C-130 Fans Here in AudioKarma?

[elcoholic]

My son has tail and door jumped out of them. He says they are OK fine for jumping out of. Not as cool as HALO jumping out of C-17's though. He hasn't jumped out of a C-5 but they are an amazing way to get from Point A to Point B with a couple of tanks, a few choppers and 75 of your close friends

 

[Bratwurst7s]

Yep, the MOAB. I have a link to it upstream. :thmbsp:

There's that, but also the BLU-82...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BLU-82
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_upy14pesi4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q8uHYTwrFsQ

But I think that the most powerful bomb that goes out of a Herc is the people from the 82nd AB, and Rangers & SF folks etc. Kinda like a bomb that keeps on giving...

James

 

[Sandy G]

There is a bomb that was meant to be launched off the back of a C-130 on a pallet that separated from the bomb...powerful bugger!!

Oh, yeah....Remember about that 'un now... Sposed to be the most POWERFUL bomb we had, short of the nukie stuff... Designed to take out Saddam's hardened bunkers....Registered as a pretty reasonable earthquake on the seismographs..

 

[Bratwurst7s]

I don't know how it was with other squadrons but while at McChord we used to get tasked to go down/over to Peterson Field a lot to transport academy cadets around. One such trip I was with another crew chief, Rocky Rodgers, a slow talking but quick thinking fellow from Kentucky. We had the GTC running for ground power rather than external power unit. Those of you who have been around a running GTC (or a dash 60 power unit) know how loud that little turbine is.

So as we were loading up the cadets one of them goes over to Rocky and asks "I can hear the turbines running but the propellers aren't turning. How do they do that?" Out comes that slow Kentucky drawl... "Pilot's have the clutch pushed in". A knowing cadet head nods and the problem was solved. I always liked Rocky a lot, before and after that day.

James

 

[Bratwurst7s]

I was getting to old to fit my ass in those #1 and #4 cells!

I always disliked knowing that it always took longer to slither out of those tanks than it took to get in. I don't normally get claustrophobic, but still...

James

 

[Naptown Rob]

My only experience on a C-130 was a rather unusual one.

It was a military hop from Zagreb to Sarajevo. I was taking thousands of CDs into Bosnia for independent local radio stations in Sarajevo & Mostar.

 

[Bratwurst7s]

My only experience on a C-130 was a rather unusual one.

It was a military hop from Zagreb to Sarajevo. I was taking thousands of CDs into Bosnia for independent local radio stations in Sarajevo & Mostar.

Now that's a great use of a C-130! I hope that it was a good flight.

James

 

[Arkay]

How did "they" get their hands on one...

Well, you see, there is this village in the Indian hinterland where the entire town is made up of smithies, a few hundred guys hand-hammering out panels and eyeballing them, then hammering some more, and eyeballing some more, until they fit together just so...



(Actually, there is a village like that in Pakistan, where they hand-make replica firearms of all kinds. Need an early muzzle-loader (they do "antiques" really well!), or an 1800s gatling gun, or a one shot spy's pen gun, or maybe an uzi or an AK 47 on the cheap? They'll do it, a visually perfect copy accurate right down to the serial number. It's called Darra Adam Khel. I've been there, and it's really a "trip", in more ways than one. Guns are test-fired into the air in front of the shops as they are finished, and test-fired again by prospective buyers, so all day the air is rent with the sound of sporadic gunfire.

There are cautions, though: the metal used is usually melted down from old car parts and other dubious sources, so occasionally a gun has a flawed alloy and will blow up when fired! Also, don't get caught taking one of the pen guns through customs when you leave, and especially not with one on an airplane; it's illegal and will give you serious trouble.)

 

[Sandy G]

I'm surprised the Indians haven't tried to "Big Deal " Lockheed into letting them make Hercs under license..

 

[Bratwurst7s]

India is having a hard enough time just producing a locally designed and manufactured flight trainer/light attack fighter. They are finding it very difficult to produce a reliable turbine engine. Their procurement system is far more corrupt than the US, and it takes them a great deal longer to bring a project from the drawing board to the flight line. Even if they could produce the airframe of a C-130 they would still have to import the powerplants, gearboxes, propellers, avionics etc. It's most likely far easier for them to just buy the aircraft, just as they do with most of their advanced weapons.

James

 

[shipdriver]

Was a passenger on one in Iraq. My second least favorite plane ride. The worst was the COD off of the CVN which was even more cramped and uncomfortable, but at least it had an exhilarating launch. I'll never forget transiting in-theater with a short hop (as in no cruise phase...at all) in a nearly empty but pretty nice (for a military transport) C-17 then a long ride in a C-130 packed to the gills. Who schedules those flights!

 

[Bratwurst7s]

Who schedules those flights!

People with absolutely no respect for humanity. They sometimes have 1 or even 2 stripes on their sleeves. And the aircrew, we gleefully find every pocket of turbulence available. And then we shut one engine down because the prop is leaking hydraulic fluid. Have a nice flight!

 

[markthefixer]

never popped off a MOAB in anger, just testing.

The BLU is also dropped out the back of C-130, and has been since Vietnam.

 

[hrballenger]

never popped off a MOAB in anger, just testing.

The BLU is also dropped out the back of C-130, and has been since Vietnam.

Yep, the BLU-82B "Daisy Cutter". I think I read somewhere that the last one remaining in inventory had been used in a training drop in 2007 - 2009 ?

 

[Shadowdog]

Flew in one in 75 to Shilo, MB when I was in the Air Cadets. Sure was a noisy! Didn't get to fly it of course unlike the DC-3.

 

[buccaneere]

I grew up listening to them daily at Benning and Bragg in the '60's. (Dad was 5th GRP - commanded and XO'ed some A-Camps and B-Camps (SF Training Camps RVN) ) He jumped from them many times...

This is last year; gov't aircraft do touch n go's @ Kinston NC (no LAPES ),

this one was a few weeks ago (AFNONE )

 

[Stephen J]

Growing up near Selfridge ANG base it was Huey helo's when I was a kid..Phantoms and C-130's ....
When I was about 35 I worked at a bar about a mile from the base,so on take off and approach they were pretty low.C-130's looked like you could reach up and pull them down.They looked like they were just hanging there defying gravity.
I'll never forget the first time I saw an A-10...I thought to myself..WTF is that ?? !! I could clearly see the Gat' sticking out of the nose. .

 

[hrballenger]

Newest gunship

The new AC-130J:

http://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDispl.../new-ac-130j-completes-first-test-flight.aspx

 

[xs650shawn]

While I was never in the military, my father was a hydraulic technician on C130's in the Marines, and again when he worked for Lockheed until they closed the Ontario facility. Didn't like the drive to Palmdale though. He loved that plane, and worked on many mods while at Lockheed. Spectre gunship, world wide t.v., the one that would catch parachutes are a few I remember him talking about. As such, I have a soft spot for the plane myself, and find myself looking up anytime I hear the drone of a large turboprop. Still have some cool pics of him and the planes.

 

[Bratwurst7s]

I came across a few old pics the other day and fired up the scanner.

These were taken on Charlie ramp at McChord AFB in the sweet sweet summer of '78. My trainer was the Crew Chief on 63-7784 then and I got to learn the ropes from him on this plane. The first pic looks due north at 7784. In the second pic you can just spot a peach fuzzed Bratwurst perched on top in front of the SKI radome. We had 17 Herkys at McChord and that summer was heaven for a young guy with no worries, those planes and a new Yamaha XS-650SE to play with.

Later, when I had finally learned to properly wipe my nose I was privileged to paint my name on that old bird as the Crew Chief. We had some great adventures together. Funny how much you can love a loose collection of nuts, bolts, and sheet metal.

Most people who have lived around the Puget Sound will have seen those peculiar pancake clouds that sometimes appear above Mt Rainier in the summer. Looking to the SE towards the mountain as in the last pic in late July/early August around sunset the moon comes up right behind the mountain glowing orange from the dust in the air, arcing up towards the west. On the lucky evenings when those clouds appeared it looked just like good ol' Mt Rainier had just shot an enormous orange cannonball out it's top. It's a sight to be seen.

Cheers,
James