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C130 memories


tlmccaughn
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While stationed at Clark AB, Philippines (Jan '68 - Nov 72) I remember watching a C-130 make an emergency landing. It was a perfect langing with a missing main gear on one side. Runway foamed and everything. Damage from the landing was absolute minimum.

It seems all the major damage was done while the plane was doing touch-and-gos at Cubi Point in Subic Bay. The ends of the runways have seawalls and when the pilot come in low he left a main gear hanging on that seawall.

While getting my flying time in while stationed at Dyess AFB (was on maint. flying status for the autopilot shop) I was on a C-130 flying local touch-and-gos on the rough strip parallel to the main runway.

I was laying on the top bunk in the cockpit where I had an excellant view over the pilot and co-pilot's shoulders.

We were 5-10 feet off the ground when the props were reversed. The planed slammed into the ground and I slammed into the top of the cockpit.

There was much discussion and commotion about that happening.

I was later told that there was a "squat" switch that was suppose to prevent reversing the props while the wheels were off the ground and that it had failed to work.

If that was true that is kind of scarey!

Back then I had heard a story and never knew if it was really true.

As the story goes a C130 had flown a mission for 1st Lady Jackie Kennedy to relocate a rhino for a zoo.

While performing the mission the doppler radar malfunctioned.

When the plane returned to home base after the mission troubleshooting revealved that the problem was with the antenna itself.

For those that don't know (or don't remember) the doppler antenna was in the belly of the plane and covered with a sealed panel with what seems like a zillion screws.

The Nav aids mech would lay on the tarmac and use a speed handle to remove all the screws and then use a screwdriver to gently break the seal.

In this case when that was done the mech was immediately drenched with rhino urine.

Can anyone confirm that story?

While at Clark the autopilot shop was in the flightline side of a C130 hanger. Anyone familiar with C130 hangers know of the huge doors and the roll-up door at the top center to allow for c130's tail. When closing the big doors(manually for our hanger) the tail door needs to be down because the bottom edge has part of the track that guides the big doors and also a stop.

It seems some kid was told to close the big doors without him being properly trained. There was no plane in the hangar and the center door was UP. He pushed the door to close it(to fast) and pushed it off the track. The door fell to the inside of the hanger hitting a contractor in the back. With the loud noise everyone in the hanger and shops ran to lift the door off the man.

He had been split open up his back. The only thing that saved his life was that he was hit by the center of a steel panel as opposed to the edge of a panel where it was bolted to the Ibeam structure. Also there was a rebar handle welded to the door which kept the door from going perfectly flat. I later heard that the guy survived but set some sort of record at the base hospital for the amount of blood they pumped through him.

Also at Clark I use to hate when they would bring in loads of body bags. They would bring them to Clark and the base morturay would prep them for return to the states. I guess in was in '69 when there was such a backlog that they had rorws and rows of refrigerated trailers behind the morturary to store the bodies until they could get to them.

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"While getting my flying time in while stationed at Dyess AFB (was on maint. flying status for the autopilot shop) I was on a C-130 flying local touch-and-gos on the rough strip parallel to the main runway.

I was laying on the top bunk in the cockpit where I had an excellant view over the pilot and co-pilot's shoulders.

We were 5-10 feet off the ground when the props were reversed. The planed slammed into the ground and I slammed into the top of the cockpit.

There was much discussion and commotion about that happening.

I was later told that there was a "squat" switch that was suppose to prevent reversing the props while the wheels were off the ground and that it had failed to work.

If that was true that is kind of scarey!"

The squat switch does not currently (or ever?) have any influence on the props ability to go into reverse in flight. The only thing, under normal circumstances, that prevents the prop from going into reverse in flight is the fear of the pilots and the common sense of the flight engineer.

Ron

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It has been 25 years since I have touched a Herc and may be wrong, but isn't that the "touch down switch" on the nose gear that stops the props from going into reverse until all wheels are down ? I could see that being called a "squat switch". Is that not the same switch that kept us crew chiefs from retracting the landing gear on the ground if the gear handle was moved up by a errant foot when inspecting the interior of your eye lids from the co-pilot seat?

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My mind is churning hard to remember this stuff. But I seem to recall the squat switch is on the main gear, not the nose gear. And I believe that there is a warning in the -1 about reversing props in flight, something about losing control of the aircraft. I can't find any of my training aids, diagrams, etc., on the squat switch, etc. I use to have a lot of them, but only had a few items scanned in.

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I looked through a -1 that I have on my computer. It's a terrible scan but partially readable. Anyway, the squat switch has nothing to do with prop reversing. Landing gear handle lock and a few other items. I must have been thinking about the Convair recips I flew (T-29, C-131). I recall the small T-Handles down the the side of the pedestal that would jump in and out during landing with the pilot didn't quite get in down without bouncing a few times. If the squat switch failed I could reach down and pull them out so we could get into reverse.

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I seem to remember calling the "squat switch" the "touchdown switch" and the only thing I remember for sure about it is that it controlled the anti skid system. But the more I think about it, didn't it also prevent accidental retraction of the landing gear while on the ground? I'll bet that little switch has all kinds of neat things it controlls!!!

Edited by tinwhistle
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I'll help you out.

Touchdown switch - eng ground stop, nacelle preheat, dump mast shutoff valves (63-7764 c/n [cn]3813[/cn] and up), SKE prox warning tone.

Touchdown relay - landing gear control handle lock, wheel brakes (anti-skid), cockpit controls for ramp and cargo door, airdrop release, defensive systems, GCAS.

Aux touchdown relay - GTC control power and door control, DC bus tie control, stall warn horn (deactivated), SCNS interface test inflight, and bottom strobe light.

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It seems that an awful lot of members start their threads with "it's been quite a while, but." I'm part of that group (27+ years since I've been on a military C-130), but as I remember, one of those switches also controlled how many degrees the APU door would open on the ground and inflight.

Don R.

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