Jump to content

JimH

Members
  • Posts

    122
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by JimH

  1. JimH

    B-52 MITO

    That was the 19th MAS(S) the (S) was for "Special" .. I was assigned there in Feb '69 when I came back from CCK. The 124s were "C" models if I remember correctly. The biggest difference for the "Special" mission was the airplanes had 3 overhead cranes instead of the usual 2.. All we did while I was there was haul refurbished Hueys from Corpus Christi to Vietnam and return with "used" Hueys... having been on C130s for my entire career up to that time, the 18+ hour flights were quite a change!! From a crew duty standpoint, it was great - we would make a trip to RVN and back in about 10 days, and then we were out for the rest of the month 'cause we had our 90 hours (?) for the month!! I left for Language school in October of '69 and I think the 19th was disbanded in December.. Jim Houston
  2. Not C130, but: I was assigned to the 19th MAS in 1969 as a LM on C124s (after 4 years on 130s).. on my first trip, I was told I needed to do a "wing tunnel inspection" (for you younger guys, the 124 was big enough there was a tunnel in each wing that provided access to 'stuff') .. anyway, we were a couple of hours out of Hickam (lots and lots of water).. I crawled out into the wing and was negotiating around the main tires (the walkway ended at the inboard tire, then there was a small piece between the tires, and then it continued out toward the tip).. anyway, I had one foot on the piece between the tires and one foot still on the inboard section (wrapped around the tire, of course) when the gear jumped. I set a record getting back to the cargo compartment! Turned out the C124 landing gear has UP-Neutral-Down positions. When it's in neutral, the pressure bleeds down and the gear rests on the uplocks. The ILM was watching me, and when I was hugging the tire, he told the CP to put the gear handle in the UP position, which caused the gear to "jump" up.. I didn't know that -- I thought the gear was going down and having been in the tunnel on the ground, I remembered the BIG hole that was there with the gear down!! The crew teased me about that for several days.. The C124 was an interesting airplane - I remember the gap between the nose loading doors in flight - normal, but disconcerting to a 130 LM!!
  3. JimH

    Cck

    It's been 40 years for me, but since I was flight crew, I didn't spend that much time in Taiwan anyway. I did enjoy it, though... Jim Houston
  4. At CCK I had a hard crew except for a copilot. Since my AC was an IP, we usually got a new CP when we went on a shuttle. We had something we would sometimes do to the CP ... The AC told the co-pilot to hand fly the airplane for awhile.. I went back up on the cargo door and grabbed one of the rudder cables and began slowly pulling .. I could feel the co-pilot pushing against me as I pulled harder and harder (he was unconsciously correcting for yaw).. when he had a pretty good pressure built up, I let go - the airplane yawed quickly since he had all that pressure on one rudder pedal. The AC asked him what the heck was he doing? He said he didn't know what caused that... I did it a couple more times, with the AC really giving him a rash of s**t about his sloppy flying... I think the CP was convinced the aircraft had a problem. He finally figured out what must be happening because he said to the AC, "Where's the Load?" The whole crew had a good laugh over it... Jim Houston 776TAS LM 1968
  5. JimH

    SEA

    Donwon wrote: "One plane was on the side of the runway at CRB with the nose gear torn out and the windshields torn out from a cable and buldozer trying to get it off the runway." I think that was at Tuy Hoa. When I was there in '68 there was a hulk off the runway and we were told it had been basically destroyed by the Army trying to tow it using a bulldozer - first put the chains through the cockpit windows (we know how well that worked out), then they put them through the troop doors with similar results.. Bob Daley can probably fill out the details... Jim Houston LM - 776TAS 1968-69
  6. JimH

    Crew ID?

    Hi Walt ! Yep, it's me. I'm retired from Civil Service and living here in Florida. I retired from AFRES in Feb. of '89 at Kelly.. Went to Randolph as a QA and then transferred to MacDill to work for the NOAA Hurricane Hunters until I retired.. Daryl and I are doing fine. Send me a note to jhouston45 AT gmail.com if you want... Bob Martin: I was in the 924th Aerial Port at Bergstrom from '77 - '78, then Maintenance until I moved to SA in 1985. Jim
  7. JimH

    Crew ID?

    After a landing like that, I would always call on interphone and report cheerfully - "No injuries in the rear, sir!" Jim Houston LM/ILM 1965-74
  8. JimH

    CCK alumni

    I was assigned to CCK from Jan 26, 1968 to Feb 10, 1969. That's 380 days. I spent 243 days in SEA, 63 days in Thailand, 3 days in Korea, 6 days in Okinawa and 2 days in Japan.. that's 317 days. That means I had 63 days in Taiwan -- or about 5 days a month.. some of those days were spent packing, washing clothes, flying locals, packing and crew rest. So, I didn't get to spend much time downtown... but I still enjoyed Taiwan very much. I wish I had been able to do more there.... wow! 40 years ago!! How time flies..... Jim Houston 776 TAS LM
  9. 433TAW, AFRES, Kelly AFB, Texas (San Antonio)
  10. 63-7880 was the first USAF airplane I ever flew in... Dyess to Sewart - 1966. A memorable trip (since I got sick). But the first of my 4000+ hours in the Herc!! Jim Houston
  11. My 3rd grandson arrived at 10:48pm on December 31, 2008 -- my son was pleased - for more reasons than one (nudge, nudge, wink, wink)..
  12. JimH

    TDY\'S

    My first TDY was from Dyess to Sewart in early 1966. I was a brand new A3C LM and they sent me to get my flight pay started. We took 63-7880 up to be painted (it was silver).. my first flight in an AF airplane! I got sick on descent and made a mess on the flight deck crew ladder . :S . I got to stay at the airplane and clean it up. Don\'t remember much else about the trip other than I didn\'t get sick on the way home the next day..
×
×
  • Create New...