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Well shoot, all I got to do was ride around in a helicopter. :-/ ... and a C-130.
Oh well. I did get to travel a lot.

gn2 wrote:Other way round for me, my gliding experience significantly sped up my gaining a PPL

For me, the aircraft handling characteristics were just so different. I've always been envious of glider pilot's knowledge of meteorology though. I never got back into gliding unfortunately - ended up flying light twins. Did all my commercial and instrument written exams, but "retired" from aviation shortly after -- it just got too expensive (plenty of people wanted to come for rides, but few ever wanted to chip in towards the costs). It's still in my blood though.

Mel46 wrote:Well shoot, all I got to do was ride around in a helicopter. :-/ ... and a C-130.
Oh well. I did get to travel a lot.

C-130's are cool (and noisy!) - I worked on them a bit during my time in the Air Force.

I loved flying high-performance helicopters ... but only the radio controlled type. Real ones are fun too ... even if they can't even hover upside down!

............

I spent 12 years in the Coast Guard, much of it flying around in all sorts of aircraft, but I loved the C-130 the most. Yes, it is noisy, but it can do so much. Interestingly enough, I got out of the service, went back to finish my college education, and then went to work for the manufacturer of the C-130 as an engineer. That is how much I liked that plane.

Nice Mel46,

I work on C-130's for 21 years now, i visited Lockheed Martin twice, once in '96 and then in '15 the manufacturing proces had changed a lot the second time.
And yes, it is the greatest flying workhorse there is.
Sorry for the off topic guys

Mel46 wrote:I spent 12 years in the Coast Guard, much of it flying around in all sorts of aircraft, but I loved the C-130 the most. Yes, it is noisy, but it can do so much. Interestingly enough, I got out of the service, went back to finish my college education, and then went to work for the manufacturer of the C-130 as an engineer. That is how much I liked that plane.

I worked on them a bit during my 7 years in the RNZAF - off memory I think I only flew in one once though; we were dropping off 3 Skyhawk engines - flying 1500 feet VRF when we needed to climb to remain clear of cloud. I was standing behind the captain at the time ... power levers forward - yoke back ... and I just about bucked at the knees. I remember thinking "man these aircraft have got some grunt". Ain't nothing compared to what the Blue Angels do with Fat Albert though!

They're definitely the "PCX of the sky" - true work-horse.

rvkssl wrote:Nice Mel46,

I work on C-130's for 21 years now, i visited Lockheed Martin twice, once in '96 and then in '15 the manufacturing proces had changed a lot the second time.
And yes, it is the greatest flying workhorse there is.
Sorry for the off topic guys

I still "fondly" remember all the screws that I had to remove with a brace and bit to get into the access area in the nose area!

TheMaverick wrote:

rvkssl wrote:Nice Mel46,

I work on C-130's for 21 years now, i visited Lockheed Martin twice, once in '96 and then in '15 the manufacturing proces had changed a lot the second time.
And yes, it is the greatest flying workhorse there is.
Sorry for the off topic guys

I still "fondly" remember all the screws that I had to remove with a brace and bit to get into the access area in the nose area!

Yes, and you always find more than you lost in that area....

rvkssl wrote:

TheMaverick wrote:

rvkssl wrote:Nice Mel46,

I work on C-130's for 21 years now, i visited Lockheed Martin twice, once in '96 and then in '15 the manufacturing proces had changed a lot the second time.
And yes, it is the greatest flying workhorse there is.
Sorry for the off topic guys

I still "fondly" remember all the screws that I had to remove with a brace and bit to get into the access area in the nose area!

Yes, and you always find more than you lost in that area....

I'm reminded of a junior tech who dropped a screw in the dash of an A-4K Skyhawk. Told his Sgt - Sgt couldn't find it so they had the armourers pull the seat for better access - still couldn't find it ... so they had to remove the dash ... STILL couldn't find it ... but they found about 7 other things during that time.

FOD was an interesting beast ... in theory tools would inevitably go missing after a major service ... but in the end they just had to let the aircraft go eventually.

Interestingly an astronaut detailed in their book that once weightless for the first time there were always a few washers and screws that started floating around in the orbiter ... which he referred to as a "start reminder that every component in it's manufacturer went to the lowest bidder"!

Lockheed got so bad at leaving FOD in the plane that the Air Force started fining them, especially when the object caused damage.
Just before they got the contract for the F-22 they started cleaning up their act, and once they got the contract it became a MUST. Keep in mind that there are unions involved, so you can't just tell the workers to keep track of your tools or lose your job.
I remember once they found a wrench in an engine right after they started up an F-22. Lockheed got the privilege of buying a destroyed engine. Everyone loves spending millions of dollars on junk.
So now they have a strict policy on clean work areas.