papadonb
New to the Flightline
Currently: Offline
Posts: 1
Location:
Joined: April 2009
|
Post by papadonb on Apr 22, 2009 6:45:25 GMT 9
My 1st trip to Minot was mar 62 after 15 mo. at Goose Bay in the 59th. I stopped for a bite to eat in Grand Forks left there about 1900 hrs and it took 8 hrs to get to the base. Theworst snow storm I was ever in even after 19 years of No Wis.
On one of our 0900 launches it was cold enough that on Eng start we had 5 of the 6 starter shafts shear hence on cold mornings we only used pneumatic start. I was on the recovery team that went to Flasher on the crash of 017. Drove back to Minot on Christmas eve with icy roads all the way but wanted to be home for Christmas and our work in Flasher was done. Minot is on Rhea top of my list on all my tours mostly for the chance to work on the Six and the camaraderie of the people I worked with.
|
|
|
|
Post by falconkeeper on Jun 12, 2009 5:50:02 GMT 9
I got to Minot in the winter of '75,'76. There was a 30 day period when the temp (not wind chill) did not get above 0 F. People here say that a day is cold and I reply, "No, I am intimately familiar with cold, having spent 5 years at Minot, and this may be cool, but it is not cold." I have, thankfully, forgot how a wind chill of -40 feels.
|
|
hotseat
New to the Flightline
Currently: Offline
Posts: 2
Location:
Joined: July 2009
|
Post by hotseat on Jul 8, 2009 22:48:08 GMT 9
The land of prairie dogs and skeeters Rofl ! The only critters I saw eating each other for supper.One road kill after another was strange one get flatten another stop in to eat then another.Some of the guys would snag then coming out of the holes catch em with fishing line then paint them red white and blue........
Jeeze! I did that. The year was 1976 and the Country was of course celebrating the bi-centennial. I had already figured out how to catch the dogs so I thought it would be neat to paint them up. So I and a couple of other FM guys would catch them and paint the shoulder area red, the middle area white and the tail end blue. We didn't paint thier heads or soak them in paint, we didn't want to kill them. I believe we caught darn near the whole town.
Specialists had too much free time on thier hands. :-)
|
|
F106lady
F-106 Skilled
Founding Member
CC acft 58-772 '82-'85
Currently: Offline
Posts: 159
Location:
Joined: March 2004
|
Post by F106lady on Jul 8, 2009 23:42:16 GMT 9
::flash badge:: I am an undercover operative for the ASPCA. ::Pointing to midriff:: See this little wire here? Your confession has just been recorded. Look for federal angents with a universal key to be executing a warrant on your residence within the next 48 hours. ![]() andrewworld.com/f106lady/cheers/phpBB2/images/smiles/icon_evil01.gif [/img] (  ) That's something I don't think I will ever forget--course it may be because my experience was further east at KI Sawyer. Has anyone ever snapped the clutch cable on their car, a car that was left parked outside overnight? Okay I confess I should have known better than to push harder on the clutch pedal when it resisted--I'd stomped out of an argument with the boyfriend.  But seeing frozen mustaches and frozen eyebrows on others, not being able to blink myself because the frost had built up on my eyelashes, having to clear the face cover over my mouth just so I could breath, the frozen filter on the cigerettes and that distinct color and matting of the exposed skin as it began to freeze---those are memories that can not be shuddered away. At least not for me. Maybe when senility sets in |
|
Jim Scanlon (deceased)
Senior Staff 
FORUM CHAPLAIN
Commander South Texas outpost of the County Sligo Squadron
Currently: Offline
Posts: 5,075 
Location:
Joined: July 2007
Retired: USAF
NBA: Spurs
NFL: Niners
MLB: Giants
NHL: Penguins
|
Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Jul 9, 2009 1:39:12 GMT 9
BRRRRRR!
Just thinking about the winters at Minot makes me shudder. Like the day we had perfectly still air and an actual air temperature of -55. We had to cancel all flying and outdoor work because it was too cold. The birds operate at that temp at altitude, but the troops don't do too well.
At the Goose it was much the same. Had friends stationed at Thule that said it really got cold up there. The bad thing at all those Northern bases was the wind chill. Glasgow, Minot, Duluth, Grand Forks and the others across the UP and in to Canada and Greenland, oh, and don't forget Eilson and Malmstrom, they could get wind that made the wind chill lower than minus 100.
That's why our visits to Minot are in the Summer and we retired to South Texas, where freezing is extremely cold.
Jim
:god_bless_usa
|
|
|
|
Post by lindel on Jul 9, 2009 2:02:01 GMT 9
Even further east wasn't any great shakes (well, maybe it was...) either. We didn't usually get the bone-chilling cold (seems to me the avg was around 20* or so), but we made up for it in quanities of snow.
We had some periods of extreme cold, but they never lasted very long, the snow did though!!
|
|
|
|
Post by lugnuts55 on Jul 9, 2009 9:57:40 GMT 9
I don't think it actually snowed at Minot very often. I did see an awful lot of it blow in from Montana, though.
|
|
|
|
Post by falconkeeper on Jul 10, 2009 5:56:44 GMT 9
We had a lot of 15 inch thick blizzards. The snow blew at ground level.
|
|
|
|
Post by lugnuts55 on Nov 28, 2009 23:46:41 GMT 9
One of the best things that happened to me at Minot was when the decision was made to install electrical outlet boxes in the parking lot. Everybody had engine block heaters on their cars but nowhere to plug it in. They had a lottery to see where you would park. I was in the first row almost right in front of the door to the barracks. I was the envy of the flight line.
|
|
|
|
Post by steve201 (deceased) on Nov 29, 2009 1:56:28 GMT 9
oh man...does this thread bring back nitemares of Grand Forks......dang that was cold...did you guys have to do the elephant walk also???....every now and then ..the SAC guys would fire up all the buff's and kc's ..then taxi them all around the flight line and runway to keep the wheels from freezing in place or something like that....it was amazing...but I do remember you guys sending us your snow that didn't stick.....bout froze my hmm hmm's off that yr I was stationed at GF!!!..
Steve
|
|
Jim Scanlon (deceased)
Senior Staff
FORUM CHAPLAIN
Commander South Texas outpost of the County Sligo Squadron
Currently: Offline
Posts: 5,075
Location:
Joined: July 2007
Retired: USAF
NBA: Spurs
NFL: Niners
MLB: Giants
NHL: Penguins
|
Post by Jim Scanlon (deceased) on Nov 29, 2009 11:05:59 GMT 9
I was in the 5th from January 62 - Feb 67. Well, the CAMRON before we joined the 5th in June 1962.
Most everybody had some kind of engine heater. There were only a few plugs in the parking lot behind the hanger. Most were reserved for Mr. Dalton and other bosses. The left over ones were first come first served.
So, there were a number of extension cords out along the parking area.
Until the SAC safety office saw them. No more extension cords. So, on below zero days, we had relays of guys going out to start their cars and let them run for a bit.
Winter at Minot was always fun.
Jim Too
:god_bless_usa
|
|
|
|
Post by Mark O on Nov 29, 2009 15:31:50 GMT 9
Grand Forks for four years - 2003-2007. I never remember the tires freezing to the ramp to the point we couldn't taxi, but I do remember having to throw a rope under the chalks or you wouldn't be able to break them free. We had plenty of AGE equipment freeze to the ground however. I was trying to break a B-5 stand free one afternoon, slipped on the ice and broke two ribs. About a week later I got an e-mail from a civilian at wing ground safety wanting to know what the surface conditions were like, "when you slipped on the ice." I swear that's what the guy wrote! I wish I would have saved the e-mail or printed it out!
Mark
|
|
|
|
Post by jimpadgett on Nov 29, 2009 23:48:46 GMT 9
We had a six stuck in the snow at Duluth one night. A semi-crazy TSgt Whalen. Finally cranked it up and after lot of throttle work rocking the AC managed to drive it out. I thought he was going to snap the nose gear. He was good! He later said he would've put it in AB if he had to. Hope he was joking. Swings was fun with him around. He would have one of his troops chock the power unit (before it was required) hoping to catch the AGE driver unaware.
|
|
MOW
Administrator 
Owner/Operator
Currently: Offline
Posts: 5,822
Location:
Joined: September 2003
Retired: USAF, Civil Service
|
Post by MOW on Nov 30, 2009 7:17:38 GMT 9
Ah yes, those damn snow banks :  I taxied into one coming back from a trim pad run one night at K.I. Sawyer. Well, skidded into one I should say. We ended up pulling it out from the rear with a tug. How embarrassing, but what can you do... |
|
dnbeven
F-106 Skilled
Currently: Offline
Posts: 146
Location:
Joined: November 2007
|
Post by dnbeven on Dec 9, 2009 15:25:32 GMT 9
Speaking of the electrical outlets for the cars, when I first got there my 'friends' forgot to tell me about the engine heater. So the first real cold snap my car froze. Luckily the age shop bought out a heater for me. We ran the hose under the car and it took a few hours to get it running. Needless to say I had an engine heater in it the same day at the base gas station.
:fire_missle_ani
|
|
dartmech
New to the Flightline
Currently: Offline
Posts: 3
Location:
Joined: January 2010
|
Post by dartmech on Jan 25, 2010 14:18:22 GMT 9
:  I spent the winter of 63-64 at Minot. Lots of snow, it covered my old 53 Merc. The 5 FIS got an old school bus, painted it light blue and put the 'Spittin Kittens" on it. Sgt. Manes and First Shirt "Robbie" put it together. I transfered to Yokota, Japan in Aug. 64, did some time TDY to Thialand, and Nam in a C-130 outfit. Got kinda warmed up there. |
|
lsuchris
New to the Flightline
Currently: Offline
Posts: 1
Location:
Joined: February 2010
|
Post by lsuchris on Feb 22, 2010 3:20:20 GMT 9
WOW! Winters at Minot...
did time on the "mids" servicing crew...you know, those unlucky b**tards who got to run the front row of aircraft to keep actuators, accumulaters, struts and tires at proper pressure?
Two in the morning, temps hovering at a balmy 40 below and a 35 mph wind blowing...burrrrrrrrr. What fun! Someone mentioned walls in the house freezing...lived on base (Dundee Drive) and there was a small section of wall in the living room that, throughout the winter, would have a patch of ice on it...turns out that there was a boxed section that was sheetrocked in and ran from the living room to the exterior wall near the door...no insulation...damndest thing I ever saw!
Also remember an ORI that kicked off at the tail end of October (1986?)...the day after a blizzard had dropped about 2 1/2 ft of snow on the "Not"....was working the EOR crew. Hammerhead covered in snow and ice. After finishing up the last of the planes in that flight, the pilot (Canadian exchange guy, eh?), kicked the throttles up and the steering hard right...I knew we were in trouble when the halon bottle went scooting across the concrete. Ended up picking up the EOR super (dummy tried to outrun the exhaust...it didn't work) and throwing him head first into a snow bank...nothing but his legs and feet sticking up in the air. Me? I tried to make myself as small as possible and still got blown about 20 feet or so across the ice...
Like I said...what fun....
|
|
)
I taxied into one coming back from a trim pad run one night at K.I. Sawyer. Well, skidded into one I should say. We ended up pulling it out from the rear with a tug. How embarrassing, but what can you do... 
I spent the winter of 63-64 at Minot. Lots of snow, it covered my old 53 Merc. The 5 FIS got an old school bus, painted it light blue and put the 'Spittin Kittens" on it. Sgt. Manes and First Shirt "Robbie" put it together. I transfered to Yokota, Japan in Aug. 64, did some time TDY to Thialand, and Nam in a C-130 outfit. Got kinda warmed up there. 
