SEFEGeorge

in regards to old versus new,,,,,,consider this...........ya may not need to be able to build a watch to tell time, but ya sure need to know how to wind it......the ol' Mark 1A brain and a -1, or -9 or whatever will work all the time........My feeling, comin' from my days of bein' a fire service instructor, is this.......Yeah, googlin' and all that can give ya answers, b ut if you have to physically find the information, you remember more of it. and you also pick up other things along the way

Giz

So true Giz.

Almost always set TIT. On Es 932, Hs 970 or was it 1010. Can't remember exactly.

Honestly, I don't think that's a good reason. You (or your CP) should get all the charts required for the flight and PUT them in easy reach of the pilots.

The one thing I prefer paper charts to electronic is the ability to open a big chart up to its full extent and get a good perspective of where things are in relation to each other and how far apart they are. Hard to do on a 10" screen no matter what level you zoom to. And I realize the EFBs will do distance calculations and all that, but it's not the same as having the 'big picture'.

My point? As usual, it's long-winded (because I can type like a girl), but it's simply that for all of their advantages, epubs come with their own limitations, problems, and challenges. Some of the 'excuses' for using them don't wash...and please don't kid yourselves about why the USAF is going this direction; it's money. Just like the airlines - it's cheaper to subscribe to an electronic chart service than to pay for paper delivery. It's not that they're necessarily 'better' or more 'user friendly'. There are some great advantages...but they come at a price. There is no free lunch.

Have to agree with you. Other things to consider - if you drop your iPad it's probably now a paper weight. If you drop your -1 you just pick up the pages and get them back into order.

Another obscure reason, paper makes a pretty good tinder, plastic does not. You know for those times when you need a starter for a campfire.

Agree. Just grab some young airmen 2 stripes and they'll probably just the job as well or better the the O's doing it now and for a lot less. Guess they probably get flight pay and have to go through altitude chamber qual as well. Wonder if the O's have CSAR on speed dial?

At Hickam, we used "canned" Form Fs. The FE's would re-do the Form Fs long hand every so often, I think it was 3 months.

Interesting article. I've got an answer for them. They're no longer "pilots" and play Microsoft Flight Simulator for their job.

http://defensetech.org/2013/01/02/19091/

You definitely need to know how to do it "old school" even if you use electronics to do it normally. You may need to be able to one day - broken device, dead battery, etc.

Don't know about any of you but I much prefer having a book to refer to. Not as easy to search through, but I find it easier to flip back and forth through when needed. Plus it's easier to make notes in the margins. My -1, -1-1, and checklist had many notes, etc., in them. As long as the notes were current, etc., no one ever hand any issues with it, especially in the checklist.

All my blue training certs, etc, were put into a 3 ring binder by my wife at the time. Came across the binder in a box not too long ago. It's a 1.5" binder and it's full. Guess the AF didn't realize how much money they spent sending me to courses, CDC courses, etc. Lot of good it did!!!! A lot of AF paid party time!!!!!! :cool:

So did I, George. It was real handy for airdrop riggin, and once for freein' a fouled paratrooper......Then, I used it to jump the poles on the solenoid on a sweet young thing's Mustang, at Hickam one warm tropical night..... The arc knocked the hell out of the blade, that was the end of that story.....Oh hell, she probably looks like a tater sack full of door knobs now, but back then........................

Giz

I really didn't carry it until my Hickam assignment. Our chutes were in our seats and were part of the preflight inspection - checking inspection date, etc. Then it just became a habit after that assignment.

I had a nice 4" fixed blade knife that I carried in a boot sheath. But lost it when they sent me through arctic survival school in '83 after flying Hercs for 5 years and at Elmendorf for almost a year. Hell it might still be in the woods outside Eilson AFB.

Yeah, if ya have a hammer to drive it through........now the shroud line cutter is wicked sharp!!!!!!!!!!!

Giz

Ah, so true. Flew with the shroud line cutter open in it's little zoom-bag pocket.

Now SEFFEGeorge, you know we did some pretty interesting things in the Herk, including the Catching of Falling Stars. However you are spot on, the dead weight would have been a bit to much.

Best assignment I ever had, except for the 1st shirt, what a "never flown as a crew member" d***head.

I have a card, slightly smaller than a credit card, made of paper, of course, stating I had completed phyisiological training, and therefore was authrorized to care the MC-1 switchblade knife as part of my flight gear.. you know the orange one with the spring loaded knife blade, but the shroud line cutter had to be dug out with an ungloved hand...... HMMMMMMMMMM!!!! I MAY even still have the knife somewhere. I think I have an 8x10 or whatever blue certificate as well, and it is noted in my Form 8 file that I have, noting my re-cert at Langley

Giz

Ahhh, the MC-1 switchblade knife. You might be able to cut butter with it.

Not sure, but did you have a Form 8 type record to record your flight evals or whatever? Can't remember now if that kind of info was kept in the Stan-Eval section.

What type of autopilot system are we dealing with? What is the year model of the aircraft? And is this on the ground or in the air?

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say "in the air."

Back in the day, 1975-76 in the 16th TATS, we did approach to stalls in training but not full on stalls. That was plenty for this FE.

About the only times that I actually had to use the nose hose was when I was stationed at Hickam in the TG. Just about all of us went to Life Support had got a fitted helmet. A lot more comfortable.

There were a few other times I used mine. First was my cherry ride out of the 32nd. We were taking a bird to depot and the nav's radar scope burnt up. We went on O2, I depressurized and then pulled the top hatch. Landed at WR without any further problems.

Another time was coming back from a 10 hour overwater out of LR. The navs were done so we decided to see how high we could get. When cabin altitude started hitting 10k we put on O2 and ended up at 42,500 ft and cabin altitude was, oh, I just can't remember!!!!! :rolleyes:

And now with only 3 crew members, there's plenty of vacancies.

I applied about a year ago. No results yet, but every so often I get a letter saying my application is still under review.

Not long after I first checked out as a FE I had an E-9 tell me that on his first trip into South America at a field that was at 13,000 feet, he puzzled for some time on how to depressurize for landing since the pressure controller, in auto, only had a max 10,000 cabin altitude setting. Guess even chiefs had to start somewhere as an inexperienced FE.

Just finally watched the movie last night. Nice sequence but artistic license! The weight of the plane would have dropped substantially, probably by half, when the wings and tail came off. But still, a lot of weight to be pulling through the air.

Yep, George, I remember when we first started getting the 74 H-models at Dyess. I used to call out the torque on T&G's -- "15, 17, pull 'em back."

Don R.

We use to do "hot-turns"(?) at LRF. Morning crew would stay at acft and the turn FE would "debrief" them on the flight deck. They eliminated pre-flights for the afternoon crew this way. I was the turn FE one day and got the debrief from the AC and FE and they had over-torqued the engines to around 23k (from my memory). Written up on a red /. Not knowing exactly what was required for an over-torque, I upgraded the red diagonal to a red X, and entered my name.

CC was pissed as hell and said I couldn't do that. He called out his line chief who started to bitch at me. I had to stop him and told him that I thought it might a safety of flight issue so I upgraded the symbol for better clarification (and as a CYA thing for me) since I hadn't been given a good explanation of the inspection requirements.

He called the correct people out to explain the requirements, ie, if I remember correctly it could fly a combined to of 50 hours, etc., or something like that before the inspection was required. So they downgraded the red X to a red / and off we went on a 5 hour pilot pro.

Just one of the times I pissed off maintenance and the 16th TATS squadron CC. But I still have some ass left.

The 73-models "H's" were merely the bionic "E-models." I received responsibility for 73-1586 when it arrived from Lockheed. It had 26 hours on it by that time and external tanks in crates in the cargo compartment. I was in awe of the engines as I had only experienced -7s and -9s before that. We quickly made an overwater-nav to Hickam with it and flew the whole trip below crossover in order to make it a 10-hour trip.

My jealousy started when Dyess started getting the 74 models the next year with the APUs and large air conditioning packs.

I thought that the 73's went to LRF at first. They were there when I got to LRF in '75. If so how'd you make a 10-hour overwater to Hickam from LRF? Seems part of the story is missing. Anyway, sure liked flying missions with them, except for maybe the PPs with students in the winter! Ham-fisted students kept you on your toes knowing that any of the 100+ T&Gs might be an over-torque. Well it seemed like 100+ plus anyway.

Interesting George, this is what I was thinking while "launching my aircraft".

After engine start and when the LM entered the aircraft and was closing the crew door part of my checks were to kneel

down below the crew door and check the "jettison rod" to make sure it hadn't moved now that the crew door was closed, I would then scan the belly, both MLG areas to make sure no fluids were leaking out that shouldn't be leaking, go forward check the external power door, kneel down again and look in the Nose Wheel Well for leaks, make sure the FE had removed the NLG pin, go forward to the nose radome and give the ol' gal a couple of pats, and mumble " givem' a safe flight and we'll fix anything "they" break and get you ready for the next mission. Would proceed out to the marshallers area, waiting for the taxi lights.

Those were my thoughts all the years that I crewed!

73, Rex

Sounds like a top-notch CC to me herkfixer.