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Hmmm..do you like low flying aircraft?....then here ya go!

Another Ahab

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Yes Sir!

Somehow, I don't think it would be fun at all - if those bay doors were open~~!
Yikes. Reading your words just now, Mullaney, and remembering the passage in Hemingway's "For Whome the Bell Tolls".

It''s probably been 50 years since I read it, but that passage sticks in my find (a littel fuzzy, but there it is!)

It's the one where the novel's hero (forgetting his name), is on the receiving end of a bombing run by the Condor Legion.

The story is about the Spanish Civil War (Hitler's Nazi dress rehearsal), and the hero (an American), was fighting on the Republican side of the scrap.

Wondering now if the novel identified the aircraft, Dorniers or Heinkels, I'm guessing.
 

frank8003

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Picea sitchensis, the Sitka spruce, is a large, coniferous, evergreen tree growing to almost 330 ft tall, with a trunk diameter at breast height that can exceed 16 ft.
Sitka spruce is used widely in piano, harp, violin, and guitar manufacture, as its high strength-to-weight ratio and regular, knot-free rings make it an excellent conductor of sound. For these reasons, the wood is also an important material for sailboat spars, and aircraft wing spars (including flying models).

The Wright brothers' Flyer was built using Sitka spruce, as were many aircraft before World War II; during that war, aircraft such as the British Mosquito used it as a substitute for strategically important aluminium.

But then everybody forgets the Machinist ......................
 

Another Ahab

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Another Ahab

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The "Herc", got a special fondness for that airframe!

Memory is a strange thing, and nothing to rely on, but I recall a USAF Loadmaster telling me once:

- During USN deployment on a USAF C-130 that had to feather one prop due to an engine fire (yikes)...

- That the C-130 will fly with one engine (not recommended, and not real effectively, but if need be)

Might be total baloney, but I recall that's what that loadmaster told us
 

frank8003

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I did at least three, maybe lots more, (can't remember now) from C-130's.
i was fully loaded up, rifle, shovel, aid equipment, food, water, socks, packs full, Airborne backround.jpgfully loaded with my boots up resting on a truck. There was a lot of us. There was 2 trucks and a trailer too, (full of "C's) into various places. Quite an aircraft, I was not pilot then but did after when I grew up so I remain impressed of C-130.
Out at 800 to 900 feet to the ground at night is pretty quick.
 

Mullaney

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The "Herc", got a special fondness for that airframe!

Memory is a strange thing, and nothing to rely on, but I recall a USAF Loadmaster telling me once:

- During USN deployment on a USAF C-130 that had to feather one prop due to an engine fire (yikes)...

- That the C-130 will fly with one engine (not recommended, and not real effectively, but if need be)

Might be total baloney, but I recall that's what that loadmaster told us
.
I can claim witness to flying on one engine in a C-130. Either a B Model or a C-Model that belonged to the North Carolina Air National Guard was hauling an activity bus full of JROTC students. Flight plan was Charlotte to Myrtle Beach AFB, with an approach from out over the ocean. Plan was to set down, have lunch in the chow hall, take a tour, climb back onto our bird and return to Charlotte.

We were close enough to Myrtle beach to see the ocean in the distance when we lost one engine. It was one of those messy losses where oil was streaming out of the cowling. Prop was feathered and we kept flying. Loss of an engine with the ability to avoid traveling over water (SOP) caused our plans to come up short and the decision was made to abort the landing and return home.

No biggie. Nobody was concerned. We had been AE2 and AE3 students and understood feathering props and "flying light on one side". Headed in maybe 15 minutes later, a second engine on that same side puffed smoke and a little fire showed in the cowling vents. Shutdown and feather. We were on final approach barely in sight of the runway when we lost a third engine.

The crash trucks were lined up along the runway before we got close enough to see the numbers on the end of the runway. Apparently unknown to us, the lock lamp wasn't lit on the left main gear. Rear ramp was lowered about a foot or so in anticipation of a quick exit. The pilot was a Vietnam Vet and the landing was as smooth as any airliner you ever rode in. Heck of a story. Heck of an adventure for a load of testosterone filled teenagers in search of an adventure!
 
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