wysongj

The link to the website doesn\'t work. I\'ll try typing it out.

Dang! Thats all I have to say about that.

C-130 helps damaged British jet land in Iraq Staff report Posted : Monday Dec 15, 2008 17:53:21 EST A deployed C-130 Hercules aircrew is earning praise for guiding a damaged British jet to a safe night landing in Iraq. On the night of Nov. 30, pilot Capt. Daniel Hilferty was flying near the worst storm he had ever seen when his crew heard a distress call from a Royal Air Force Hawker 800 passenger jet. The RAF executive jet had been damaged by the storm and didn’t have a working weather radar or a fully functional yaw dampener to prevent the plane from swinging left and right. The British crew also didn’t know how much damage hail had done to the jet’s fuselage. The C-130 crew, assigned to the 386th Air Expeditionary Wing, used readings from their weather radar to guide the RAF jet around the storm. “It was pretty neat that we were helping them, to be their flying radar in the sky,†said flight engineer Senior Airman Sean Ryan. “Sometimes we could see better than they could, and we would tell them to turn a certain way to avoid this cloud or this part of the storm.†Next, the two crews agreed to a mid-air rendezvous so the C-130 crew could look for damage on the jet using night-vision goggles. “We normally fly no closer than 2,000 feet in the C-130, and we have multiple instruments, including distance and radar-like equipment, to ensure proper clearance,†said Hilferty, a C-130 instructor pilot and the flight’s aircraft commander. “The [british aircraft] possessed none of these luxuries, so we found ourselves flying in an unusually close proximity to a foreign aircraft at night with night-vision goggles.†Flying half a mile to the right and 500 feet above the jet, the C-130 crew used a high-power flashlight to illuminate the RAF jet. “There was a lot of damage,†Ryan said. “You could see where the hail had hit along the nose cone, the tail and the inlets of the engine, and there were dents along every leading edge of the airplane.†Despite the damage, the aircrews concluded the British jet could attempt a landing at Baghdad and the plane touched down safely. The C-130 followed, and the crews got a chance to meet face to face. “They told us until we started [giving them directions], they were sure they were going to die,†said Hilferty. “If you have the chance to help someone, it’s a no-brainer,†the pilot from Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., said. “If you can help in that situation, you do the best you can.†Other members of the C-130 crew included co-pilot Capt. Taylor Johnston, navigator 1st Lt. Ryan Pebler and loadmaster Senior Airman Allen Plack.

Thankfully I only spent one Christmas overseas, but then I was a single man, so it was no big deal. There\'s a lot of folks spending Christmas away from friends and family, and I appreciate their service and sacrifice. Merry Christmas to you all, old and young, home and abroad.

I never liked the way the Bose fit. I wore my D.C.s until I left. Still have them hanging up in the garage.

C-130E crew loses power over Little Rock The Associated Press Posted : Monday Nov 10, 2008 7:26:18 EST JACKSONVILLE, Ark. — On a practice flight, an Arkansas National Guard crew was put to the test when all four engines of its C-130E lost power in the skies over the Little Rock Air Force Base. They remained calm, however, in the seconds-long emergency Sept. 9 and landed safely. As it turned out, a one-in-a-million fluke caused the problem and was fixed with a $2,100 purchase of a new part, Air Force officials say. The so-called four-engine rollback is so rare that crews are not even trained for it. “What makes this exceptional is this is a very (rare) problem we see. There is nothing in the manuals on how to handle it,†said Lt. Col. Dom Sarnataro, safety officer for the guard’s 189th Airlift Wing. “There wasn’t a clear-cut emergency procedure to take care of this. There was no checklist to run through, no manual explaining how to save the day. This is not found in (flight) simulator training.†Sarnataro said the crew members’ experience and the relatively light plane were what worked in their favor. Pilot Maj. Dean Martin, co-pilot Lt. Col. Rich McGough, navigator Lt. Col. Alan King, flight engineer Master Sgt. Doug McGroarty and loadmaster Senior Airman Amber Sowder had started the day preparing for a training mission with a student instructor pilot. But the student pilot did not feel ready to fly so the mission changed to a practice flight. The original plane on the day’s docket also broke down so maintenance crews prepared Tail No. 1788 for the flight. The plane was built in 1963 and was older than most of the crew. Moments after takeoff, the plane was about 1,000 feet in the clouds above the western edge of the base, when each of the four engines lost power. The propellers churned barely enough to keep the empty, 50-ton plane aloft. Even with their experience, the crew members did not know what was causing the problem. “Something was happening that we’d never seen before,†Martin said. The main concern was keeping aloft. McGroarty, the systems expert, started analyzing the symptoms, looking for ways to put power back into the engines. “We had no idea what was going on,†McGroarty said. He shifted to mechanical governing, manually controlling the electrical power to the engines and propeller speed. He turned off the temperature datum system, which controls the amount of fuel to the engines based on the temperature of the engine turbines, and took manual control of the fuel flow. Three of the planes four engines immediately recovered. Martin looped the plane around the field and landed minutes later. Engine experts say McGroarty’s actions bypassing the automated electrical system prevented a full failure of all four engines that was likely seconds away. At 1,000 feet above the ground, the C-130 would have become a glider and the crew would not have time to react. Two days into their investigation, mechanics discovered the cause of the power failure. An electrical contact relay had partially failed, sending bad data to the system that regulates how much fuel the engines need. If all three phases of the relay had failed, indicator lights would blink and the system would have automatically switched to a backup. One bad contact on an otherwise good relay, however, sparked a silent and rapid progression toward disaster. The plane’s temperature datum system automatically cut back fuel to the engines because the bad contact told it the engines were overheating. And it did so without the knowledge or direction of the crew. There were no warning lights or sounds, just a blank radar screen and four underpowered engines. Aircraft electrician Master Sgt. George Durley found the culprit — a three-phase relay that had partially failed. It was built in 2004 so age wasn’t a factor. And for $2,100, the relay was replaced with a new one. “I’m confident that there’s not a problem, but I’m having everyone continue to look at it,†said Gen. Arthur Lichte, commander of the Air Force Air Mobility Command, which oversees all airlift operations and planes. On June 27, a C-130 from Pope Air Force Base, N.C., crash-landed in a field north of Baghdad shortly after takeoff. The crew and passengers survived the landing, but the plane was so damaged that it had to be destroyed in place with explosives later. The investigation into what caused the loss of engine power is still ongoing, but the basic cause was classified as a four-engine rollback. In December 1996, an Air Force Reserve C-130 plunged into the Pacific Ocean, killing all but one crew member. An extensive investigation revealed that a mechanical glitch caused a four-engine rollback. It, too, was believed to be tied to a failure in the electrical system. But that failure caused a total loss of power, while the Arkansas crew only lost partial power. After studying the Sept. 9 event, it was determined by the Air Force that the situation was a singular — and unusual — event. “We immediately published some procedures. We keep watching it every day,†Brig. Gen. Wayne Schatz, commander of the 19th Airlift Wing at Little Rock Air Force Base.

I like it so far. Thanks for everything.

Okay, I\'ve been out of the game for a bit. I live on Scott AFB and I see a few herks come in. The other day I saw a short J model with a green tail stripe, which should be Channel Islands CAANG, but last I saw, they had stretched J models. Anyone know if they got some short Js from Baltimore? Also, who operates J models? The list I have (in my mind) is: Little Rock Channel Islands Rhode Island Baltimore Maryland (BRAC) Keesler Am I missing anyone?

I\'d like a copy too please?

1212 in better days. [img size=1600]http://herkybirds.com/images/fbfiles/images/IMG_6074.JPG

I just looked at my pictures from my last deployment o Bagram in \'07, and I UAE1212 was there. I guess it\'s been there for a while, or they rotate their planes. I remember them needing help fixing some fuel problems, and looking to us for assistance. Of course that was more than a year ago.

You guys should try to come out to Scott AFB for their air show September 20-21.

Sure like to see those photos!

Could be a result of the missing right MLG door. The first picture does look like something ripped through a good bit of it.

Good pictures. Looks like they removed just about everything they could, even the life rafts. Breaks my heart to see one blown apart even one that \"new\". I guess they did what they could. Poor girl.

86 narrows it a bit, might be a St. Joe bird, hope not. All are well, and thats all that matters.

Okay, so I was just wondering how the two stack up. It seems to me that Airbus is getting into the game really late. I am going to do a bit of looking around on the net. Let me know what you all think. Sorry if this is a dead horse.

I wonder where it was from. Anyone know who\'s over there right now?

I\'ll pick it up when the wife gives me my allowance! We got some really good C-130s from you guys, which is not too unexpected. How are the C-5s?

Before my time, but very nice.

I was just curious what happened to all the C-130s that were assigned to Elmendorf AFB when they got C-17s? I would think they would stay with PACAF and go to Yokota, but I\'m not sure. Anyone know? I ended up doing a good bit of work on those bird in Afghanistan in 2005, but didn\'t enjoy it at all. They were pig compared to the ANG Herks. Thanks in advance, Jason

Tail-stripe looks like Mansfield Ohio Air Guard. If so, tail number should/ could be 90-1791 Thru 1798. I know the Ohio Air Guard flew a lot of different airframes before getting -130s, so to me, looks like a heritage paint job. They trace their lineage to the 363rd Fighter Squadron, which flew P-51D mustangs in WWII, with the yellow and red checkered spinners. They also flew B-26s and C-47. They were in the ETO for D-Day, so that explains the invasions strips. As far as the 8 blade props, doubt it, but what do I know, I\'m now a civilian with a beard watching spongebob all day!!!

Maybe we could replace the F-15\'s with Eurofighters, and isn\'t russia building a new transport to go against the C-130? Maybe we could buy some of those to replace our E models and older H models. Shoot, maybe we could even outsource our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan! Sorry for the sarcasm, I think Boeing got a bum deal!

I would also love to see some pictures of them converted, from anyone. On Jetphoto.net I did find a picture of 1307 converted. Looks good, but I would love to see more. [email protected]

Thats good to hear.1308 was always a good girl.