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Passenger boarding


throttle1234
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Hi guys, need to know that whats the procedure invogue for passenger boarding and disembarkation in different Airforces around the world. Pricisely, I want to ask about the use of Left or Right PT door. which one is preferred and why. Keep in view power cart, other maintenance guys seeing off the herk, and crew using crew door, all this is happening on the lefrt. so is it not preferable to use the RT PT door !

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I can only remember loadin' pax through the paratroop door a couple times,and they were in Vietnam. Just shoved the little buggers up into the bird. Had a pallet on the ramp once, can't remember why the second time. They were all civilians ( weren't they all) and mostly kids and women. remember heavin' one, a nun of all things, up and she had somethin' sharp stickin' out of a bag she had on her back, got me int he palm of the hand, through my glove, figgered I'd come down with something, reckon I didn't!!!!!! Back to question, in my experience, by and large,most of the pax loading was through the crew entrance door or the ramp.......I bet some of you other guys have different versions. Hope this help.

Giz

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If it was just a few we loaded from the Crew Entrance Door for gaggles the ramp. Don't ever recall loading from the Paratroop Doors. Once in Nam we loaded V-Nav troops all the way up to FS 245 then closed the ramp and door they scurried up into the smallest of places and we loaded the rest in the crew door. Everyone was bellybutton to asshole and we must have had 6 on the top & bottom bunks and still had 20 standing on the flt deck. When we offloaded in DaNang a freedom bird crew said it looked like the circus clowns unloading from a VW bug -- they just kept getting out and out and out :) We estimated we must have had 300 on board. But when the bad guys overran the place there were no good guys left to get hurt or dead!

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Actually, if I remember right, it was verboten to load through the paratroop doors (pax that is) since there weren't any of the troop door ladders available.

The only Herks I remember ever seeing the paratroop door ladders still existing on were the ABCCC since the butt enders surely couldn't be required to climb into the plane - how uncouth LOL

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All of our E's in the 346th had the paratroop door ladders on board....don't think that I ever used them, tho...In Country we loaded pax thru the ramp unless there were just a few and then we would "escort" them in/out the crew door... I remember on scheduled Pax runs picking up G I's at forward bases that were going back to the world (we only took em as far as CRB, TSN or Danang, of course...) would load them thru the ramp and then put their luggage pallet up on the ramp and I can remember the guys lookin at me while CRANKED the tie down straps squishing all of their Brandee New Samsonite Suit Cases all out of shape! NOBODY had the Samsonite luggage goin in country, But, they all seemed to have a set goin out back to the World. I always wondered who was sellin that Samsonite hard case luggage over their in the Jungle? Probably LBJ or Lady Bird...

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As for a very large number of pax, during the first gulf war we would take Army troops in the aircraft, six abreast and the column would march to 245 and stop on the ramp. There was so many that they had to sit down in formation, there was no room for individual movement of any kind for these kids. Packed in like sardines for sure, I have often wondered just how many we had on board, more than allowable that is for sure. This was during the shuttles moving the legs from Fahd to Rafah.

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If I can figure out how to upload a picture the attached picture is the "Big Red One" we loaded at Nha Trang. We loaded one of those columns per aircraft, through the ramp. All thier gear was strapped to the ramp. Did the same for all passengers. Never invited anyone through the crew door. Don't recall ever loading passengers through the paratroop doors. I do remember one load master throwing a couple "natives" out from the paratroop door.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I don't recall ever loading PAX through the troop doors. Typically it was the crew door if we had a few, the ramp of there were a lot or they had large loads.

Actually, on the scheduled passenger runs passengers were loaded through the troop doors, the left one as I recall. Pax service had special steps that matched with the door. We couldn't load through the ramp because it had a baggage pallet on it.

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Actually, if I remember right, it was verboten to load through the paratroop doors (pax that is) since there weren't any of the troop door ladders available.

The only Herks I remember ever seeing the paratroop door ladders still existing on were the ABCCC since the butt enders surely couldn't be required to climb into the plane - how uncouth LOL

I never saw a C-130 that didn't have the ladders. They were kept in the cargo door. We did use them at first on scheduled passenger flights but somebody in 315th or 834th decided to build wooden steps. I flew Es TDY to PACAF from Pope, As out of Naha and Bs out of Clark.
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I'm with Bob. As Sam said above they were stowed in the ramp door and on my acft. they were like new. My recollection is that small numbers (eight/ten) of pax. would be loaded thru the crew door. If engines were running the LM would position himself abeam the radome and forward of number one engine. He would put tension on the intercom cord holding it about belt high. On the other hand, large numbers of pax were loaded via the ramp. None of my experience was in SEA.

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On my first rote with the 32 back in '75, we had a FE from the 62nd that went with us. Don't remember his name, but seem to remember he was a hard drinking, speak your mind kind of guy. Got a story from the LM that flew with him. They were loading pax through the crew door and the FE was sitting on the flight deck steps, monitoring the pax as they went in, and reminding them not to hit their heads. Well, a wife and AF husband were coming in and she banged her head right after he had told them to watch out. Without thinking he just said "stupid bitch". Luckily the husband wasn't too taken aback since he just shook his head. Maybe the enlisted husband thought the FE was an officer. Who knows. Same FE got kicked out of the NCO club at Moldy Hole and to spend his drinking time at the bowling alley.

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When we flew the Korean shuttle or the Klong Hopper shuttle we almost always used the left troop door to load and unload pax. I don't remember ever letting pax in the crew door, I think we wanted to keep them as far to the rear as we could. I remember a Korean Loadmaster getting pretty brutal with a Viet woman who would not take "no more people, we full" to mean she was not getting on the plane, his boot finally convinces her.

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Picture was taken sometime in 1965. 776th out of Pope. We were TDY to MacTan. Awhile back I posted a question concerning a picture I posted. One of the correct answers would have been; No camo paint. I was assistant crew chief on the 3rd Pope plane to touch down at Mactan in 1965 and immediately we started to fly TDY in country. I never did see those wonderful beaches that were suposed to be at MacTan. Something like 100 days later, rotated back to Pope then almost immediately TDY to Okinawa, and the same thing, rotated in and out of Vietnam and Thialand. Rumors started flying around about a permenant move to "Formosa" and I begged to be sent back to Pope so I could be assigned to the Tiawan tour. I did actually did have to beg to be assigned to the bunch going to what turned out to be CCK. Keep in mind that all these planes were brand new 1963 and 1964 models. I rotated back to the States in January of 1967 and the planes were still silver at that time, and if I remember correctly they still had the TAC emblem on the tail. In fact we used to talk about how ugly those camo painted 130s were that we would see on occasion. A couple of years ago I aquired the micro film of the maint. records of the 776 and 50th and cannot believe how many hours we put on those planes with no support. No parts,no nuthin, just our tool box. Now look what you guys got me started on!!!!! chris

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