Spectre623

I think you are right Tinwhistle about the cross hairs not being plumb. It looks to me like a standard ABCCC bird as you can see the 2 air conditioner intakes on either side of the forward fuselage and the 2 pitot tubes on the wing leading edges. I think all the Herks had this anti fatigue thing installed, called an auto pilot. Bill :)

John, only enlisted people are crew chiefs in the USAF. If your brother was a 2nd Lt. he was not an aircraft crew chief. If he ever cleaned up puke off of a C-130 it was either his own or he was a hands on helpful type of maint. officer, which would make him exceptional. We thank him for his service! Bill

Johnvan sounds like your brother was a maint. officer. At that time he could have been a job control OIC ( officer in charge) or assigned to an OMS, FMS or AMS maint. squadron as a maint. officer. And yes he would be in a Squadron which is under a Group and they would be under a Wing and they would be under a numbered Air Force and they would be under a major command, at that time at Forbes he would have been in the Tactical Air Command. If you could find any of his old AF paperwork that might tell you which unit he was in. Hope this helps. Bill

Welcome to the site MillyD. As a crew chief type my best advice on tough write-ups is to have a full formal debrief with at least one pilot, FE, nav and loadmaster. We also had a specialist from each shop present to quiz the crew. We went from a C/C debrief on the plane to a formal debrief and this cured a lot of our info problems. You also need a thick skin on this board, ha ha. Bill

We pulled the nose booms off but not the rest of the system on our birds at Hill AFB in 1971. Sure made the flt. deck quieter. Bill

Thanks Railrunner130. Do you know if it was still with the Cal. Air Guard or was it attached to the Rock when this happened? I guess it is beer cans by now. Bill

Just found a pic of my old bird I crewed , 851 (PB) at Pope during 1968-69. Does anyone know how it got it's nose smashed? Gallery pic # cn 3815J. Looks like it was attached to the Cal. Guard. Neat to see they used it as a MAFF bird. Thanks Casey and Bob...and all you fellow members who sent the pics in. Best collection I've ever seen. Bill

Thank you GMAC. All I can say is live and learn. I stand corrected. Wonder what else I learned at Lockheed that wasn't true, ha ha. Good thing I was there only 2 years...they could have scarred me for life ha ha. Bill :)

GMAC, one more question and I'm off this thread...why were there 2 different dash numbers on the pad? There was one for the military Herks with the piss tubes that dumped overboard and a different one for the L-100's which used piss cans. I was told by the folks that trained me at Lockheed it was a sacrificial anode and that is why it corrodes so easily. So, from your knowledge base what was the pad for? And what did you ever use it for? In over 30 years on the Herk I have never seen this pad used nor have used it for anything. Bill P.S. I love a good discussion like this about old HERK !!!

Scott, the aft fuselage support shown in the earlier post goes under the "Tail Skid" not on the anti-corrosion anode i.e." ramp closure pad". I installed that part on the Herk in the mid 80's at Lockheed. It is only screwed to thin sheet metal formers on top of the "belly band". It ain't a load bearing point. The tail skid is. The milk stool some folks mixed it up with, went under the aft end of the ramp while loading from a K Loader or fork lift. Bill :)

The round anode is NOT a hard point! It is an anti-corrosion device similar to those used on a ship to help ward off corrosion to the hull. This is not a load bearing point. Bill

I hope your Herk is not still sitting in the hanger while you are trying to figure out how to tow it from this web site. Gee, as a last resort have two guys drag the chocks while you move it out of the hanger then start the APU / GTC. That is standard procedure for moving it with no brake pressure. Bill :)

If this is a standard Lox tank used to service military aircraft, it can be carried full in a C-130 if it is connected to the overboard vent aft of the left wheel well and someone is monitoring the LOX cart pressure. No big deal , have done it many times. Even carried 2 carts vented in to one vent line. It is all permitted. Bill

Got the book and burned thru it in little over an hour as it is only 100 pages long . Fer sure a real crew chief wrote it. I had to keep looking at the name of the author to make sure it wasn't me that had written it. It was a near copy of my first 4 years at Sewart AFB Tn...the tech school on B-47's at Amarillo AFB Tx, (within 3 months of my enlistment) the class pic on the wing then going straight to C-130's. Also the 60 day rotations to the Philippines, him Mactan, me to Clark. Breaking down in Bangkok for an extended stay,him with an engine change, same here plus a prop change...how convenient. He even told about the misery of changing dozens of MLG tires with all the thousands of steel wires sticking out of the tread, with your bare hands (ice tires...in Vietnam, go figure) All in all a neat little book and to the outside world a good thumbnail sketch of what a C-130 crew chief did in the early days of the then, fairly new Herk. I give it a thumbs up. Bill :)

Never seen that config on ext. fuel tanks on8554. I zoomed in on those outboard tanks and they look like fuel tanks not IFR pods or ECM pods. They look a little smaller than 1360 gal. like the inboards. Wonder where they would go needing that much fuel? Bill

Right migraywolf, old Herk sure put a bunch of beans on my table!!!. Love it! Bill

I just ordered it to see if a real C-130 crew chief wrote it. Ha ha. Bill

Frank is 100% correct. If I hadn't had my travel vouchers from Nam to prove BOG I wouldn't have my "OFFICIAL VIET NAM VET" ribbon and updated DD214. I pray I don't ever have to file a claim on it...but it is there. Bill :)

Sonny. I sorta think the belt guys are safety inspectors as they have no chute on and have the nice shiny belts. Just a guess. Bill

The gland nut holds (keeps)the piston in a hyd. cylinder or in this case the lower part of the MLG strut which is the piston, in the cylinder which is the upper half of the strut. The gland nut is a threaded ring which screws into the bottom of the strut barrel (cylinder). If the nut comes unscrewed the lower half of the strut which has the axle and tire on it falls out. The gland nut has safety wire to keep it from unscrewing...which it did anyway for some reason. Bill - Note: After I enlarged the pic of the one posted here, it is clear the gland nut and all the packing is still on the piston part of the strut. It should be fairly easy to determine what went wrong as all the pieces are there.

If the bad guys had eardrums, any dinking with the pressure, flux or depressurize ,would tip them off somebody was playing games. I suggest dumping fuel. Pull the T handle and deploy a life raft (hoping it won't hang on the horz. or vertical stab). That would tell the F-16 guys they were in distress or stupid. Ha Ha Bill

Good one Bob. Bill:-)

Bob, you and Casey would make a great team to take on the task. You two have a wealth of knowledge about Herk tails. Bill :)

Hey Dave , I think the people told you wrong. I helped build the first 4 LC-130H models the NY Air guard got and they have the macdaddy JATO mounts on the air deflector doors. Check out the first H they got in the gallery. It is Lockheed sn. 5007. 3 very clear pics and one with the bottles attached. And for the best action photo see sn. 5016e in the gallery! Bill

Jbob, using the same high tech system as mentioned above, the answer is "No" the USMC J models do not have JATO mounts. I guess the J's with the big motors and new fangled props are all the power the Marines need. I can believe it as I saw a Lockheed Flight demo in England several years ago and it put to rest ANY doubt in my mind that the J needed any more power. I could not believe the stunts they made that Herk do and not fall out of the sky. Bill