Carrier Landings and Take Off

[jesse]

Ever since my duty on the DEWLINE in Greenland, I have been an admirer of the C-130 Hercules. Our only means of logistic support on the ice cap was via the C-130. We had 6000 feet of runway laid out on the ice with edge lights and threshold lights at the ends. Black flags spaced 500 feet apart were lined up down the center line of the approach end of the runway. Even with revers props, it took a bit to stop the sliding birds on the ice. Strange as it may seem, our ski equipped C-130s home base was in the west Texas desert area of Abilene; Dyess Air Force Base.

Now there is a new task for the C-130 on the U.S. Navy Forrestal class carriers. I never believed it possible but the link below will prove that it can be done.

www.fark.com/cgi/vidplayer.pl?IDLink=4836695

[aspen31]

Great video Jesse!
We have ski equipped C-130s near us at Schenectady, NY. They are a guard unit but I don't recall which one. They continue to be involved in Antarctic re-supply I think. Distinctive paint as well. We occasionally see them flying around here in the hills.
Lots of airplane for that carrier.
Take care.
Warren

[Defender]

Nice one Jesse.

I'm amazed the deck plating could take the loading. Reminds me of a project I came across years ago in Scotland to convert a super tanker to a floating airport for the North Sea oil rigs by adding a flat deck and operating DH Canada Dash 7's from it. Didn't come to anything as apparently passengers weren't too keen on the idea!

Good idea for a Flight Sim model perhaps?

Bill

[herkpilot]

Thanks for that link Jesse. I hadn't seen it for many years and never with the navy commentary. After seeing the filmed carrier landings many years ago, we spent a number of hours in the performance charts(-1-1) and realized that impressive as it looked, they really weren't stretching the limits all that much.

At the minimum touchdown speed of 96 KIAS, the ground roll is about 1500-1700 ft at 115,000 lbs in no wind. If you assume a wind of 15 kts and a ship moving at 25 kts, that effectively reduces the touchdown ground speed to 56 kts and stopping distance is reduced accordingly. The two major hazards were missing the island (about 12-15 ft of wing tip clearance) and the chance of hanging a prop on the low pitch stop while entering reverse still in the air. We NEVER did that, It could seriously ruin your whole day.

We all decided that that was one mission the Navy was welcome to. I had a hard enough time finding an airport that was exactly where I had left it!


Hy

[jesse]

Hy, I know what you mean. Way back in the early days of testing, the CAA required solutions to alternate airport problems or Radius of action from a moving base. It took me many hours of sweat and toil to finally work that out. With today's modern nav features, I doubt if the exam includes that one now. It amazed me during WWII how the Navy aviators could fly out from the carriers and still know how to get back to them.

Jesse

[HvyEng]

Thanks Jesse!

During the video, at the part showing the C-130 Takeoff from the ice, what are the aircraft parked in the backgound? It looks like a C-133 and maybe a C-118, can anyone make them out?

--Dan

[Tom/CalClassic]

Hi,

Looks like 2 C-124's and a C-118A to me.