Jake

An interesting note to the Refuel switch connecting the K11. All of Southern Air's L382's had the capability. On Aircraft 919SJ (4147) for some reason the switch for the light in the refueling panel had been modified so it would tie the K11 rather than the refuel switch

Get your FCF checklist out if you are dealing with the USAF. There is a procedure for downspeeding and shutting down the utility sytem seperately to determine if the problem is rigging. There is more to it but the FCF checklist will help troubleshooting

I think the 2 closest full power on stalls I know about are the dyess bird that went down at Pope in '88 (I think) when the parachute for the heavy came out the crew was at full power and essentially they flew it to the groound (where they pancaked). For the stall they were not able to produce enough thrust to get speed but they had enough to not plummet to earth. The other was the power on stall in afghanistan with the MC that went into the hill. Even in in that extreme pullup they lost speed but had enough lift to break their fall - so-to-speak. While a power on stall is a horrible thing to speak of - the Herk is the plane to be in. BTW all the charts for power on stall are estimated.....

Potentially - the rest of your life While it has never happened in a herk (aside from the Dyess plane that was able to restart) You could probably get an hour out of a good battery. a little more if you don't use instruments or talk in the headset. But Without electrical power all your Karma is gone - Land Now!

I heard, but never cared to look into it deeper, that the difference had to do with two different factors: the slower lights had a plastic gear on the motor which, if activated while the aircraft was going faster than 170 could jam or break, therefore it was not so much that the lights couldn't take the high speed, rather it was the gear on the motor and the speed. As long as you didn't try to retract them or extend them you would supposedly not have a problem. Having said that, 10,000 hours on herks (a lot of B and E time) and I never had a landing light break. When I flew 141's they were 250 always

Just supporting Mikes response. If this is a rebuilt engine then bumping the starter will not help. you simply have to wait about 15 minutes (as Mike stated) until the compressor cools and the blades cool which will reduce the clearance and allow the compressor to rotate. Once you get the airplane on the ground there was (about 5 years ago) a Maintenance procedure for breaking in the engine which amounted to starting and shutiing down the engine multiple times

Just supporting Mikes response. If this is a rebuilt engine then bumping the starter will not help. you simply have to wait about 15 minutes (as Mike stated) until the compressor cools and the blades cool which will reduce the clearance and allow the compressor to rotate. Once you get the airplan on the ground their was (about 5 years ago) a Maintenance procedure for breaking in the engine which amounted to starting and shutiing down the engine multiple times

Don, I can't remember my call sign yesterday obviously you retained more brain cells. While I don't remember the call sign - I never did Rhein Main rotes and I don't remember the "ask" call sign so "old" must have been the bravo call sign from Mildenhall

I suspect that Dobbins will have a ton of things if you can find someone there - Bill Estes can maybe point you in a direction

Was that in the early 90's? I remember the loadmasters and the JAI being downgraded for missing the chute attachement rigging. It managed to put a hole in the assault zone which made the engineers happy. but the happiness ended when they reopened the assualt strip less than 24 hours later

If you are sending engine troops then it probably doesn't matter which box you send them too as all the AF simulators can replicate the -7 or -15 numbers as can the folks in Tampa. That said, Dyess, Dobbins, and Minnesota are traditional -15 bases Little Rock, McChord, and Pope (I think the Sim is still there??) are traditional -7 bases. Tampa is expensive but worth it. If you are in touch with the folks at Little Rock - they can give you the numbers to the other boxes Good Luck

years ago there was an airplane at the depot that had a similar problem but it wasn't noticeable immediately after takeoff. sometimes it would yaw/roll after just a few minutes and other times it would take upwards of a half an hour. turns out the pipe that is installed to allow easy transfer of fuel from the outboard section of the outboard tank to the inboard section of the outboard tank (I think it was #4) was installed backward. Fuel was transferring to the outboard section of #4 but could not easily return to the inboard section. The fuel quantity was always balanced and we never let the fuel get low enough to starve the engine. I think it took 6 or 7 months to find it. Millions were spent on laser sighting the prop balance and replacing everything known to man before they pulled the tank covers and located the problem. If anything, this goes to show that even the remotest of possibilities needs to be looked at.

Bob, In the later model H's and all the L-382's when you turn on the dump pumps you charge the dump manifold but as long as you leave the X-valves closed fuel stays in the manifold. The next step is to open an external tank x-feed valve which would allow the fuel to charge the x-feed manifold as well. you also had to ensure the fuel was reaching the pressure gauge which might require you to open the center seperation valve. Once the needle started dancing, you went back to tank-to-engine. you had to really pay attention as you didn't want to cause a fuel imbalance - or worse, starving an engine. If I recall correctly there is a procedure in the later H model manuals which explains this as a "loss of main tank fuel boost pump procedure" but it isn't taught as a standpipe procedure....and yes all our memories are that bad I think the herks caused it.

Bob, The system is the same as H models witrh switch controlled X-valves. The difference is that U.S. military crews are not taught to standpie while Southern Air crews used it quite often to verify fuel quantity. What it amounts to is not an actual standpipe but the location of the dump pump being located above the fuel outboards woulds leave 2100 pounds and inboards would leave 1800. Designed that way so you won't dump all the fuel. If you used the dump pumps to feed the engines you would wait for the pressure gauge to start dancing which indicated cavitation and you knew that no matter what the fuel tank indicator said, you actually had the amount of fuel indicated as the standpipe fuel. Flying for the military, 95% of the time you had enough Mom and kids fuel to never concern yoursel with standpipe.

I think if you look at the experienced engineers they will tell you the same thing - no. This has nothing to do with the branch of service or commercial you fly for. it has to do with not being bullet proof. When I was a young F.E. I would do stuff and think I got away with things. There are too many graves filled and too many careers lost to making .....youthful decisions. Unless you have a better reason for ignoring the book (you had a good chance of dying anyway) let MX have it right where it is.

I got mine at Yokota command post - It is a large leather zipperred holder about 4" by 8" with two end holders for various paper notes and a middle section with binder rings (very small) for note paper and flight log pages. It has dividers and several different conversion sheets.

BBSOTO were you there with George Rogers? I went to VRC-50 at Cubi and was engine run and taxi qualified as well - in fact the rule for the Navy was if a crew taxied the plane then both pilots had to occupy the pilot and co-pilot seat, but if an engineer taxied only the pilot seat had to be occupied. I remeber landing at atsugi and downloading in the hot area and after we downloaded we had to reconfigure for some pax so the pilot had me taxi to the terminal while the pilots and RO helped the load put up seats

Zaherk - I think you are referring to the Beta lights

The condition lever mechanically shuts of fuel at the Geneva Lock (actually below it, inside the fuel control) the "T" handle electrically activates the Geneva Lock which closes the same valve. The "T" handle also closes the firewall fuel shutoff valve. The Normal in-flight condition would be the Cruise Engine Shutdown which uses the condition lever.

A few recollections about the Dipstick. It was built for JP-4 and no foam in the tanks. I never heard of a different calibration so I don't think any different dipsticks were ever created. Essentially anyone using JP-4 without foam in their tanks can rely on the actual numbers on the stick the rest of us (OK not me anymore) have to rely on 1. the level on the stick (which is why any long pole will do - but I prefer one I can knife a line/notch if the sun is in a bad position) and 2. the tilt of the aircraft. I used to have an ADI chart which showed the amount to increase or decrease your estimate on based on how much the aircraft was leaning and which tank you were dipping. I got it while I was with Southern Air but if remember correctly it was copied not produced by Southern. It would take a few hours of digging (and at least a six-pack) but if someone is desperate for it and no one else has a copy I could be persuaded to sacrifice for the team and try to find it

I don't have all the details but Wayne Passed away Friday in a single car accident. He was an F.E. in the 774th and transferred to the 773rd in 1986. That is where I met him. he flew hercs at little rock after Desert Storm and retired in the mid-90's. He was a great engineer and friend http://www.webfh.com/fh/obituaries/obituary.cfm?o_id=258400&fh_id=10484

Interesting bit of nostalgia, I have flown that series of C-130 and never noticed that placard/sticker. The answer may have a commercial herk connection. All Commercial herks have several additional items which separate them from their military (non-certificated) brethren. One of those items is the selector switch on the refueling panel. On commercial herks the master switch is also the MAIN AC bus tie switch. There was one C-130 (N919SJ) ex-SAT bird where the light switch itself was the bus tie switch. I don't recall that there was any placard on these airplanes. I think we all just knew that.

I believe there are only two times while flying that you may see the RPM go below 98% where it is not some type of malfunction. These are from practical experience 1. During landing (100% Flaps) when the throttles are at Idle and the pilot floats it below landing speed, the prop has no ability to reduce blade angle and the airflow slows which can result in the RPM reducing below normal limits (still technically "in-flight") 2. during Stall maneuvers. during an FCF the FE watches the RPM gauges specifically because the RPM can decay before stall speed is reached. In this case the stall recovery commences based on RPM rather than airspeed. (only saw this during 100% flap stalls). Both of these situations are essentially the same. The first situation was not uncommon at the schoolhouse (16th)