How slow can a C-130 fly?

originally posted by: Ivar_Karlsen

originally posted by: AugustusMasonicus
a reply to: KawRider9

I am seeing the stall speed listed as: 100 knots / 185 kmh / 115 mph.

Source.

100 kts must be flaps up?
A friend of mine fly the J-model, and he mentioned a vref (landing speed) of about 85 kts for a light plane, so stall speed flaps full must be lower.

My ride (B737-800) will stall at around 94 kts flaps full standard temp.

What's the Vmc if Vref is 85?

Speaking of short take off and landing in a head wind, here is a -130 from the USS Forrestal with the nut cracker to boot. :

a reply to: Sammamishman

The RATO SSTOL video is MUCH more fun.

a reply to: Zaphod58

LOL. Oh, you mean this one:

a reply to: Sammamishman

Yeah, that one. Always fun to watch it burn to the ground. Haha.

I am impressed. There were Hercules at most of the Navy bases I was at , when in the service. I have never seen them do things like what is shown in the videos. A truly incredible airplane.

originally posted by: KawRider9
a reply to: buddah6

DAYUM. Didn't know they jump at 120. I once jumped out of the back of a truck doing 10mph, didn't pan out to well for me.

Actually they drop troops at 130 kts which is about 150 mph...

Stall speed can be as low as 85 kts depending on the configuration and weight.

I would need to dig my old C-130 performance charts out for exact numbers.

A friend fly's a Aero Commander 100 and one night he had a C-130 come up behind him blacked out.

My friend had a fishing reel set up next to his seat and liked to fly with 4 or 5 glow sticks trailing behind his plane.

My friends plane started shaking and he though his prop went out of balance.
Then everything behind him lit up like daylight as the C-130 turned on its landing lights.
The C-130 pilots must have saw the light sticks and thought they would have some fun of there own.

The Aero Commander 100 has a Cruise speed of about 130 mph and the C-130 had no problem pulling in right behind him and setting there while my friend was thinking he was going down from a prop failure.

Then the lights came on and my friend had one of those Oh S**T attacks.

originally posted by: Xtrozero

originally posted by: KawRider9
a reply to: buddah6

DAYUM. Didn't know they jump at 120. I once jumped out of the back of a truck doing 10mph, didn't pan out to well for me.

Actually they drop troops at 130 kts which is about 150 mph...

Stall speed can be as low as 85 kts depending on the configuration and weight.

I would need to dig my old C-130 performance charts out for exact numbers.

When I went to jump school, the black hats said, we were jumping at 120 but since you were driving you should know. I remember the C 141 had a noticeably harder opening shock than the 130. The C 119 and the C 123 had the easiest openings. I deployed to Viet Nam after that so no more fun jumps.

a reply to: ANNED

Poor judgement on the part of both pilots. Trailing foreign objects is never a good idea, and the Herc could have caused enough turbulence for the Commander to stall.

originally posted by: buddah6
When I went to jump school, the black hats said, we were jumping at 120 but since you were driving you should know. I remember the C 141 had a noticeably harder opening shock than the 130. The C 119 and the C 123 had the easiest openings. I deployed to Viet Nam after that so no more fun jumps.

I spent 11 years on the C-141 and 13 on the C-130. I was told that the C-141 with the air spoilers out was the best, but I didn't do airdrop on the C-141.

originally posted by: Xtrozero

originally posted by: buddah6
When I went to jump school, the black hats said, we were jumping at 120 but since you were driving you should know. I remember the C 141 had a noticeably harder opening shock than the 130. The C 119 and the C 123 had the easiest openings. I deployed to Viet Nam after that so no more fun jumps.

I spent 11 years on the C-141 and 13 on the C-130. I was told that the C-141 with the air spoilers out was the best, but I didn't do airdrop on the C-141.

I jumped the 141 twice and all the spoiler does is keep the jumper from bouncing off the fuselage aft of the troop door. On the 141 there is a small platform that you walk onto and the holes in the spoiler blows you off the platform with no need to jump out. The 130 has a small spoiler too but you still need to jump out.

The opening shock is a result of jumper's weight and speed of the airplane. We used a T-10 parachute which used a deployment bag that greatly reduced the opening shock. That was 48 years ago and I still remember the jumps from the C-141s.

On my return from RVN, I decided to fly the planes and not jump from them.

a reply to: UnderKingsPeak

Most definitely. Ground speed and air speed are different things. The other day my Dad had was at cruise in a Cessna 172, but happened to have a 60 knot tailwind. Getting in the 150 and having a negative ground speed is always fun too.

We are still kicking the defence department about retiring these but they were getting way too old..
Caribou

Air refueling speed at altitude was 200 knots. But we almost always had to toboggan with them so they could stay on the boom. So we would do a descent of 300 feet per minute with the flaps at 20 and they would be ok. So I doubt their top speed is much higher than that. Now the J model with the new engines will be much faster. But keep in mind that the kc-130's can refuel the F-35 somehow and our usual speed for them was around 315 knots. So the J models are pretty fast compared to the normal hercs.