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T-Tail-Tall-Tail:
MEMORIES II
Dick Reichelt
Does anyone remember the (dorky) grey "polo helmet"?
I hope I'm not stepping
on any project manager's toes, or that anyone
advocated that silly piece of
Disney. I have repressed even the memory of it.
Where did we first see it, use
it, and, discard it? I wholeheartedly thankfully
commend the wise soul that
eliminated it.
So; just fly the mission, no parachutes, no standing
alert, No dork helmets. I
was in.
Early on, being new to high altitude jet travel, I
listened to the jet-upset-stories from training with a little
trepidation, especially when I tried
to get some sleep in the provided flight deck crew
bunk. I would lie there with
my ear just scant inches from the 500 mph air stream
recounting the stories.
Would I be able to help, when the ship did a slow
roll and a split S or would I
be pinned helpless to the bunk? Or even, would I be
able to rescue the crew
when the inexperienced green CP shut down my best
engine?
Personally, I got over it very quickly when the
C-141 proved its super
reliability, and my need for sleep overpowered
everything.
Speaking of that "new guy" or the "greenie", what
was more fun than pressing
the OX test button ( I think) to get a quick flash
on the annunciator panel and
flash the master caution warning light. You had to
be able to keep a straight
face and not over-do it until they caught on. You
guys DID do that didn't you?
Was I the only prankster (Jerk)?
I was having my fun with that with a new Major in
the squadron. Flying CP with
me on a trip. He caught on quickly. Major Ed and I
got to yakking, and the
subject of (you guessed it!) "flying" came up. Major
Ed had a lot of flying
hours, but what was unique was his variety of
different airplanes flown. Some
exotic stuff, I would mention P-51, he'd flown it.
P-40, he'd flown it,
Stearman, flown it, Waco biplane, flown it .
Staggerwing Beech, OWNED one.
"Hmmmm, how come you've been in all those
airplanes?", I asked.
"Oh my father and I owned an airport in Vandalia Ilinois, so we
got our hands on a lot of different types, either owned or coming through."
Vandalia rang a bell with me.
In 1955, I owned a Stinson Voyager 150. I was a B-25
instructor at Reese AFB in
Lubbock Texas. At Christmas-time the base shut down,
Airline tickets were
expensive, gasoline was cheap, so another instructor, his wife,my
German Shepherd, and I and set out for Pittsburgh. The dog and
I continue on to New York.
I said, "You know, one dark night windy night I landed at
Vandalia! In 1955! I landed on the short runway heading into the wind. It had three
foot tall wheat growing on it!
I called the number on the airport office
door, offering transportation
and a young fellow came out in a green and white
1955 Oldsmobile 4 door sedan."
"That was me!",' said Major Ed. "That was my dad's
car, I remember, because I helped you clean the wheat stalks out of your
intake, and we tied you down.
You had a dog with you, I drove you to a motel in
town and helped you sneak your dog into the motel!"
Fourteen years before in a
small world, we meet as 141
pilots flying the line. Major Ed got the next
landing.
I think it was one cold, foggy, damp night, that we
were flight planning in
Elmendorf base ops alongside a Pan American
freighter crew. Smartly crushed 100
mission hats and a 707, I wondered how "much-more
bucks" they were taking home,
than my crew.
I don't remember whether we were all allowed to take
off in zero-zero
conditions. Maybe this night was one notch up from
zero, because we were going,
take-off was to be within the hour. The Pan Am
aircraft was already taxiing
when our crew bus was finally loaded and headed for
our 141. All the visible
lights on the airport had that calm twinkling,
filtered, glow, I thought of
Christmas.
Our bus driver couldn't see squat, but had radio
contact with the tower and we
were held where we were, awaiting clearance to cross
the active. We are held
awaiting departure of the Boeing 707. We could hear
the four engines, bursting
with power and crackling in the cold air. The
ghost-like form and navigation
lights roared past our position on it's take off
run. Away from us it went,
suddenly SILENCE. As if in slow motion the entire
quadrant of dark sky acquired
the bright orange glow of a sunset. Nobody dared say
it … we sat in silent
SHOCK.
Then, an expletive, and "They crashed!"
It is inconceivable, among a band of brothers that this happened.
You pinch yourself to see if you are awake or in a nightmare.
Yes they crashed, with a full overseas fuel load, and a fully loaded cargo
hold. Fatal.
The accident investigation deduced that procedure
requirements required the
crew to raise the flaps to taxi out in slush. There
was a lot of slush that
night with the temps dropping to freezing . The
requirement was intended to
preclude the freezing of switches in the flap well,
and protect the flap tracks
and jack screws. In T/O position, evidently the flaps
were not set back down.
There is a flap warning horn that sounds if the
throttles are advanced for T/O
that must not have worked or alerted the crew, it
was surmised that it was inop
or-frozen. The Boeing struggled off, stalled, and
rolled.
We silently made the crew swap, strapped in and took
off.
The most fun I ever had in the C-141 was terrorizing
all the ducks and geese on
Chesapeake bay as well as the entire human
population that must have heard us
come swirling overhead at 1,000 feet. We had to
have been making a horrendous
racket!I don't know how come we were authorized to
do that, but the call was
for three ship join up and formation practice.
Cool!(Modern translation
for … Neat!) I loved it! I had hours and hours
instructing formation
flying in B-25 basic, and I thought this was what
flying big airplanes was all
about. (Maybe it was from too many 'war
movies'growing up)
Our big bird was so stable the turns were like
magic, you held position with
two fingers on the yoke, fore and aft with the
power. It was so easy we quickly
learned that the auto throttles and it's knurled
knob would control the power
with a click, click for 4 kts, one click back, and
you're in position and you stay there.
It was spectacular! And, me with no camera on board,
this was pre-video cams.
What a shame, because the was no next time. The
requirements changed I guess
and the routine became, take off, join up in 1 mile
trail position. The radar
and navigator kept us in position, how dull was
that!
Next came the airdrops, now it was interesting
again. We could see the heavy
equipment come out back, and the slight puff of dust
as the 150' chutes opened.
I don't know if the 141 went on to do this in real
combat, but the jeeps and
trucks we dropped in practice went down by parachute
so many times they looked
very battle weary. We were ready.
09/18/2004
Richard (Dick) Reichelt richreichelt@msn.com