return to get married. I used to see him in the NCO club and the lad did like his drink. Wreckage was returned to MHZ with rather large holes in it. Again, draw your own conclusions.

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I was in Air Rescue Service 66-67 and when our HC130's RTB after a low level search mission first stop was the wash rack to wash salt accumulations off the exterior of the aircraft. As for Agent Orange, most of it was dispensed by C123 Providers, a two engine look-a-like to a C130. Most other washings were to clean oils and general dirt off the plane. The flap wells were especially dirty from the jet exhaust from the T-56 turbine engines.

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I was stationed at Langley 1971-74. On one of my first ROTES to Mildenhall I heard the story of the airman with marital problems having taken off with the 130. Having worked in Maintenance, a group of us discussed how easy it would be to start up and taxi a 130. After all, starting the GTC and getting bleed air to start the engine was no big deal. However, even as we discussed the incident, I always thought there may have been an element of a "war story" attached to this. After 40 years you guys have just confirmed that the story is true!

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  • 3 months later...

Was stationed at Pope when this happened and the mess it caused when it came time to run engines was something. Was run qualified on all 130's but the A model and NEVER did I hear of any crew chief being legally allowed to taxi a 130 except on qual runs with a pilot in the right seat. That's active duty and Reserves. Just my experience....just sayin'. Bill :)

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Was stationed at Pope when this happened and the mess it caused when it came time to run engines was something. Was run qualified on all 130's but the A model and NEVER did I hear of any crew chief being legally allowed to taxi a 130 except on qual runs with a pilot in the right seat. That's active duty and Reserves. Just my experience....just sayin'. Bill :)

Ah, back in the day. Was CC and then FE/FM on VC-118A's and VT-29B/C/D's. Was run and taxi qualified on them.

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In the U.S. Air force, you was run qualified only. Never taxi qualified but if you jump chocks, you would know what to do and that was about the most taxing you would get..........LOL And maybe your last RUN......... And if you was taxi qualified, it must have been before March 1, 1966.

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I am speaking only of C-130's in the U.S. Air Force. I knew plenty of recip crew chiefs who taxied their birds, that was normal... something about the 130 being a new fangled propJet that had the AF brass up tight in the middle 1950's. My time started on 130's in April 1963 with a few gaps till I retired on'em in 2003 and like I said, never heard of any legally qualified taxi crew chiefs on 130's. Bill:)

Edited by Spectre623
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Soc Trang RVN Dec 23 1969 55006 Naha "A" model Balls 6 broke down #1 Eng D.C. generator fire sent up country from TSN to recover. Padded generator with Eng Troop and CC told by Aerial Port MSG we had to move the Herc toward the fence Charlie was coming to town. Sure enough O dark 30 around 1-2ish in A/M they came. luckily missed us and the Herc, emptied the 2 mags of M-16 ammo I was issued on trip in. Christmas Eve Dec 24 flown back to TSN Where we feasted on beer and fried chicken supplied from our people in Naha. Does anyone remember the name of the troop who fired the flare pistol out of the hatch of an "A" Herc that night at TSN? Remember it well can see the faces then CRS sets in and names go blank "Long Long Time Ago Far Far Away"

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A little about crew chiefs and Asst. crew chiefs taxiing acft: this goes back to Evreux in the early '60's. Crew chiefs often rode the Rt.seat on low or high speed taxi checks which were almost always done by a test pilot. The test pilot sometimes brought a Flt.Mech. along and if not another C/C or A/C/C held down that seat and C/W that part of the check list. I only heard of one instance of an Acft. "bouncing" off when the pilot told the C/C to bounce the nose. NO Maint. people were authorized to taxi on that base at that time. One test pilot used to tell the right seater "don't touch the gear handle even if I tell you to"

On aTDY to Incerlik A B, Turkey in about '63 I watched C/C do an engine start on a base flt. T 33.Several guys were standing around the acft. and when the engine was on speed at idle they all climbed aboard and off they went to the flt. ops. snack bar for morning break.

Years later when I had left the Air Force and was working for an aircraft manufacturing company I and several other Maint. people were taxi certified and did many taxi checks.

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