C-130 down in Mississippi-2017

a reply to: Zaphod58

The stresses on a turbo-prop would make a blade failure much less likely unless there is a material defect, no?

a reply to: Caughtlurking

That's the problem they've been running into. Many of the faulty blades are in the HPT/LPT sections which puts them fairly deep into the engine.

a reply to: JIMC5499

I can't tell from photos if all four engines are with main wreckage. Maybe someone can discern that or not.

I wonder if an engine mount could have entire prop/engine flip over wing and take out horizontal stab.

I too am scratching head on witness description of "Boom" and then smoke from one engine.

Otherwise I guess prop/turbine fail could conceivably compromise control runs in the overhead and stab fail could be from forces generated after loss of control.

Whatever happened they had no chance as witnesses would have described revving engines as pilots attempted to get some forward motion and put air across wings for spin recovery.

My guess is couldn't even get to thottles.

Prayers

originally posted by: Phoenix
Whatever happened they had no chance as witnesses would have described revving engines as pilots attempted to get some forward motion and put air across wings for spin recovery.

My guess is couldn't even get to thottles.

Prayers

The throttles and propeller controls are cables that run down the fuselage and out to the wings. A prop failure could have damaged those runs as well.

Just saw a pair of C-130s over Arkansas that looked like they were trying to start a turning dogfight. I wish we had been able to park and watch them.

Latest update:

The aircraft was a KC-130T belonging to the Marine Reserves. It belonged to VMGR-452 out of Stewart Air National Guard Base.

They flew from Stewart to Cherry Point, where they picked up a Navy corpsman, and an unknown number of Marine Raiders, and was on the way to NAS El Centro in California. In addition to the passengers they had cargo on board, including personal weapons and ammunition.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Now that's exactly what I was thinking...

Thanks Zaph!

originally posted by: ThePeaceMaker
A witness said they saw and engine on fire. Could it be possible the aircraft had an engine fail for whatever reason and debris severed the right hand side stabiliser eventually causing it to detach from the fuselage. I wouldn't of though if an aircraft lost one of the stabilisers but the rest of the aircraft was intact that it would cause such a disaster. I suppose it's in its name though .. a stabiliser

The horizontal tailplane does a lot more than just stabilze. It keeps the aircraft in the air. Aircraft have a center of lift and a center of gravity, both along the longitudinal (nose-to-tail) axis. The center of gravity is forward of the center of lift, which, depending on the aircraft, is usually somewhere obout a third of the way from the front edge of the wing to the rear edge. This causes a large nose heavy imbalance. The horizontal tailplane (stabilizer and elevator) produces a downforce through a combination of negative angle of incidence and back elevator that counteracts the nose-heavy tendency. If you lose the downforce, the aircraft will pitch nose down uncontrolably. You would also have an uncommanded asymetrical rolling motion.

Stewart is the last of the KC-130Ts. They have 14,and are transitioning to the KC-130J. The last of the Ts were built in 95, the oldest of them in 83.

a reply to: Phoenix

The question with the smoking engine is, what kind of smoke did he see? The T56 used in the older C-130s, like this one, smoked on their own when operating normally. They leave a nice, visible trail that you can use to find the aircraft under some conditions.

So was it a thin, brownish trail from the engine? Or a black thick trail? One is normal, the other is an indication of something very wrong.

a reply to: Zaphod58

I always wondered what those very faint trails following some aircraft were. I honestly thought it was my eyes playing tricks on me. Not very noticeable so wouldn't the guess be bad smoke?

a reply to: Crumbles

My guess is that he meant black smoke, but unless he says so there's the real possibility that he saw the normal smoke of the engine, with one being more noticeable than the other on that wing, possibly that engine was at a higher power setting.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Whatever smoke was it must have differed from others to be noted.

a reply to: Phoenix

Unless he's not used to seeing a C-130. I've had people out on the ramp see one coming in to land and think something was wrong with it because of the smoke trail. If the engine he noticed was at a higher power setting it would smoke more.

Again, I'd guess he meant it was bad enough that he thought something was really wrong, but considering they're claiming the thing blew up in flight, I'mn open to the possibility he saw normal smoke and was mistaken.

a reply to: Zaphod58

Really for how utilitarian she is she is a very elegant aircraft, much like the P-3.

a reply to: Caughtlurking

They're surprisingly maneuverable for being big and slow. Really easy to maintain, as long as it isn't an LC-130 in Navy hands. Never been so happy to see a plane in the Boneyard.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Caughtlurking

as long as it isn't an LC-130 in Navy hands.

Sometime I want to hear more about this. If I wouldn't have screwed my arm up, my next duty station would have been VXE-6 as a flight engineer in 1987.

originally posted by: Zaphod58
a reply to: Phoenix

The question with the smoking engine is, what kind of smoke did he see? The T56 used in the older C-130s, like this one, smoked on their own when operating normally. They leave a nice, visible trail that you can use to find the aircraft under some conditions.

So was it a thin, brownish trail from the engine? Or a black thick trail? One is normal, the other is an indication of something very wrong.

Like this??

Sorry I know the pic is crooked from my phone off the beach....

a reply to: JIMC5499

I have never wanted to strangle someone on the ramp as badly as I wanted to strangle the FE on that bird. There were extenuating circumstances causing all the problems, but the FE was a whiny bitch who didn't know what the hell he was doing.

a reply to: GuidedKill

Yeah. The T56 was bad for that. If one engine was shut down, or one at a higher power setting you'd see more smoke. Although I wouldn't be surprised to hear an engine was on fire for whatever reason either.