SEFEGeorge

Transient Alert!!!!! It's an airline bird anyway.

Reminds me of the B.B. King joke.....

Pretty impressive Herc resume. But of all that experience, how much of it was passed on to other less experienced FE's. I'm not slamming your career at all, just asking. About 1/2 of my time was spent flying the line with the 32nd and the 17th. Spent some time with the 6594th. But a fair amount of my time was with the 16th, trying to pass on experience, knowledge, and the way to do the job safely and with professionalism. When I was a SEFE I flew the line as much as the other FEs in the 17th, and didn't sit on my a** thinking up chicken-shi* questions. The big difference was that when the FEs weren't flying they were off fishing, hunting, etc. While I was in the office doing the 8-5. There was a FE at LRF getting checkride was dark, early morning. Got to the bird, jumped out of the crew bus, plugged the ext power in and started it. Was Q-3'd on the spot. You might have a problem with this, hope not. There was a time I laid in the snow on a cold day at Ft. Wainwright, repairing a boken anti-skid wire so we'd have anti-skid for take-off and landing at EDF. System knowledge. Had an engine that would turn but not start at Ketchikan. Cool, rainy day in Feb. Stood on a ladder jumping the speed switch. Still didn't work. On the ladder again and found that the geneva lock wouldn't open. When I called ALCC I knew what to tell them and to make sure that they sent the special wrench that was used to change it. System knowledge. Neither one could be "fixed" in flight but with no maintenance people on the ground I became the maintenance guy. As for the "Minutae, chicken-shi* questions. They do serve a purpose. mostly to lighten the "mood" on the student/examinee.

I always preferred my helmet/mask combo. Protect my noggin.... EEBD... Sounds like something you use when trying to get out of a sunken sub.

Interesting. Once had a FE who started out as a scanner at LRF. He accumulated a lot of hours that way on many, many overwater trainers doing eye light-leak checks. When he became a FE he would "brag" about his 5,000 hours in the Herk. Only around 1,500 was as a FE. So I asked him when he got his annual did he want to be evaluated as a 1,500 hour FE or as a 5,000 hour FE? He thought about for a minute and decided that a 1,500 hour FE was what he was. Never heard a peep about 5,000 hours again. The SEFEs i've known wouldn't Q-3 you for comments like that, but they sure would make the appropriate comments on the Form 8. Some even to the point of a Q-2. A FE's job all boils down to system knowledge, professionalism, and credibility. My 2 cents.

I was at CRB, 70-71, working Bou's. We had a PSP ramp. We use to swap extra mattresses with the 22nd for steaks. Always made for such a nice BBQ. I was there when the Tri-Service depot was blown up. Man, that had the barracks shaking and rocking since we just lived on the other side on the hill from it. Not much sleep that night.

Pretty nice. But can you pressurize with them? It doesn't look like you can. All you need is a .50 cal and a hole saw to play side gunner - "bandits 9 o'clock high."

7872 in her better days. http://herkybirds.com/gallery/showimage.php?i=9891&c=287&userid=84

[ATTACH]1192[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]1191[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH]1190[/ATTACH]

Dan must be one of the "Men Who Stare at Goats."

From the peanut gallery and an old CRS FE.... What about the acceleration bleed valves not closing? The 94% switch was mentioned earlier but no mention of them being checked.

Well I'd sure buy a few, but not with Talon nose. Many of us never flew SOC and served their years in MAC and TAC. So the standard nose for me.

F-5s out of VN sure brought back some memories. Back in '72 while I was stationed at Kelly as part of a RAM team. We were called out in the middle of the night and loaded onto a C-5. Stopped at Charleston, Spain, and then Iran. We were assigned to tear down and crate up the Shaw's F-5As and ship them to VN. The Shaw was getting F-5E's to replace them, courtesy of the USA. Spent 9 days there, restricted to base, working 12 hour shifts, to complete the job. We came home and someone else put back them back together in VN.

RZ, when I first started flying at LRF in 1975 we had a spread of year models from 62E's to 73H's. There's some substantial differences between them. I think that it added to the crews awareness, knowledge, and experience.

What what I can remember from long ago times past, the passing light was used when approaching other aircraft for better location of the aircraft. Have to remember back in the day of not as good traffic control, radar, etc. Of course creeping up behind a bug smasher and hitting the switch might cause them to emit a foul odor and a brown stain in their seat, and UFO calls to ATC...... :eek:

0500 was at EDF when I got there in '82. The only 64 model, the other 10 were 63 Es. It was re-assigned not all that long after I got to EDF. Got some hours on her. We heard that she had be modded and was flying in Central America doing some, uh, covert stuff, but that was '83 or so.

Looks to me like the ole Herk is going to loose her "gonads"..... Might as well paint her up in an airline paint scheme and be done with it.....:mad:

Not sure of the history of the 616th group but it was the group that the 17th at EDF flew under.

Hmmmmm....... :D

When I did Arctic survival school, we had a female instructor-in-training. Must have been miserable for her to be in the woods all week with us and not going to the bathroom once. Well she probably did but wonder if her butt got frost-bit! Some of the guys had problems, "willie" sure didn't want to come out of his hiding place.... Who could blame "him." It was -30F the whole week.

have to forgive and old man with failing memory but i've been meaning to ask about the horizontal protrusions on the vertical stab. Are those different VOR antennas since I can't make out the "old" flush mount VORs where they were in my time. From the looks of it, so many antennas have changed. The VOR, HF, UHF, VHF, FM, ADF, etc. I have a pic shot from above of a bird that has 4 antennas just aft of the center escape hatch. Got it from the gallery. It might be 84404 but I can't be sure. Plus a string of antennas aft of the SKE radome.

Well Dan. I haven't flown a refuel mission since 1978, and I scored a 71. The A/R questions hosed me.

I had water survival at Homestead in May '77. Basic at Spokane in May '82. Arctic in Feb '83. Now that one was pretty miserable. Feb in the woods in Fairbanks, AK. Pretty damn cold for a week, -30.