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Post by Gene on Sept 13, 2011 2:11:56 GMT 9
Dyess' Half Dozen: Dyess AFB, Tex., received its sixth new-build C-130J transport, fresh from Lockheed Martin's production facility in Marietta Ga., according to a company release. "The latest C-130J delivery represents another key step in continuing efforts to modernize our inventory to provide the best tactical airlift to commanders across the globe," said Lt. Gen. Robert Allardice, 18th Air Force commander, during the Sept. 8 handover. Dyess' 317th Airlift Group will eventually boast USAF's largest C-130J fleet, with plans to operate a total of 28 Super Hercules aircraft—the last of which is due to arrive in 2013. The base's long history with the Hercules began in 1961, when it took delivery of its initial batch of C-130As and C-130Ds. got this from airforce online... thought it might interest Mark O.
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Post by Mark O on Sept 15, 2011 9:57:48 GMT 9
got this from airforce online... thought it might interest Mark O. Yea, great news! More FE's & navs replaced by a computer! BTW, I've been applying for some railroad manager trainee positions among others the past few days. I've been keeping my eyes open for wind turbine technician jobs too. It seems those jobs pop up in bunches around Abilene, then disappear. Considering we have the largest wind farms in the state around here, they'll pop up again soon I'm sure. Of course if I get on with the rail roads, it means we will definitely move. This is actually a bunch of work! Oh, Boeing is kind of on hold for now. Mark
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Post by LBer1568 on Sept 16, 2011 1:12:50 GMT 9
I was working C-130 Logisitcs from WPAFB in the late 1990's when C-130J started coming into inventory. I went to meetings with AirStaff on how to support new C-130J. They were being bought by Congressional Add-ons to budget. Started back when Sam Nunn was in charge of everything Military. There has been a mark-up in every budget since late 70's for 12 C-130 to keep assembly line open and GA working. But the C-130J were being sent to Reserve/Guard. They had no money for buying support like...spare parts, tech data, training etc. So AirStaff decieded that USAF would trade E models and early H models to Guard and Reserve and take over new C-130J and the billions needed to logistically support it. Now that the support is in place, they can go anywhere. PS back then the C-130 created a first ever...Guard and Reserve units with Active Duty Support. It used to be C-141/C130/C-5 all were Active Duty Units and got Guard Reserve weekend assistance.
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Post by Gene on Sept 16, 2011 3:24:33 GMT 9
got this from airforce online... thought it might interest Mark O. Yea, great news! More FE's & navs replaced by a computer! BTW, I've been applying for some railroad manager trainee positions among others the past few days. I've been keeping my eyes open for wind turbine technician jobs too. It seems those jobs pop up in bunches around Abilene, then disappear. Considering we have the largest wind farms in the state around here, they'll pop up again soon I'm sure. Of course if I get on with the rail roads, it means we will definitely move. This is actually a bunch of work! Oh, Boeing is kind of on hold for now. Mark these new birds are like the c17... just need 2 pilots and a loadmaster??
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Post by Jim on Sept 16, 2011 5:31:34 GMT 9
Yea, great news! More FE's & navs replaced by a computer! BTW, I've been applying for some railroad manager trainee positions among others the past few days. I've been keeping my eyes open for wind turbine technician jobs too. It seems those jobs pop up in bunches around Abilene, then disappear. Considering we have the largest wind farms in the state around here, they'll pop up again soon I'm sure. Of course if I get on with the rail roads, it means we will definitely move. This is actually a bunch of work! Oh, Boeing is kind of on hold for now. Mark these new birds are like the c17... just need 2 pilots and a loadmaster?? Does todays loadmaster actually calculate take off CG with various fuel loads and calculate actual landing CG based on fuel remaining and its distribution on the a/c? Does he calculate the actual placement of cargo based on the maximum allowable extremes for CG location? Does each a/c periodically get weighed and the various representative wt. and bal. form A's filed with the flight plan? Or is he just a cargo tie down expert?
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Post by Gene on Sept 16, 2011 9:23:47 GMT 9
that would be yes to every thing... the form "F" which has the specific a/c data is used for the final weight and balance check along with the load plan ,after the l/m gets done with his pre flight check list... and the a/c ' s are weighed and balanced at certain intervals... and as to the tiedown expert remark...todays expiditor program has shifted almost all the load and the securement of the cargo responsibilities to the ramp services section of the aerial port... the l/m checks the load and has the final say... i was an expiditor on the c17 from about '99 til i quit in 2011.. i was a phase 2 l/m with the port on the 141 from about '85 til they were gone at tcm in 2002. i liked the C141 a lot more than the globemaster 3. most of the l/ms got confused just using a tiedown strap :rofl
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Post by Gene on Sept 16, 2011 9:33:01 GMT 9
Airmen Continue Battling Wildfires: Six specially equipped C-130s belonging to the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command continued to battle raging wildfires in Idaho, Oregon, and Texas. As of early Wednesday, four Modular Airborne Firefighting System-carrying C-130s from the North Carolina ANG's 145th Airlift Wing at Charlotte and AFRC's 302nd AW out of Peterson AFB, Colo.—now operating out of the Austin/Bergstrom International Airport in central Texas—had dropped 44,350 gallons of retardant over Texas, according to US Northern Command. Members of the Wyoming ANG's 153rd Airlift Wing at Cheyenne, flying two MAFFS C-130s out of Boise International Airport, had dropped 2,700 gallons over Oregon and 2,760 gallons in Idaho. NORTHCOM, at FEMA's request, also designated Randolph Air Force Base Auxiliary Field in Texas as a support base to assist in the relief efforts. (Peterson release) (See also Wicked Year of Wildfires from Tuesday's Daily Report column.)
from airforce online...
:us_flag
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Post by Jim on Sept 16, 2011 10:58:20 GMT 9
Thanks Gene for the correction on the Form F.... I use to have to make them out for the 4C-130s (model forgotten) used by the Security Service for their various intelligence pod configurations..... The flight engineer (no loadmasters) varified that the pods were in the correct position and the pilot filed the correct Form F.. To eliminate all confusion, the a/c was defueled, and all equipment that wasn't 781 equipment was removed so that an accurate basic weight could be found.... We generally would wait an hour after the a/c jacked and leveled before I turned power on to the weighing cells. The C-130 was the largest cargo/multipurpose a/c I ever weighed. Other than C-47 and T-39, all the others were fighters- F-94c,F-102, F-106,RF-101,RF-4C, F-100 and 2 other F-4 variants (Wild Weasel,etc)- even did a H43 Husky (?) helo- had fun getting the rotors to stay in proper position.. This was an interesting side job that was generally handled by some one in QC (how I got so many QC assignments, I guess). When I went to the school at Chanute, out of 10 students, I was the only one that wasn't going to be a loadmaster...
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Post by Gene on Sept 16, 2011 11:37:14 GMT 9
back in the 141 days we got stuck with stripping the a/c of chains, straps and devices, while the 781 shop did the rest... i never had to do anything to the c17...
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Post by Mark O on Sept 16, 2011 13:44:25 GMT 9
Does todays loadmaster actually calculate take off CG with various fuel loads and calculate actual landing CG based on fuel remaining and its distribution on the a/c? Does he calculate the actual placement of cargo based on the maximum allowable extremes for CG location? Does each a/c periodically get weighed and the various representative wt. and bal. form A's filed with the flight plan? Or is he just a cargo tie down expert? Sorry about being a bit behind here on the posts guys. Been doing that job search thing, and it really is a full-time gig. I posted another resume for a wind tech today. Whoo Hoo! Okay. Yes, the loadmasters do the Form F all the time. That is their job. The FE needs to get that info from them BEFORE he can do the Take Off and Landing Data (TOLD) card. I really don't care much about the CG, although it is important, and I make a note of it. I just don't really need it for the basic card. If it is out of limits, it will throw the rest of the Form F off, and that will snowball the rest of the data. Oh, actual weighing of the aircraft is rare. I never was qualified for that, but it did happen. Most of the back shop guys did that. When I became a 7-level crew chief on KC-135s one of the schools we had to go to was "Weight and Balance". They actually gave us three days for the class, but I finished it in two as it was pretty much self paced. We had to learn how to do a Form F, and Chart C's essentially. We were tested on both fighters, and heavies. The reason behind this school for us was the KC-135 had a specific form (that I can't recall the number off the top of my head right now) to use when we added -21 equipment to the KC-135 for specific missions. Mostly, it was for modular, plywood cargo boxes, or a roller set we would install on the cargo floor. We had cheat sheets for most of the stuff, but often would have to weigh it. We had to figure out the weight, moment, %MAC (Mean Aerodynamic Chord), calculate the additions based on the existing Chart C, then add that addendum sheet to the Chart C. When the boom showed up, and added the rest of the cargo/fuel/equipment, he would use that form in lieu of the Chart C to complete his Form F. Simple! (Some of the guys never passed that class, still got their 7-level, but never got to be flying crew chiefs. It could be a career killer in the KC-135 crew chief world if you were disliked. You know what I mean!) When the equipment was removed (usually all of it) we would just pull the addendum, and note it in the 781A. If some stuff stayed, we would have to do a new form. All 7-levels qualified to do this carried a calculator, and a bunch of cheat sheets in their flight line bag! Now, when I went to Basic Flight Engineer (BFE) school at Altus AFB, Oklahoma we spent an entire week learning how to do weight and balance. It was the same thing I learned in two days while I was a KC-135 crew chief except we didn't have to do a fighter Form F at BFE! That week was pretty simple for me! BTW, here's a photo, or two of my TOLD cards during my FE days. Look at the white card above the instruments on the right. Take off speeds on the left, and landing speeds on the right generally. We kept them updated every 5000 pounds of weight constantly during flight based on weight for the most part. Mark
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Post by Jim on Sept 16, 2011 14:22:59 GMT 9
I think the reason I had to weigh those yokota birds was that they were different block numbers, so we had no representative bird. Believe that at that time that the C-130 had to be weighed every 4 years. The Six was every 3 years and we had 3 different blocks, so at Loring I weighed 3 A's and B 900. My course at Chanute was 8 days because I had to weigh 2 a/c because I came out of there as a weight and balance technician. The loadmasters left after 6 days because they weren't required to weigh a/c.. The C-54 was a neat a/c to calculate and form Fs on. The CG never changed due to fuel consumption as best I recall. All the cargo and bomber a/c had a slipstick to aid in calculating. The fighters were all done with adding machines.... The 106s were strange, because none of them were really the same- I found ballast located all over the fuselage- some of it not listed in the 781 charts...... Believe there was a chart A for equipment, but I don't remember if the were any charts called B,C, and D, but chart E is familiar and it has been about 43 years since I did any a/c weighing. One of the a/c I weighed at Chanute was an RF- 80 with the tear drop wing tip tanks.... Had 6,000 hours on it!!!!!!!!!!!! and was still flyable
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Post by Mark O on Sept 16, 2011 15:46:16 GMT 9
... The 106s were strange, because none of them were really the same- I found ballast located all over the fuselage- some of it not listed in the 781 charts... That is very interesting to me. A buddy of mine that I went through FE school with started out his AF career as a B-1B crew chief. We had a bunch in common, and he helped me a lot at Dyess as that was his only base. Anyway, he told me that almost every B-1B was an individual build. In other words, you just couldn't swap one part off one for another. You had to swap an entire component. Sheet metal panels were crazy according to him. If you pulled an exact panel of one B-1B expecting it to fit on another, you may as well forget it. None of the holes would match! Were the F-106s like that? If they were, I never heard about it. Mark
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Post by Mark O on Sept 16, 2011 15:58:26 GMT 9
But the C-130J were being sent to Reserve/Guard. That's good info on the procurement process. I recall reading a story in some AF-related publication when I was going through crew chief school about a CMSgt Flight Engineer in the Rhode Island ANG that cross-trained as a Loadmaster when they converted to C-130J's. He still had time, and didn't want to retire yet! Way to go Chief! That was back in 2000, so I'm guessing he's retired by now! Mark
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MOW
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Post by MOW on Sept 16, 2011 16:10:47 GMT 9
back in the 141 days we got stuck with stripping the a/c of chains, straps and devices, while the 781 shop did the rest... i never had to do anything to the c17... When and where on C-141's? Travis, 602 OMS, 75-79.
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Post by Jim on Sept 17, 2011 1:27:06 GMT 9
Were the F-106s like that? If they were, I never heard about it.
Mark
Not in that aspect... Not all OD painted ballast (Convair installed) was located in the same place and you could tell when it had been removed because the area where it had been was a different color. One bird came in from Edwards with about 40# extra ballast and a write up, excessive trim needed to fly level.......Went thru complete flight control re rig, etc no help still needed excess trim.... Inventory found the ballast that wasn't listed- removed flew ok..
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Post by Gene on Sept 17, 2011 2:16:44 GMT 9
mcchord.. 62 aps/trkr ...ramp services.... 79 thru 2011... and if i remember right it was the 780 shop...
:us_flag
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Post by pat perry on May 27, 2015 19:08:27 GMT 9
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Post by Mark O on Dec 14, 2015 11:09:03 GMT 9
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Post by Jim on Apr 21, 2016 8:23:57 GMT 9
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Post by Gene on Apr 21, 2016 12:08:48 GMT 9
the navy used a contract service called 'quick-trans'. it was a l-382-100. this was a strech 130. it took 8- 463L pallet positions. it came in 7 nights a week right at shift change. it was a complete download of cargo. and 90 minutes later took off back to travis with 8 pallet postion of upload cargo. the average weight was 30,000 downlaoded and another 30,000 uploaded... after a few years we got pretty good at completing this mission.. in the movie "the presido" with sean connery and mark harmon, you can see a 25K loader backing away from a white "southern-aire" l 383-100. on the flightline at travis... love that movie... have another story about sean and the presideo...but thats for another time.
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