Bhnn
Can you confirm whether this was a U.S. aircraft or a civilian aircraft with service members onboard? Mark
That's pretty much expected. Even if it's proven that there is no way it was enemy action the target audience of the Taliban won't believe the official reports.
Sad. These planes have a place in my heart as my grandpa was a Loadmaster and later an instructor on them back in the 60s and 70s.
I can TOTALLY stand corrected on this one... but I do not THINK that there are C130s in private hands.
There are a few privately owned 130s but not many; I believe that International Air Response has one or two in their fleet.
Evergreen had a few as recently as a couple years ago though I'm not sure if they are still in business. There are a few at an airfield in central California that are owned by a fire fighting company, can't recall the name of the town right now but it's on the way to Yosemite when coming up from SoCal.
There are quite a few civilian Herks out there, generally in out-of-the-way places like Africa and the Yukon. A similar derivative of today's Herk, the LM-100J, is on the way.
Looks like pilot error on this one with NVG case blocking forward movement of the yoke. https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/how-a-pilots-nvg-case-brought-down-a-usaf-c-130j-in-424369/
Yep.... Hell of a way to go, controls jammed by a plastic case. It was just unbelievable to hear about what happened.
I can easily see the mistake, but even without a checklist a pilot always checks full movement of controls. I'm certain that is on any checklist too.
Dunno if there are any other C-130J folks here so I present this only as a person who has the checklists immediately at hand...... The controls check is in the "before taxi" checklist. If you are gonna be landing and doing an engine running on load/offload (ERO) you run the "ERO checklist" which is designed to get you from landing through to when you would run the takeoff checklists. You already did a controls check at the start of the flight and the people that write technical orders apparently don't expect you to purposefully jam something into the controls. Now it might be a good habit to check the controls every time before taking off but not everybody has good habits. The whole thing still boggles the mind..... It's like if you locked "The Club" into your cars steering wheel to make it easier to lean back and relax during a long straight stretch of interstate. Only problem is there is a turn coming up and you forgot to have the keys handy.
As a technical writer for fifteen years, you are right. That is something that I would never expect. I would not know how to even anticipate writing about all the things one could do. :-(
I am still confused why the case was in front of the yoke? Article inferred it was done during loading for some reason.
A control check before every takeoff is certainly a good idea-- I think all of the airplanes I fly have that in the checklist, even on a quick turn. However, not everyone does it-- the guys on the GIV in Bedford, for instance, almost never did control checks. Personally, it boggles my mind.
From 1945. Hand on the stick (or wheel) with the thumb up. Stick to the right and the right aileron should be up. Pull the stick back and the elevator should be up. Thumb down, push the stick left and the left aileron should be down, etc. Stick then rotated 360 degrees without any impediment. Kind of a dumb and simple little act to go through but at least it made you look at what the controls were doing WHEN THEY WERE FREE. I remember seeing the flight controls " flapping" on B-24's at Langley when they cranked up.