Hercs flying without crew
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Hercs flying without crew
Snip from AF Monthly...edited of course...
"A Tornado at New Castle County Apt, Delaware, on Sept 28, 04, caused damage to five C-130H Hercules which were parked in a line 50ft apart on the apron.
The tornado tore then from the 1/4in steel chains holding them down.
One C-130 dubbed 'sparky' was tipped onto it's wingtip, skidding on one wing for more than 100ft before coming to rest on it's starboard wing with the undercarriage smashed and fuselage crumpled.
Two others, dubbed 'hillbilly' and 'debbie' were lifted nose first and with their tails on the ground and were 'dancing like ballerinas in the air'. They came to rest intertwined at 90° to one another, with the tial of one, minus it's starboard tailplane, resting on the top of the forward fuselage of the other and their starboard wings also resting one on top of the other.
Another, named 'bubba' skidded along on one wing before righting itself again, while 'Pigpen' damaged it's undercarriage after being blon for several feet.
One of the aircraft was blown clear over the top of a security forces truck, startling the driver somewhat, before crashing on the ground again.
Thousands of gallons of fuel was also spilt on the apron."
Blimey that truck must of been held down by 1/2 in chains ;-)
"A Tornado at New Castle County Apt, Delaware, on Sept 28, 04, caused damage to five C-130H Hercules which were parked in a line 50ft apart on the apron.
The tornado tore then from the 1/4in steel chains holding them down.
One C-130 dubbed 'sparky' was tipped onto it's wingtip, skidding on one wing for more than 100ft before coming to rest on it's starboard wing with the undercarriage smashed and fuselage crumpled.
Two others, dubbed 'hillbilly' and 'debbie' were lifted nose first and with their tails on the ground and were 'dancing like ballerinas in the air'. They came to rest intertwined at 90° to one another, with the tial of one, minus it's starboard tailplane, resting on the top of the forward fuselage of the other and their starboard wings also resting one on top of the other.
Another, named 'bubba' skidded along on one wing before righting itself again, while 'Pigpen' damaged it's undercarriage after being blon for several feet.
One of the aircraft was blown clear over the top of a security forces truck, startling the driver somewhat, before crashing on the ground again.
Thousands of gallons of fuel was also spilt on the apron."
Blimey that truck must of been held down by 1/2 in chains ;-)
Happened to a RAF Herc in 96 at Lajes. A large trail was on the way to Red Flag with said Albert in support. The previous day during the met briefing, the met man (who was obviosly a mate of Michael Fish) pooh poohed reports of a Hurricane bearing down on the Azores. That night it was jolly windy and we woke to find the Albert embedded in a fence having moved some 300 yards on it's own. There was no damage though. It was pulled out, dusted off and continued on it's way.
Nothing to do with the fact it was on the way to Vegas of course!
Nothing to do with the fact it was on the way to Vegas of course!
Back in the days when the RAF could afford fun, we were taking our mighty Vickers FunBus to the Bermuda Airshow, then on to Sacramento, then Hawaii before returning via the El Paso airshow. Honest!! I managed to talk the Bermuda airshow bloke into saying that we had to be there a day early, to allow all the pointy jets to be parked in front. He chuckled knowingly, but agreed.....
So there we were. All down at the Bermudiana with a complete 24 hours off the next day before the airshow. So, of course, we didn't exactly go to bed early after visiting the local churches... The next thing I knew it was oh-dark-hundred and that pratt 'Lord Peter of the Bogs' - the most useless AARC ever - was on the phone from Group saying "There's a hurricane coming your way, what are you going to do about it?" "Tell it to f*ck off!", quoth I, until the sensible brain cell clicked in. So I phoned the spams and ask WTF - we'd been told absolutely nothing about any adverse weather forecast. He advised that they hadn't known about it either, but all the USN P3s were cranking up and legging it; however, we could expect 60 knot winds with the odd gust to perhaps 80 very soon. I realised that it was too late to do anything, so asked him to keep an eye on the jet - and in any case, the police were refusing to let anyone leave the hotel as it was too dangerous to go outside.
Next day, just as a 101 knot wind gust hit the hotel and I watched horizontal palm trees flying past the window, we were told that the a/c had been 'damaged'. Fearing the worst, we summoned a taxi and set off for the aerodrome when the wind dropped. The scene of devastation around the island was quite impressive; when we arrived at the airport we discovered that the aeroplane had been for a little walk on its own after the chocks had been fire hosed out by the wind and rain. It had set off and ground-looped into those portable spectator seat things the spams call 'bleachers'. Damage was superficial - one bent pod impeller and a small scratch in a slat section. Trusty groundcrew soon fitted the dummy spinner and put some speed tape over the slat, then did the 'post flight through turbulence' and 'heavy landing' checks just to be 200% sure.
Best thing was that we had another day off - so grabbed a newspaper which said "Tropical storm will pass 200 miles south of the island, some increase in winds may be noticed" thus proving that everyone had been taken by surprise. On the way out to Sacramento, the other crew raised and lowered the landing gear a couple of times just to be absolutely sure - again, no snags. When we got home a few days and $1000+ in allowances each a few days later, no-one even mentioned it!
But the poor old Nimrod mates, stuck on base as was seemingly Kipper Fleet tradition (not for them the Ascoteers' Bermudiana Hotel - the Nimrod teenage NCOs would only annoy the other residents!), had been roused in the middle of the night and made to move their jet to the civvy side. Came the hurricane and it acquired 4 fodded engines and a damaged rudder - whereas our jet had been parked on the USN ramp which was shipshape and FOD-free....
So there we were. All down at the Bermudiana with a complete 24 hours off the next day before the airshow. So, of course, we didn't exactly go to bed early after visiting the local churches... The next thing I knew it was oh-dark-hundred and that pratt 'Lord Peter of the Bogs' - the most useless AARC ever - was on the phone from Group saying "There's a hurricane coming your way, what are you going to do about it?" "Tell it to f*ck off!", quoth I, until the sensible brain cell clicked in. So I phoned the spams and ask WTF - we'd been told absolutely nothing about any adverse weather forecast. He advised that they hadn't known about it either, but all the USN P3s were cranking up and legging it; however, we could expect 60 knot winds with the odd gust to perhaps 80 very soon. I realised that it was too late to do anything, so asked him to keep an eye on the jet - and in any case, the police were refusing to let anyone leave the hotel as it was too dangerous to go outside.
Next day, just as a 101 knot wind gust hit the hotel and I watched horizontal palm trees flying past the window, we were told that the a/c had been 'damaged'. Fearing the worst, we summoned a taxi and set off for the aerodrome when the wind dropped. The scene of devastation around the island was quite impressive; when we arrived at the airport we discovered that the aeroplane had been for a little walk on its own after the chocks had been fire hosed out by the wind and rain. It had set off and ground-looped into those portable spectator seat things the spams call 'bleachers'. Damage was superficial - one bent pod impeller and a small scratch in a slat section. Trusty groundcrew soon fitted the dummy spinner and put some speed tape over the slat, then did the 'post flight through turbulence' and 'heavy landing' checks just to be 200% sure.
Best thing was that we had another day off - so grabbed a newspaper which said "Tropical storm will pass 200 miles south of the island, some increase in winds may be noticed" thus proving that everyone had been taken by surprise. On the way out to Sacramento, the other crew raised and lowered the landing gear a couple of times just to be absolutely sure - again, no snags. When we got home a few days and $1000+ in allowances each a few days later, no-one even mentioned it!
But the poor old Nimrod mates, stuck on base as was seemingly Kipper Fleet tradition (not for them the Ascoteers' Bermudiana Hotel - the Nimrod teenage NCOs would only annoy the other residents!), had been roused in the middle of the night and made to move their jet to the civvy side. Came the hurricane and it acquired 4 fodded engines and a damaged rudder - whereas our jet had been parked on the USN ramp which was shipshape and FOD-free....
Last edited by BEagle; 24th Oct 2004 at 12:13.
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Those pictures of Albert all over the place don't surprise me in the least. They'd had a nightstop, gone out, got pished and had trouble getting back, that's all.
Used to happen all the time at Rompers Green.
Used to happen all the time at Rompers Green.
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Storms seem to have a way of parking aircraft in less space than normal, those Alberts have been threaded very neatly. As have these two B-36s. Been wanting to use this pic for quite a while, found it on the web many years back (don't recall where) along with a whole series showing the effects of a tornado on a parked squadron of these huge airframes.
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Taalking of B36's, when I were a pre teen lad,(I'm 64 now), living in Barnstaple, I saw a formation of half a dozen of these fly overhead. What an incredible sight and sound.
Mike W
Mike W
