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Flight Engineer


MAXTORQ
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Well after 19+ years as an engine mechanic on C-130's in the US AirForce it is time to move on . I am very grateful for the people that have made this possible for me .

For the last year or so I have been avidly seeking a position as a Flight Engineer on C-130's and I can finally say I GOT THE JOB! :cool:

I know most of you don't know me at all, but I'm sure I'll be picking some brains here .

I have offcially became an idiot again.

Now it's time to shut up and color.:D

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that's what I did...130 engine guy to 130 FE....while I kinda miss 13 minute prop removals (test cell) and getting stabbed by safety wire, the FE gig is pretty cool. On more than 50 occasions, the pilots have turned around and said its nice having a prior engine troop as a FE. Not knocking the guys/gals that x-trained from non 130 mx jobs, but I've found it to be huge advantage as far as being the liason between mx and ops....you know the lingo, next move,what the mx guys are doing....and the big one...its fun!

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I have had the best of times in the engine shop , by far the best is TDY . I have a map with pins in it every place that I have been in the world . And really never had a dull moment.

Panama rotations where the best in my book fishing on the canal , fly into Bogota to Fast Freddy's and pick up coffee and emeralds. Then hopscotch around South America. The best ever R.O.N was St John's NewFoundland loved that place, George Street in August during the Regatta Races was a good time. Loved Germany because I have family there so it was easy to get away from the ratt race at Rhein Main or Ramstein. :cool:

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Rob

Congrats on the job of a lifetime - not many people get the chance to earn a living doing something they love and I absolutely loved my 20 something years as a FE.

I sure you will really enjoy the seat, only job where an E can get away with smacking an O upside the head:D

Dan

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I agree with Dan -- the very best job an "E" can have in the military. I enjoyed it so much that after retiring, I spent another 20 years doing it in the commercial world.

Yer gonna love it! Just one question, though. Did you mean to write "19+ years as an engine mechanic?" That doesn't give you much time to enjoy the job after training, does it?

Don R.

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I agree with Dan -- the very best job an "E" can have in the military. I enjoyed it so much that after retiring, I spent another 20 years doing it in the commercial world.

Yer gonna love it! Just one question, though. Did you mean to write "19+ years as an engine mechanic?" That doesn't give you much time to enjoy the job after training, does it?

Don R.

Yes thats right I'm 19+ year engine guy always been on 130's. At 42 I think if I keep my nose clean I can go until 60 tell they decide to DNF me.

I have worked B,E and H's so I have a pretty good appreciation for them. The J's are nice but I'm a bit old school .

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Rob

Congrats on the job of a lifetime - not many people get the chance to earn a living doing something they love and I absolutely loved my 20 something years as a FE.

I sure you will really enjoy the seat, only job where an E can get away with smacking an O upside the head:D

Dan

Funny you say that my father and I where just having that discussion yesterday. He was an ENG. on 119's 124's and a little time on 130's.

He used to say "touch my throttles and I'll pull you arms out a beat you with them":D

Realistically my current pitfall is the memory dump of quite a bit of math . I have an old AFM 51-9 that I have been studying for awhile now.

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My deceased husband was a FE in the 67th SOS. Last saw combat in the Gulf War. He loved life in the air. Too bad I will never know just what he did on the job, but the main thing is he was truly at home. Would have loved to carry on when he retired, but . . .

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Totally agree with the Flight Engineer sentiments. As a retired New Zealand FE I look back with many great memories of my time in this profession. My military time was spent on Sunderland flying boats and C130H's. My 29 years of airline flying was on Lockheed 188C, DC8, DC10 and the Boeing 747-200/300, a total of 38 years and 21000 hours logged. I look back and wonder where the time has gone so you new guys enjoy your flying time as all too soon it will be over and you will also join the ranks of retired FE's.

Happy and safe flying.

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My deceased husband was a FE in the 67th SOS. Last saw combat in the Gulf War. He loved life in the air. Too bad I will never know just what he did on the job, but the main thing is he was truly at home. Would have loved to carry on when he retired, but . . .

Diane

I am very sorry to hear about your loss, what was your husbands name and when was he with the 67th (or whatever other assignments he had).

The problem with retiring is you lose touch and people you know take the final flight home but you never hear about it.

Thanks

Dan

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  • 2 weeks later...

Congrat's on the FE slot! Now you need to start working on FE to CP (or other crew member lingo) One of the great FE's I flew with (I was LM) had a strong tolerance for flight deck buffoonery - one off station the CP (seemed like once an hour) would ask this FE where the "brick" was. It took a few days before the needle crept into the red - we were taxing back in (YPG/HALO school) when the CP asked the question one last time - I kept my piehole shut while the FE let loose (I'll "sanatize" what he said - you can fill in the blank's: "If it was up your A_ _ kicking footballs you'd know where it was" The following silence from the flight deck was great - I was laughing so damn hard I had to sit down for a sec.

Best of Luck at Ya!

Bert "Rowdy" Piper aka Fleagle

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When I crosstrained to FE I was told its better to fly a different airframe that what you crewed on and I actually found that to be pretty much true (I crewed E3A;s before crosstraining).

The reasons for this is there are frequently different numbers and limits between Mx and Ops, its much easier to learn a completely different set of numbers than trying to convert from one set to another set. System knowledge is another reason and for some of the same rational. Also on the system side is type of training. Unfortunately quite a bit of system knowledge on the Mx side can be faulty as your relying on your "trainers" accuracy of knowledge and on his trainers knowledge and so on, and I have found a lot of system knowledge is just plain wrong. Its not usually the fault of the crew chief but of the system in place to train and evaluate them.

There is a lot of inaccurate knowledge on the ops side as well but the method for training as well as the check rides tend to limit it much more than for Mx. One of the reasons for this is when your in Mx, if your jet is good to go then usually your shuffled off to another jet, for the Ops weenies (FE's especially), if you not flying you are expected to be in the books learning your systems as well as operations restrictions and requirements.

Now don't anybody get their nose tweaked, I am not picking on Mx at all, its just a different focus between the two jobs, as well as different evaluation requirements. FE's, by the nature of the beast are SUPPOSED to be quite knowledgeable and proficient in ALL of the systems, but there are also plenty of FE's out there that (to me), shouldn't be in the job because of their weak knowledge levels.

This is just something that I have noticed over the years teaching the ex Mx types that are coming over to the Ops side, and yes it was always easier to teach someone coming over from another airframe to the Herk than it was to teach a Herk guy Herk stuff.

Dan

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When I crosstrained to FE I was told its better to fly a different airframe that what you crewed on and I actually found that to be pretty much true (I crewed E3A;s before crosstraining).

Dan, I couldn't agree more. My early years were on recips, crewing and FM. I didn't have any of the maintenance info to confuse with the FE info. Made an easier transition for me. I did get into the -2s and Lockheed manuals for more in-depth system info, and made notes in my -1 with pertinent info.

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I'm sure that through training at The Rock the frames are olders , but I'm no stranger to working on them . I started on B's then the unit got E's for a short period of time. 93 we started getting our H3's , most of ours where the last of the H's before Marietta retooled for J's . J's are nice but most of the piolts I talked to from Baltimore said at times they where task overloaded and wished they kept the Eng. on those models. Mixed feelings I guess.

Most of my physical has been accomplished , finish the rest on the 10th of APR.:cool:

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well the Flight Physical went off without a hitch so it's off to AFRC to sit on somebodies desk until signed. Only crap part was they dialated my eyes for which it took until later this morning to return to normal.

Guess I'll crack open a beer and hurry up and wait.:cool:

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