jimsmith130

RIP Dan. It was always great and interesting flying with you. I hope they have lots of frosting in Heaven. Jim

Really a neat place to tour. This is a huge building. Back in the corner of the first picture (to the left of the American Flag and behind the blue striped wall) is where the F-22 was built. Jim

I would say the A400M is competing more with the C-17 rather than the C-130. Pictures don't do it justice in terms of size and power. Notice the size of the props (17.5 feet diameter) and engine power (~11,000 SHP) below General characteristics Crew: 3 or 4 (2 pilots, 3rd optional, 1 loadmaster) Capacity: 37,000 kg (82,000 lb) 116 fully equipped troops / paratroops, up to 66 stretchers accompanied by 25 medical personnel Length: 45.1 m (148 ft 0 in) Wingspan: 42.4 m (139 ft 1 in) Height: 14.7 m (48 ft 3 in) Empty weight: 76,500 kg (168,654 lb) Max takeoff weight: 141,000 kg (310,852 lb) Max. landing weight: 122,000 kg (268,963 lb) Total internal fuel: 50,500 kg (111,330 lb) Powerplant: 4 × Europrop TP400-D6 turboprop, 8,250 kW (11,060 hp) each Propellers: 8-bladed, 5.3 m (17 ft 5 in) diameter Cruising speed: 780 km/h (480 mph; 420 kn) (Mach 0.68 - 0.72) Initial cruise altitude: at MTOW: 9,000 m (29,000 ft) Range: 3,298 km (2,049 mi; 1,781 nmi) at max payload (long range cruise speed; reserves as per MIL-C-5011A) Range at 30-tonne payload: 4,540 km (2,450 nmi) Range at 20-tonne payload: 6,390 km (3,450 nmi) Ferry range: 8,710 km (5,412 mi; 4,703 nmi) Service ceiling: 11,300 m (37,073 ft) Tactical takeoff distance: 980 m (3,215 ft) (aircraft weight 100 tonnes, soft field, ISA, sea level) Tactical landing distance: 770 m (2,526 ft) (as above) Turning radius (ground): 28.6 m

The Air Force has done a lot of work on this concept. Who knows if it will ever come to fruition. See the link below. Jim http://mikesnead.net/resources-cat.htm

I believe the APN-241s were first installed on the Louisville H2.5s. That was the primary reason for going to the H2.5 unofficial designation. Jim

It was quite common for us to put #3 "on the cuff" when we landed at a field without support. That way you had one of the main requirements for a buddy start met if you were to lose your GTC or APU. Jim

When I was an IP in the Instructor School (mid-90s), we did windmills all the time. We actually had the upgrading IP do them from the right seat. They're fairly safe if you know what you're doing and everyone understands their duties. The hardest part when doing it from the right seat is knowing when you can safely let the left seater come off nose wheel steering. I had a couple of the upgrade IPs have me come off the nose wheel way too early. The look on their face was priceless when they figured out they did not have control of the aircraft. Needless to say, I had to take over real quick when that happened. -Jim

Smitty you are correct, but they forgot to install the FE on the J. Jim

During Desert Storm we had some missions into a dirt (sand) airfield built by the Marines. The field was pretty much in the middle of the desert very near the Iraqi border. There were a lot of heavy Herks going in and out, so the runways got beat up pretty bad. There were some fairly deep and long ruts created by the heavyweight landings. Slowing down was not a problem at all. The Marines did a pretty good job of keeping the airfield open. They actually built two runways. While one was being dinged up by all the heavyweight landings, they were working on the other runway to smooth and compact it. When it was ready they would switch runways. The biggest problem we had was takeoff. Because we were so near the Iraqi border, we landed to the north and took off to the south. That meant we had to takeoff into the same ruts we created during landing. Once you hit the ruts, the aircraft would jerk pretty good one way or the other as it went in and out of the ruts. Made for some fairly memorable takeoffs. -Jim

What I remember is the H3 initially used the generic 1C-130H-1. H3 crews were screaming because their -1s with all the changes and supplements needed for the H3 required at least 2 large binders. It was late 1995 or 1996 when the 1C-130(K)H-1 was finally released. The first Js had been produced by that time, so the next letter in the C-130 -1 lineage would naturally be K. My guess Jim

I went from MAC to ATC back to MAC to USAFE to AMC to ACC and finally back to AMC, so I saw how many of the different commands operated. Herks are in the right place now. AMC has a much better idea of how to use them operationally. But I think the move to ACC (at least for a few years) is paying off. One of the best things ACC did when they had C-130s was to start the Weapons School. Before then, tactics was how do you draw charts for dropping sandbags on Sicily or All-American DZ or how do you fly #3 in a 6-ship. The Weapons School really got the community thinking about how to fly the aircraft, how to work in the system with all the fighters, UAVs, AWACS, etc, and how to operate safely and efficiently in high threat areas. That has paid off in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another of my observations was the C-130 community (and KC-135 community when they joined AMC) were the real leaders in the command (MAC, AMC). I think it has to do with the varied experiences all Herk crews experience and having to operate as squadrons in some fairly remote areas. It often took all the leadership skill one had to get the job done. I'm not sure that same mentality existed in the C-141 or C-5 community.

Click on the USAF Training.wav link in the oops site.

Great stuff, but there is an outstanding explanation of the C-130 nav system contained in the site as well. http://www.micom.net/oops/USAF%20Training.wav

Reminds me of my days at Pope. The running joke was: Question: What do you call 5 C-130s flying in formation around the Fayetteville/Ft Bragg area? Answer: A Pope 12-ship

One of the problems the A/D has is where do they draw the instructors from for the E/H school house. The only non-J A/D units will be at Little Rock and Yokota (if they don't transition to the J) plus a couple of Active Associate units. They could pull every instructor from those units and still not have enough to fill the school house. So the Guard/Reserve are pretty much forced to do their own training. The only question is where. The Rock just happens to have the ATS and simulator space to support the mission. It's not necessarily the best solution, but really the only choice for the time being.