SEFEGeorge

Came across a couple pics I took while in the 17th TAS. Approach and departure ends... Over the ridge and rapid descent to land, missing a ditch at the approach end. Supposidly if you lose an engine on take-off you can use the valleys as an escape route.

If the HC-130N Herc was from the 76 time frame then it was taken when I came up from LRF, with the 32nd TAS, and flew Jack Frost., later called Brim Frost. Thanks for the info.

A few pics from various places that I scanned. 1. 6594th Test Group B Models, circa 1977. 2. Not sure where I got this one. 3. LRF 4. EDF, maybe a 71st rescue birg from the 80's. 5. Not sure where I got this one. Maybe Adak, Cherry Point, just not sure where.

The rest of them.

While going through some pics I found a series of pics of 17TAS 7779 at rodeo, circa 1984.

Been way too many years, so i'm trying to clear the spider webs. When I did my pre-flight the 3 things that I did was set the altimeters to 29.92, the rotary selector switch to HDG, and the selector switch to the up (Normal) position (if it's the right switch). Maybe I'm not remembering correctly but it's the 2 position switch (vertical up/down) on the right side of the pilots instrument panel. The heading mode put the BDHI into, simply, a directional gyro mode. Did this to cross-check the pilot's and co-pilot's indicators. Same for the altimeters, 29.92 showed me the pressure altitude and I compared the 2. I haven't done a preflight in 25 years sooooo..... :confused:

At Hickam the FE section did all the W&B in moments for the birds and kept a "canned" copy of it in the FE section. We had to redo them like every 3 months or so. Since the birds weight and CG never changed for our typical missions, or at least very little. Maybe an extra body or so.

The 73 models (1500 series) at the Rock did not have regulated engine bleed air valves. They had the "standard" E model bleed air system.

I spent a number of evenings at CRB, well a year's worth. But on the other side of the base on the Boo's.

I believe that there are a couple images in the Gallery of catches. The one of B model 10962 looks pretty good, and the older one of B model 70527. Also, able to get squadron patches as well. I've got the 32nd TAS, 16 TATS, and 17th TAS for E's and H's, and of course the 6594 TG.

Some of use didn't get to fly the MC's, etc. I've got a lot of time on Str8 E's and H's between LRF and EDF, and the JC-130B's, JHC-130H's, HC-130P/N's in the Test Group. Any plans for a Test Group pic? Not sure how much work it would be showing a catch in a B or HC-H, or even showing all the models. Of all the E/H I flew I can't recall a tail number that sticks out in my mind.

Did 2 decent TDY's out of EDF. First was to Red Flag for 2 weeks, 3 crews, 2 airplanes. Stayed in a motel just behind the MGM. Pretty nice trip. Second was a 2 week duck-butt, escorting a C-12 from EDF to Korea. Stopped at ADAK (for fuel), Midway, Wake, Iwo Jima (for fuel), Yokota, Korea, then back to EDF. C-12 didn't have very long legs even with an aux tank installed in cabin.

I was in the school squadron at the Rock twice, 76-77 and 79-82. I can only remember 2 TDYs that were of any note. One was when they sent 4 crews to pick up 4 DC-130Es and bring them back to LRF to use as pilot-pro birds. Still had a lot of the equipment in the back. Nav's and a few others played with the cameras some, I had my "knuckles" cracked some whenever I'd reach for the transfer fuel panel..... The other one was going to Cherry Point, pick up some grunts and take them to Rosy Roads. Didn't get to see much of anything there. Except the Class 6 store.....:D

Back in '75 when I was in the 32nd TAS, we had a support mission after the earthquake in Honduras. We left LRF and went to FLA where we picked up 2 fuels specs and 2 fuel bladders that filled the cargo compartment. I can't recall the size or capacity. I seem to recall that they were maybe 2'-3' deep, just not sure. We came back to LRF, spent the night and left for Kelly AFB the next day. At Kelly we filled the aircraft full and the fuel bladders full and headed out. We were HEAVY and could only get 500' min climb. If we had lost an engine I'm not sure we could have made it back anywhere. We landed in Tapachula, Mexico and they parked us so close to the terminal that the wing tip hung over the people at the fence. The looks on the people's face as we pulled in right at the teminal and made a right turn and stopped was funny. Fuels guys offloaded as much fuel as they could into the fuel trucks, etc., and put the rest into aircraft tanks. We spent a couple hours on the ground before we headed back to the Rock. Long day. The fuel was for the helicopter rescue efforts after the earthquake.

I went through water survival school in '77 in Fla. We finished the classroom portion - dangerous sea creatures, etc. We hit Biscayne bay the next day and did the para-sails. I was sitting in the recovery boat after my drop and whwn they picked another guy, he had barely started up the ladder when he started screaming that a sea snake had wrapped around his leg. we dragged him into the boat and found his snake. His cord from the seat pack had wrapped around his leg as he started climbing the ladder. It was hilarious seeing his face. You just can't beat butter-bar navs to lighten up a situation! :D

Just curious, long ago, in AFSC/ASD at WPAFB, I started flying as a FM on JC-131Bs, 1969-70, as a Sgt. There was a Don Birdsong in the FM/FE section. I think he was an FE on the C-121 we had. Some of the older guys called him "5 by 5".

When I was at the Rock in 75-77 and 79-82 we had a number of the Super E's. Don't remember how many. Seem to recall that only one was painted gray. I think it was 1588, but not sure. I do recall that the national star on the fuselage was attached with screws.

Just watched a show on the Military Channel on the gunships. Pretty damn cool, even though i've seen it a few times. Just curious though, didn't know that they had H model gunships in Vietnam, circa 1972. For those that are interested, in 1969 I was at WPAFB, in ASD-AFSC, and we cut up foam and packed the wings on an A model. Never thought to get the tail number but we did it in a hanger in Area B.

Brings back a lot of memories from my VC-118A days. I was CC, then FM, on 53-3239 for a while at WPAFB when she came to the flight line after the AFLC general got a VC-135 for his bird. Spent a lot of time keeping her clean and polished and still flew the line. Not sure what the differences were between the DC-7 and the DC-6/C-118, but the airframes sure look the same. Can still hear the rumble of the short stacks.

Seems to me that the procedure for eng rollback, etc., should include an \"eng fuel pumps\" step, just to cover the bases. May not cure all the ills but positive fuel pressure couldn\'t hurt. Need to come up with a good acronym for the procedure, like the AIRBrakes one from when I was still flying.

Wasn\'t this the King 56 accident? And wasn\'t it determined the in was gas starvation caused by improper fuel management?

As a non-SOF FE, just curious about the AC-H\'s actually being E\'s and the Talon 1 upgrades. Were those just -15 engine, AC pack upgrades? Just curious from a trash hauler\'s point of view. I\'m not at all easy about the Dems being in control of the White House now. I\'m sorely afraid that the troops in the field will suffer, and the country will become a 2nd rate military power.

With our new El Presidente who knows what may befall the military and our troops who are in harms way. Russia is already positioning missiles as they threatened to do for some time now. Testing the new C in C?

I\'m sure that pretty near every FE and CC out there has come across things on the FE\'s preflight that had been missed. In 10 years I didn\'t find too many things that were big issues. But I did find a fire extinquisher directional control valve installed wrong. How about doing a preflight and when you push backwards on prop it rotates without resistance? Or finding the glass seal on a co-pilots altimeter hanging loose. CC said ok, but I told him to get avionics out to the bird. They ended up having to change the altimeter. Seems like most of my big problems have been with fuel systems. Out of EDF - high FF, low torque and TIT. Inside of #2 covered with a wide flowing stream on fuel. Engine guy kept saying nothing was wrong until he pressurized the fuel system to the engine. Woops, fuel line cracked just prior to entering engine. He got a fuel bath. Not a CC but somehow it just reflected mx attitude of the time. Once got to a bird at LRF on a quick turn. Got briefed by FE. All engines had been over-torqued and written up with a red diagonal and the only explanation was \"ok to fly\" - winter time on a 73 H-model. Didn\'t sit well with me so I got out my red pencil and made it into a red X, crossed out the original guys name and entered mine. CC went ballistic telling me I couldn\'t do that. I said I could and that he\'d better read his mx manuals and get the section chief to the bird. I knew that there were torque and time limitations that allowed the bird to fly but they weren\'t listed. Guy came over, I explained my position, he asked CC about the info, over-torque amount was verified, he wrote it down along with the aircraft hours and hours when inspection was due. Seem to recall 50 hours was the time limit. Once this was done, all was kosher then, and off we went. So much fun. I never wanted to break a bird. Just wanted to get the mission done and head home for a beer. Getting off late for a 10 hr over-water was never my choice for fun. Flying at night anyway, so adding 2 hours to a long crew day.... Maintenance always seemed to have their hands full, and all-in-all did a great job at keeping the birds safe and flying, but some days.......................................:angry:

Yeah, FE\'s always wanted to break the bird on preflight. That way we could sit on our ass on the 103 degree, or -30 degree, ramp for 6-10 hours before we finally got to go out and fly the mission. Did that a few times at the Rock and EDF and it\'s not fun.