AA62, and anyone interested.
I had lunch today, and a wee beer or two, with another ex GE, who has a vast fund of knowledge, like myself, was a rigger by basic trade, and had a lot to offer on the rigging and operation of the Cargo door and the inherent problems of locking up and down. T****r T******n, as I did, worked on A Line prior to becoming A GE, and well remembers the times that the door was snagged for either of the above problems, in his opinion, after lengthy investigation, it came down to air in the hydraulic system. He told me today of the fact that Lockheeds service news highlighted the problem of the door, as noted by AA62, in one of its issues. When they compared the suggested procedure with that of the Aircraft Technical publications, it seemed that the official tech pubs left a lot to be desired. For instance, a team under the supervision of a Cpl Rigger spent almost a whole night shift bleeding the system for the door, with no improvement. When they checked the door using the Lockheed tech publication, it was found that they had effectively only bled one side of the system, the air was in the other. Of course, officially, only the authorised Air Publication is the source of servicing activity.
And so we go to the Vickers Hydraulic pump, which was a "non self idling" pump. This meant that when coupled to an Engine that ran at 100% it ran at maximum output at all times. During periods of say, standard cruise flight, the pump was still giving maximum output, with nowhere for it to go, so it got hot. The answer was a relief valve that allowed the oil to be circulated through piping in the dry bays, which allowed some cooling and helped offload the pumps. Both the New York and Abex pumps were self idling, when no demand was made of them, they reduced output and therefore cut down on both workload and heat, no need for run around (cooling) circuits. I'm reliably informed by my drinking companion that from the late 80s only Abex pumps were fitted on the K and that the incidence of Hydraulic flushes was significantly reduced. I have to say, it's been a fascinating sequence of posts of great interest to myself. As a quick follow up, a nice Lockheed Technical News issue that gives a decent description of the E model technicalities, most appropriate to the K;
http://www.c-130hercules.net/LSN/No34.pdf
Smudge
