C-130 Crashes in Road in Georgia, USA

Jim, I agree with you. It is a case of proper and constant maintenance. Old airframes will hide problems.

 

Jim- Those B models were real hot-rods without the external wing tanks and supposedly very tough according to the crew who told me all about her. During Desert Storm, I flew from Rhein-Main to Mildenhall on their B model on a trip from Taif to Lakenheath. The crew knew I was a fighter guy from my flight suit and brought me forward to see her holding 310 KTAS. Pretty impressive. They told me all kinds of war stories about the Bs. With shorter range, they were limited to inter-Europe sorties, while the Es and Hs made trips all the way to the Middle East. The Bs were a lot faster, though.

I guess those big tanks on the wings introduce loads the Bs did not see.

 

All fuel is in the wings, correct? Even on the B.
No fuselage tank(s)?

 

Does anyone know how many of the planes that were in service in the mid 60s to early 70s are still in operation? My grandpa was a loadmaster on these during that time period and I'm curious if any of those might still be around.

 

T- Affirmative, multiple wing tanks with about 27,000 lbs in ones with external tanks. Surprisingly, less than my F-111s carried at 34,200 lbs of JP8.

Andrew- Not sure if any of the C-130Es are left in USAF, but there are certainly very old C-130s in foreign air forces and doing fire drops. At one point, the C-130Es were the only ones cleared to transport nuclear weapons in Europe, but that was quite a while ago in the 90s.

 

I believe the USAF has retired all its E's, but I can't speak for the ANG. And while all the A's were retired after that fire bomber in CA lost both its wings, there are some B's still in active service overseas.

 

All parts of the plane have been removed and all military and Leo personnel have left the area. Both sides of the road remain closed until Ga DOT can assess how much to replace from the fire and contamination.

 

Saw this closeup of the impact site online the other day. Not pretty.

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So the funny thing about that is the wing tanks reduce wing box stress by changing the ARM..... At least that's what a bunch of engineers said they found when they looked at it a few years back. Back when I cared a little more about things that I had no control over I could have told you a bit more but now all I really remember is that it helps reduce wing up flexing.

 

Mark- I can see that with the structure reinforced to take the tank loads. Made it into two sections effectively. I believe you burned the fuel in those tanks first, like we did when carrying external tanks.

 

Yeah, the "common knowledge" is externals first then aux tanks as you would "lose" that gas if you have pump issues. Now it's actually a bit more complicated depending on what the mission profile is (weight, assault landings, etc) that drive some differences on how you burn gas (primary vs secondary fuel management) but I have forgotten all that stuff.

 

Does the engineer take care of that, or do you no longer have FEs in the C-130?

 

On the older H model aircraft the engineer is responsible for running the fuel panel, on the newer J model the pilots are responsible. There are some special ops variants of the J model that have additional crew members who can run the fuel panel but I'm not all that familiar.

 

Saw a new message on the GA 511 website that GA-21 is now open for traffic again.

 

Yes the road opened yesterday and they are still reshaping the median.