I was in Air Cargo. not a Load Master, in Vietnam and normally stayed on the ground. Had to go to Song Be once on a temp assignment. Assault landing under fire. I remember it as a steeper approach angle. Reverse prop thrust before fully down so aircraft seemed to drop onto the ground and bounce once. A very high speed taxi to end of runway with engines at full throttle and using prop feathering to control speed from touch-down to turn around. Load Master partially lowered the ramp and ratcheted the pallet system so cargo would be unlocked with one more lever action while still taxiing. End of runway pilot whips aircraft around as Load Master lowers ramp all the way. Pilot stops with engines still at full throttle but props at neutral pitch and pauses a few seconds so I can jump out side door. Load Master unlocks cargo as I jump out. Pilot engages prop thrust and cargo rolls out of aircraft onto the runway as the aircraft imitates a scared rabbit leaving the scene. Cargo Master raises ramp on take off roll and they are gone. I run toward the guy waving his arms to direct me to a bunker. Still the most frightening carnival ride I've ever been on. Entire air crew had balls the size of hot air balloons.
Did you ever load cargo pallets attached to parachutes? I’ve seen video of C-130s in Afghanistan touching down and the parachutes pull the pallets out while the aircraft rolls down the runway at high speed, when the cargo is gone they take off without ever changing direction on the runway.
@@fastkarr8256 No. I shipped ammunition of all types and sizes as air cargo from Bien Hoa at the Hot Cargo Ramp. We never rigged any parachute extractions or drops for that stuff. Aircraft always landed to off-load. We had several pallets of ammo plus myself to deliver. Load was critical delivery or we probably would have circled waiting for the attack to end. May have been running low on fuel, too, forcing the issue. Did two circles as it was before pilot went for it. Don't recall what the specific cargo was on that little adventure but was probably mostly 155mm or 175mm HE projectiles with propellant bags. Shipped a LOT of that stuff. Very likely one pallet would have had small arms stuff like 7.62. Cargo would have been somewhere in the 40,00 - 45,000 lb range. I was actually on a simple pallet recovery mission; one day assignment to go get 'em and come back on later flight out. Load Master told me what to expect as we made final turn onto approach. That's when he opened the side door so he didn't have to mess with it once we were on the ground. He had other things to do. He was very calm. Acted like that was an every day thing. Once we started our descent he took care of his job like we were on the ground and stationary. I, on the other hand, had a death grip on the seat frame in case the belt wouldn't hold me in. How scary was it really? I suffer from motion sickness pretty badly. Was not feeling very good when it all started. Scared the "sick" right out of me. Felt like we were taking a nose dive for the dirt. Sorry for the long post. Watching the video and writing about it makes the 50+ year old memories feel like yesterday.
@@judeodomhnaill9711 Oct '69 - Oct '70. You're welcome. Proud to have served but have to admit I could have skipped some of the experiences and not complained. Can't imagine what the grunts I was supplying went through.
@@fastkarr8256 I reread my reply to you yesterday and spent last night thinking about it. While I technically answered your question (see other response) I'm not certain I gave you all the information you wanted or, possibly, needed. Please allow me to fill in some blanks here. My technical training was as an Air Cargo Specialist. It was only a 6 week course at Sheppard AFB, Wichita Falls, Texas. learned ;earned how to load a pallet and anchor the cargo to it using a variety of netting, straps, and chains as needed. how to drive forklifts of various sizes, and use them to load the pallets either directly onto the aircraft or onto specialized loading equipment, called a K-Loader, and then to use that to load the aircraft, We had to attend "traffic school" to learn those driving skill and obtain a license to operate them. Tech school was divided pretty evenly to also include the paperwork end of the trail. This covered how to fill out a manifest which contained a surprising amount of information about the cargo. Included were items such as load composition per pallet, weight of pallet, the order the pallets were loaded, fuel load (by weight), destination, aircraft center-of-gravity, and more. We kept at least one copy of this document after the Load Master signed it. This provided not only a record of what went where but helped figure out what went wrong in the event of a crash. We were not taught how to rig parachutes at all. I assume that there was an advanced school for that. But parachute techniques were used quite a bit in Vietnam. A example would be during the battle at Khe Sahn. Everything was supplied by air. Everything! Originally the aircraft landed to off-load. This was quickly found to be much to dangerous because of the constant incoming fire. So, different methods for delivery were instigated with each succeeding method deemed necessary as the danger level from enemy fire increased. The first method used was ground level parachute extraction. This is what you asked about. Normally for this the aircraft do not actually touch down but remain a few feet in the air. A supplemental technique using an arresting system instead of parachutes was also employed toward the end of the use of this method. Finally, they went to a low altitude parachute technique. In this, the chutes are opened with the cargo still on board the aircraft and pull the pallet out of the aircraft, same as the ground extraction technique although I believe the chutes are larger; they have to support all the weight and not simply add drag. Each pallet is rigged this way. That allows each chute to be fully inflated prior to that pallet leaving the aircraft. Because the parachute is already inflated as the cargo exits it doesn't need a few hundred feet of free fall for inflation. Thus, the cargo can be delivered from a very low altitude ensuring it does not drift out of the landing zone and into "the wrong hands". (Added by edit. The above paragraphs were written based upon what a couple of Load Masters told me. Last night I once again had trouble sleeping and spent time looking at RU-vid videos about the Khe Sahn airdrops. Maybe the guys I spoke with dropped full pallets with chutes rigged as I described. However, I found a video with individual containers being dropped using a static line technique much like paratroopers use. Still quick opening so low altitude drops can be used. The containers shown look very much like some of the ammo types we shipped. Here is a link. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-npl8_0Wx_Zc.html Go to the 13:25 mark if you don't want to watch the whole video. Sorry for the confusion.) ok, I'm finally done. Thanks for sticking around.
Wasn’t stall warning, it was sink rate, the angle of approach was too low TCAS was telling him to pull up, exactly the opposite you would want to do in a stall. Basically the plane thought it was going too fast at the ground. Hope that helps.
@radio2014 Afghanistan was “lost” when Bush told Rumsfeld in November 2001 to plan the Iraq invasion, and for the next 8.5years, 90% of all combat forces in Central Command were in Iraq, because we couldn’t “lose” there. If from 2001-2010 100% of combat forces had been in Afghanistan, well, the Taliban would still be gaining ground in 2021, just at a slower rate than they did.
On another note about my first jump, I didn’t know the pilots were also training. I was sitting on the inboard row facing the door, second man in the stick, when they opened the door I had two thoughts go through my mind at the same time, we’re too low to jump, and higher than I want to be. lol They we’re flying at about 300 foot at that time. I found that out later.
This was called a Random Steep Approach, to reduce the chance of receiving ground fire during approach and landing. I made one at Amman, Jordan around 1971 during one of their revolutions. Enjoy
I remember watching crews practicing takings planes up and landing while shopping at NEX NORVA. Honestly, this is a great a vid showcasing why I'm glad RU-vid wasn't a thing while my Brother was in Kuwait and Bosnia, there's days I envy the experiences he had overseas (Tuzla/ Germany) but this wouldn't be one of those days. Thanks for sharing and I'll send a link to him. God be with our Troops.
Man such a shame. When you look at the landscape you can tell mos of Afghanistan is still an agricultural society. And with the taliban back in place it's an involuntary dismal land ride to the dark ages. Only the warlords are armed with heavy machine guns. Also sad to realize they might be armed by Russia as well as China because they hate US and NATO presence and therefore have all the motives to undermine it.
@@FirstLast-gv1zl Trump literally praised the Taliban. (And negotiated our exit.) You could thank him for the gift of weapons if you wanted, but W should really get the blame for all of this. Anyone with knowledge of Vietnam knew better than to invade.
@@mattt8889 Flasher Joe is stumbling to the exit with no regard for anyone not named "Biden". His ineffective decision-making process will hurt this nation for decades to come. Dems thought that Trump hurt us on the international stage? No one will EVER trust the USA again enough in my lifetime to participate in any sort of real-world joint operation. OEF VII Helmand OEF VIII Kandahar OEF IX Kabul.
There's more peace in Afghanistan under the Taliban's regime then there ever was before.. In most of the areas crime rate has gone down by 70%, yes under the American led Ghani rule the policy was might is right and the warlords ruled there own territories, ashraf Ghani govt was just clinging on to the capital Kabul with the US and allies help and when the US called it quits the whole country fell in days as there was no govt whatsoever. You can't always blame your enemies to be the bad guys even if you only know about what your media is showing them to be you should also take some neutral opinions on it as well and look at the whole picture!
Too bad the US didn't rip up all the runways installed by the military. Runing a D9 a few times up and down should do the job. Never let assets fall into the enemies hands.
Oh, but doing that would require planning, execution and a modicum of military procedural common sense. Commodities not available at the Pentagon or the White House.
We (Air Force) got this Army girl to puke coming in to Baghdad Airport. Her whole company was there along with me and another AF K-9 guy. She was turning green and all her buddies were busting her balls. I just yelled "I can have my dog take a fat shit in his kennel" and she lost it. His kennel was right next to her LOL. I have a picture of right before she puked. Wish I could post it here.
@topco130 Do they often mortar/bomb/sabotage a runway purposely to disrupt landing supplies? I am guessing all those dark spots are areas that were repaired?
Hard braking is not hard on anything except brake pads. Full reverse is nothing it’s not even close to 19,600 inch pounds of torque like in full forward thrust
This was my mission every day. Assault take offs and landings. Pope Air Force Base. Sicily drop zone. Anybody who knows the 39th the 40th and the 41st tactical air lift squadrons knows we did assault take offs and landings every single day .
@Stephen Beck-von-Peccoz The C1 30 is designed as a short takeoff and landing aircraft. The wing structure is designed for this. It is a High Wing aircraft for that exact reason… hard landings on unimproved landing strips. It has the biggest main landing gear of any aircraft. Would you like to know some more?
@@danielpurcell7395Don't get me started ! Too late... * ^ an ^ * - Is English a second language for you ? You're so perceptive ! I envy being left for dead by my Countrymen and my allies - I envy the Military, as an alternative to suicide. But most of all I envy the UNITED States ! None of that is true... No-one really envies your Country, your Politics or your, I'll be generous, Society... I'm not sure what you expected when you start with... “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched REFUSE of your teeming shore" and then wonder how you got here ? Lets' not even go down the millions of ACTUAL Americans SLAUGHTERED, on their own land, road - or the SLAVERY road, or the most inspired lets import the NAZIs' post WW2 and put them in positions of power, road... You sound narrow-minded, what you've written looks uneducated AND I believe you are deep in the delusion that the U.S. is still cool... FYI - it hasn't been since around 1955... It's just that one of your two biggest exports is BULLSHIT and a lot of the World believed it for quite some time - Most of them are awake now... Your other major export ? DEATH. Death & Bullshit - Proud much ? You're still doing it now - This latest abandonment is just another in the long, sad tradition of 'freeing' the World ! You're not even free within your own borders ! The only thing we can really rely on when it comes to the U.S. in these times, is that you will be both, unintentionally AND intentionally, HILARIOUS on a daily basis... Between the U.S. & the U.K., the competition is tight for Best Sitcom on the Planet ! *I'll take Countries with UNITED in their names please Alex !*
You are a sick, envious coward. By the way! Which one of those rat holes do you hale from? I notice you don’t make mention of your country? Must be a good reason for that.
@@danielpurcell7395 It appears you can not read - or there is a comprehension problem - entirely understandable given your education standards, I digress... In answer to your question... I come from a Country that is part of your '5 eyes' network - ever heard of it ? We have fought and died beside you in every War you have brought to the World including the ones that you were late for... I've narrowed it down to 5 for you - The States is 1 of them - now it's 4 - you have a 25% chance of guessing correctly the first time - see if you can work it out - points will be awarded for reasoning & deduction.
