Re: PLAN Carrier Operations..News, Videos & Photos
Just watched a youtube video, a copy of the original record. It showed the C-130 took off under its own power. That was quite astounding.
The C-130 is still quite astounding, in SEA the C-130 used some very short dirt strips, the C-130 has an outstanding power to weight ratio, as a lad during an Open house at LRAFB, prob about 1970-71 time frame, they had an allison on display which which if my memory serves was rated at 4400+hp, and while I'm certain they have been uprated, the gross weight has likely gone up as well, with fuselage plugs etc. The 130 can also be fitted with RATO bottles. I saw a RATO assisted take off that day, and later observed the Blue Angels- Fat Albert perform a RATO departure. My only real experience aboard a C-130, other than an unathorized flight simulator session at Sewart AFB in Tennessee, was on a Saturday morning maintenance check of a 130 that had an engine replaced. My Dad took me along, was probably around 1972, and did a full run-up prior to return to service. It was positively frightening, I have never been so close to so much horse power before or since, after a rather lengthy preflight, the GPU running at full power, we turned em and lit the fire on each one. I have never been exposed to that much noise, as I recall ground idle puts the engines at 96% rpm which is screaming, as all the systems and avionics where brought up, and the engines reached the bottom of the green, the ground crew pulled the chocks an we were moved off the flight line by another ground crewman who directed us onto the taxi-way. There was a run-up pad on each end of the runway, as my Dad set the brakes, he brought two engines up to full power, first the inboards and then the outboards one on each side for symetrical thrust, all the dust in the airplane became airborne creating a near dust storm from the vibration. I was certain the brakes would fail, or a wing would fly off as the props where slowly cycled to full power and the temps and pressures carefully noted by the flight engineer. For the finally the old man advanced all four props to max take-off thrust again noting temps, fuel flows etc,etc. I was truly astounded that the wings did not depart the aircraft, thats how violent the whole thing was, the aircraft pulsing like a thing alive and screaming at the top of her four lungs like a caged animal in a rage. I'm not lying when I said I was afraid as I was belted into the central jump seat behind my Dad and a co-pilot, I secretly hoped for a hop around the pattern, but alas the run-up ended and we dutifully taxied her back in to the line, pulled into place, where again chocked by ground crew and began the whole process in reverse to shut it down. The closest I ever came to that in my own flying was in the right seat of a Mitsubishi Marquise turbo prop, with about 715 hp on each side, love it, pushing that little yellow start button and watching-listening to those geared Garrets spool up to ground idle. As some may know the mitsi has a very similar config to the 130, with a high wing, tubular fuselage and pod mounted main gear on each side, I was able to imagine my own little mini airlifter, it was still quite awsome empty, but a whole nother story with a full load. Screamers, Wow!
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The Indian pilots who will be landing on that ship better get paid really well...That's literally landing right into the superstructure.
Why the heck did the Indians give the redesign the go ahead?
The Indian pilots will do fine, they are some bright lads you know, they are a cut above many of us, and like all fighter pilots, they know that HEH, Heh! Oh, and they will be well paid as are the US lads. A lot of those guys are likely transitioning out of the Mig-21s, and if you survive that bad girl, the 29K will be like a free school lunch, I'm sure they can't wait, they're prolly watching Top Gun tonight, HEH HeH! good night Brat Out!
