bob130ab

Great to read a post from you. I enjoy Ed's 924th newsletters that you help with keep up the good work. Bob Martin 924th LM

Not NASA's paint color

Yes Bob I made a few X country weekend trips with them. They were with the 705th (A model school). I was with the sister squadron. the 924th we was a TAG. Both Larry and Henry have attended our annual 446 TAW reunion in Houston. But not in the past 5 or so years. Bob M

Hi Bob, Wish I could join you when you visit 0497. This is the ac that my crew stalled over the Gulf in about 1970. It was configured as a Light ship then and reconfigured to a std TAC ac later. One of two, the other 0493. The published stall speed was incorrect due to the additional drag of the external systems.  

I also made a few flights as Loadmaster on 0466 from 1973 - 1976. It was assigned to the 924th TAG (USAFR), Ellington Feld, TX. 

One Friday night back in the late 70's we dropped an US Army reserve Green beret unit over the desert at Ft Bliss. On the next pass we dropped their jeep and other supplies. Prior to the equipment drop me and my second Load removed a case of C ratios for each crew member and stored them in the cargo door. On Sunday morning we picked them up at Biggs Field. Their NCOIC complained about their shortage of rations, I told him that next time he should anticipate how much c ratios the AF crew would steal and pack accordingly. We spent the weekend in El Paso and of course my crew visited Juarez,

I don't know how many C-97s were converted to Guppys. There was a Mini Guppy, Pregnant Guppy, the one in the photo and the newer version that the French Gov bought or modified. The Mini and Pregnant Guppy had recip engines. This was before my time. I have seen photos of the Pregnant Guppy. It was loaded from the rear. The tail was removed and rolled away. It and ours belonged to a private company. NASA would charter them to move oversize space articles. Between the time span of the Apollo and Space Shuttle Programs the company went out of business.

Thanks Larry, I have forwarded the link to some of my 130 buddies. Bob

Yes for me on desent and landing, the pilots didn't control the throttles, the FE did and we didn't use head sets to talk to each other. On approach the pilots would call out power setting to the FE and sometime as we desented to fast they would start calling for more power. The Guppy is a modified C-97 and I understand that many of Boeing's earlier large ac was configued that way. The Supper Guppy's fuselage was 25' in diamerture but we couldn't use all of it as we had to raise the loads to accomodate the conture of the Guppy using the adapters in the photo. we had different hight adapters and sometimes we stacked a couple of the shorter ones. We moved a bunch of A-7, F-14, and sections of the B-1 fuselarge for DOD. After a few mission me and the other two LM normally didn't fly with the Guppy as the preplanning and load preperation proved to be more helpful for us to fly commerical ahead of the Guppy and have the load ready and loading crew organized prior to the Guppy's arrival. Watching the Guppy land and take off looks weird. Because of the airflow under it's large fuselage it would lift off of the ground with the main landing gear first then run on the nose gear for a ways before lifting off and climb the same way. Also it touched down on the nose gear first. This Guppy had the turbo prop engines from the C-133. We used up all available props after operating it for 9 years, it's now at DM. After I retired NASA purchased another Super Guppy from the French Gov that is equipped with engines from a C-130H and is still operating but is about to run out of work due to the Space Shutttle program ending.

124,200, Landing gear restrictions

I can't think with those high numbers, Our C-13O-As were limited to 124,200 lbs gross TO, landing gear restrictions (if my memory is correct). Bob M

I still have my C-130A load adjuster, sometimes I get it out and pretend that I'm computing a dummy load or maybe I'm the dummy. Bob M.

Hi Sam, I have a copy of your book "C-130 Hercules Tactical Airlift Missions 1956-1975" copy wright 1988. Do you have a newer book out? How is it different from this book? Bob Martin

Thanks, I got it.

Hi Bob I didn't receive the Inventory list that you sent. Lets try another e-mail address. [email protected] Thanks Bob Martin

e- mail for bob130ab [email protected] Sent Bob

I would like to have a copy. Thanks Bob Martin bob130ab I need an e mail address to send it to. Bob

I crewed 3134 for 2 & 1/2 years at Ellington AFB, Texas as a LM from April 1972 until Nov 1974.

924th/925th TAG, AF Reserve, Ellington AFB, TX, had 56-519 from the middle of 1970 until sometime after Feb 1972.

Sounds good, but I didn't like seeing the crew in civ clothing.

Correction This C-130 was moved by NASA on its Super Guppy in July 1980, to Hayes Corp. Birmingham, AL for repairs. I was the NASA loadmaster (Cargo Mission Manager, job paid more that of a LM). I was a civil service employee with the Johnson Spce Center which owned and operated the Super Guppy that loaded the AC. At the same time I was an AFR C-130B LM assigned to the 924th TAG, Bergstrom AFB, TX. The Warner Robins Depot built wooden cradles to support the fuselage, the landing gears were removed and the fuselage was cut at FS737 and as much weight was removed as possible to meet our weight restrictions. NASA purchased the Super Guppy to move oversized loads for the Space Shuttle and Space Station programs, We would move oversized loads for DOD, DOD contractors and other goverment agencies to keep the Guppy busy and help pay the bills. I have located the pictures and I'll post them later.

C-119 used Flight Mec

55-0007 was at Ellington AFB, TX with the 924 TAG (AFRES) in the early 70s. I logged 91 hrs on it between Nov 1973 & Aug 1975

Hi Jim Were you in the Reserves at Ellington AFB, TX? Bob Martin

That was 433 TAW aircraft in the picture. This picture has been published several times, in print and on the Internet. Story goes that some heads in Wing Ops got in trouble after someone reviewing the photo determined that they were flying below 500 ft, which was our minimum over populated areas in those days.