Towing An RC-130A With Two Flat Tires
Richard Rogers 9 OCT 2006
TIME-Early 1960's
PLACE-Turner AFB, GA
SCENE-Somewhere on the 12,000foot runway sits a recently landed RC-130A with two flat tires.
I haven't thought of that most memorable of nights in a long time.
I was just supposed to park the plane, fuel it and go home and take the next day off.
The real laugh about the whole thing was some Colonel, with apoplexy, came flying out to the runway in a jeep and started yelling at me to get that plane off the runway, they were getting ready to start an alert.
Did you come out there to see that fiasco?
There was rubber everywhere in the wheel well. It was stuck behind hydraulic lines and in the wheels and stuck all in the landing gear mechanisms.
I tried to drag the plane off the runway, using the big tug, and I kept shearing the pins on the tow bar.
What a mess for an A/3C to have to handle, B-52's and tankers were firing up and taxiing around, across the base in SAC's alert area. You could call it an opportunity to excel.
But then I got to go to midnight chow, so I guess it was worth it.
My Hero
Jim Campbell CH-21B Helicopter Section 25 JUL 2004
Don't really know if this qualifies as a "War Story", but it was funny anyway. It may have not been funny to the "Ace Mechanic" that it happened to, but we laughed a lot.
During the long hot summers at Turner, there was a lot of pilot proficiency flying being done.
After each flight, we, as mechanics, had to preform the post flight inspections and bed the chopper down for the night. We would scamper around like ants getting things done in a most proficient manner.
One of the things we had to do was check the rotor heads and blades, I think just to make sure they were still attached. After one such flight the chopper came in and stopped and we chocked the wheels and began to attach tie down ropes to it. Keep in mind that the blades are still turning at a pretty good clip as we go about our routine of securing the chopper for the night.
Here comes "Ace Mechanic."
Up the side of the chopper he goes via the steps right behind the cockpit. Being careful not to stick his head up into the spinning blades, he carefully and daringly, reaches up and grabs the spar of the blade to slow it down and stop it from turning so he can inspect the rotor head.
The first time or two he grabs a blade but it is going so fast he can't stop it from turning. But, this "Ace Mechanic" happens to have vice grip hands, and with one quick grab he nails a spinning blade.
Guess what, folks? This blade is going so fast, it jerks him up and over the top of the chopper.
Well, he is fifteen feet above concrete and if he lets go he would surely die as he landed on his head. This "Ace Mechanic" is very quick on his feet and remembers to hold on for dear life with just his left hand. And there he goes swinging around in front of the chopper.
At this time the pilots are still in the cockpit doing what ever they do at the end of a flight, and an Airman comes swinging by one arm fifteen feet above the ground. This "Ace Mechanic", being a very good Airman, snaps to attention and properly salutes the officer pilots as he swings by. He was very skilled when he got back to the side of the chopper and regained his footing in the steps. He released the blade and waited for them to slow down a bit more before trying the tricky, I mean skilled, maneuver again.
The pilots came bounding out of the cockpit, I thought looking for another salute, but I was wrong. After a thirty minute lecture, it finally sunk in that we were not to climb up the side of the chopper with the blades turning.
Ever.
At all!
Bummer Buck.
Looked like fun to me!
Now for the identity of the "Ace Mechanic". He wore one of those round caps.
Well, he did until someone threw it up on a rafter in the hanger.
Oh, yeah. He was from Arkansas.
Maybe that is why he tried to stop a rotor blade spinning so fast that you couldn't see it.
Really, he is an all time hero of mine.
WAY TO GO, CHUCK!
A Day On The B-50 Ramp
Bob Oberst RB-50F Flightline Maintenance 16 JUN 2004
While all B-50's looked about the same, they had their very own good and bad points. To start with, they were said to be able to reach an altitude of about 43,000 feet. Some could and some couldn`t.
There were only about 6 of ours that could exceed 40,000 and about 6 that could only get to maybe 30,000. After giving the crew chiefs about all the flak they could, the maintaince supervision decided that the engines were at fault as well as the crew chiefs.
One day they parked a "low flyer" next to a "high flyer", got the entire engine shop out there to swap all 4 engines on both planes. All this took several days and possibly a couple more to get the bugs out before test flying them.
Finially both aircraft took off with high hopes of those who thought all this up.
In the end, the high flyer remained just that and the low flyer was still a low flyer.
Reason for all this --- well, nobody really knew for sure.
Then we had another B50 that flew sideways. It was just a few degrees, but with that you could easily spot it in the pattern. This also required an adjustment to it`s compass system so it could fly a in a straight line even if it was sideways. Boeing engineers tried to figure all this out, but came up empty on a cause.
Strangest of all, was this plane could fly higher than any other B-50 that photomapping had.
It looks like Photomapping had all the RB50F`s that were ever made.
#7123 and 7160 were high flyers and were both at AST#5 and 7. I can`t remember the other`s numbers even after looking at the ser.#`s of all the "F`s" made.
It`s been too long -- 40 years now -- WOW!!
