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Surf70

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Posts posted by Surf70

  1. I got an interesting e mail today from Paul Zethof today. He just spent a month in Viet Nam.

    Some pics of 56-0532 in the Museum at Khe Sanh. I attached a couple.

    He said he did not see any A's at Tan Son Nhut. Last report I had said 4 were there a few months ago and the most recent Google Earth pic, Nov 2013, shows 4 but they could all be beer cans by now.

    He also made a copy from a Museum of a Herk pic. It appears to show 001 which was 55-0001 still flying in 1979.

    Good stuff

    Thanks a lot Paul.

    Bob

    Bob, I heard after we left in 1975 that there were warehouses full of T-56 engines in sealed containers not to mention Props and other parts. A friend of mine a while back told me that in the late 1990's some folks went over there to buy some of those engines. Apparently the VN stopped flying them they still had a huge collection of parts. I do not know if they were successful in their purchasing. I know Boeing sent a team to TSN to look at the CH-47 that was stored with the Herks and was going to make a bid on it but it was to corroded I was told. Anyways in the picture above the aircraft looks in good shape. I wonder if it was the last one they had flying before they stopped? Do you know when they officially stopped flying the C-130?

  2. I was reading up on Operation Frequent Wind and came across a word or two from the Crew of the C-130E that had been taken out at Tan Son Nhut prior to the evacuation. They had just dropped off a BLU-82 there at the ammo dump before the mortars took their plane out. I wonder how many BLU-82's the NVA ended up with at the end captured?

    Also of note during the USS Mayaguez ordeal shortly after the Fall of Saigon the AF (on request from the on scene Marine Commander) dropped two BLU-82's on the Cambodia division on the Island. This was after President Ford had ordered him to stand down and cease hostilities since the crew had be released from the Mayaguez. The Marine Colonel claimed he never got the word...

  3. The H2s didn't have JATO attachments. We were told by Lockheed the LC-130H models attachment points were put on the wheel well blisters and could not be jettisoned in flight. When the NY ANG took over the Antarctica mission from the Navy they took in some of the Navy LCs.

    The physical mounts were not on the H-2's on the air deflector doors but all the wiring for the bottles was installed. All the way thru to the Flight Deck just no control box or control panel. The wiring is there and the same with the H-3's... Done that way in case you wanted to mount them you just had to install the boxes and the replace the Air Deflector doors.

  4. Good for you. Yes the E&E career field is a good choice in Maintenance. As a former E&E troop later a Flight Engineer you will learn most of all the systems in the C-130 in that career field. You touch everything just about with a wire attached to it or a bleed air line, and also to include Oxygen systems and Air conditioning and pressurization. You will also learn the Engine systems, to include the Propeller systems. You pretty much work on everything even the landing gear. I had no problems when I cross trained into Flight Engineer during the systems portion of the school. I had worked on everything on the Airplane pretty much. If you go in with an attitude to learn you will do great. Great choice...

  5. I bet the AD still has Nav and FE folks in school for the Herk. Sad... It would be a better idea to ask for already trained FE's and Nav's to return to AD until the H's retire. Would save some money and the hassle...

  6. 1297 Copilot

    I have been studying Operation Frequent Wind lately and I enjoyed the telling of your experience. As a FE from that entered the AF in the early 1980's the lessons and experience you guys shared with me on the Herk gave more knowledge than I ever would have received from a book or manual. Personally I want to say thank you. I could have never done what I had done without the knowledge you guys shared on the operation of the C- 130. So from another veteran, thank you Sir...

    I would enjoy hearing more of your take on things about Operation Frequent Wind. I wonder what the traffic was like on the inbound/outbound legs into TSN? Did you see much over Saigon? I bet the radio's were busy. Also did you see any of the SVN Huey's departing and heading out to the carriers?

    Also, were you guys really going to acquire if it was a VNAF C-130? Did you guys really think you could fly that A model? I guess you would have found out... Brave...

  7. I remember back in the Clinton days when they pretty much shut the engine shops down capability wise. We'd just gotten 1055 from Nashville. That airplane sat for a year without engines until we received enough engines to get her back in the air.

    As for the -7 engine on an H2, I imagine it'd work for a one time flight? Whether it violates 20 different regs is another story.

    Yeah all of Nashville engines went bad. Flying around all the time at 1010 TIT will do that, so they found out...

  8. I forgot you guys did not have SKE. I guess they came and modded you guys later.

    I remember that about the Mortar fire. It was mostly Guard and Reserves doing the airlift. I know there were some active units there but mostly Guard and Reserve made up Delta Squadron...

  9. Dave in WV do you remember who were the first to show up at Rhein Mein in 1992? Was it you guys at Charlie West and Nashville?

    Also Spectre623 that was a great story about them hanging a dash 7 on a H it doesn't surprise me. Every prop I got from them leaked like a Sift... From the Dome seal no less...

  10. Read the other day that Nashville is loosing the rest of its airplanes to Elmendorf this summer. What is going to happen to the training program there? Are they going to get more airplanes? H-1's from Dyess maybe?

  11. Well one of the reasons back in the day besides the GATM compliance deal was they wanted all USAF slick C-130's to be common. With the current fiasco, C-130E, C-130H1, C-130H2 (1979-1984), C-130H-2+ (1984-1990, C-130H2.5(1990-1991) and C-130H-3 (1992-1996)... A crew member from an H1 cannot fly a C-130H-3 unless he has training, and vise versa. The main deal for the AMP upgrade was that all C-130's would be common with parts, maintenance, and Air Crew qualification. At the start of the Upgrade back in the late 1990's the AMP was just suppose to bring all of the Herks up to the 1996 model C-130H-3 level. And I wish that would have happened... All they had to do is keep the H-3 line going at Lockgreed and everything would have been ok... :)

  12. Also, I heard when a unit is down for AMP upgrade, it will take almost a year for them to be up and ready again. Training per crew member is suppose to take 180 days at Little Rock, and then up to 180 days Mission Qual at the home unit, before the crew member is considered "Mission Ready".... New Dash One plus others... Alot of training. One unit at a time will be taken down to perform Mod and aircrew training... Rumors I heard...

  13. I too keep hearing the cancelation rumors about the C-130 AMP program, and most of them are coming from Nav's... It is going to happen, eventually there will just be the C-130X and the C-130J flying in the US inventory. And eventually you will see those 8 bladed props and upgraded valve housings on them too. I was told with the AMP + the Eight Bladed Props it will become the C-130Y and will be the last design of the C-130.

    All the Nay sayers started the cancelation rumors about the J too... Get used to it. If you are a Nav, cross train, command, or count your blessing you are still flying... AMP is going to happened. I will miss the full crew compliment, and I believe they should have left everyone on the airframe, to include the J.

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