USAF C-5 Simulator "Pre-Computer Age"

[msm8378]

I recently came across this while surfing the other day.

http://www.c141heaven.us/wigfield.html

msm

[starlifterfan]

Great story, being a Starlifter fanatic that site is just incredible , especially the stories of past 141 crews and the pics are awesome.Amazing also how long the C-5 has been in service , as a youngster I would love it when the C-5 crews and C-141 crews would do low flyovers over base housing every so often , we would go nuts hearing those planes scream over the houses at Dover AFB.

[msm8378]

It is a shame that the C-141 is gone. It makes me feel old!! I have many fond memories of riding in them and have made many parachute jumps from them. It was a very reliable aircraft and made a lot of history. The C-5 has always been my personal favorite. It is truly an "aluminum cloud" and is capable of making some very tight turns that almost seem impossible given it's size...

[starlifterfan]

I forgot where I read about it , but it had to do with AFSOC , and how some Special Forces guys were talking about how the C-5 just amazed them on certain missions , how the pilots would bring that thing in so quietly in a place that no one would have thought possible.As for the C-141, neve jumped from one but flew on them many times downrange to Antigua then on to Ascension island , the Starlifter was doing alot of work during the Falkland Island campaign as well . Nothing better to see a base lined up with alot of T-Tails , not talking about the C-17 either!.

[msm8378]

I know of a guy that was one of the few to make a parachute jump from a C-5, back when the Airborne Test folks were doing an evaluation to see if it could be used for mass paratroop operations. He says it was a very rough jump due to the turbulence from the engines. They eventually dropped the idea.

Being former Special Forces, I never went on a mission where we inserted by C-5. However, I have ingressed on missions using the SOCC-II version of the C-141 on several missions. The avionics and communications were superb on those birds.

There was one training mission we flew to Fort Stewart, GA back in the mid-80s. As we came in to the DZ the plan was to make a heavy drop of 463L pallets and then come back around and drop the troops. The Loadmasters set a metal plate in the tracks behind all of the pallets to push them out the back. They both had parachutes on, but only one of the Loadmasters hooked his safety harness to the static guide line. As they pushed the pallets out, one side of the push plate was not locked into the track, and as luck would have it, the Loadmaster who did not hook his safety harness, went right out the back of the plane with the last pallet.

Within seconds the Pilot laid the plane on it's side, making a very tight turn to see if the Loadmaster had a good chute deployment. They then scrubbed the troop drop for our plane and we went on for an unscheduled stop at Hunter AAF so they could recover the Loadmaster.

Just one of many fond memories....

[starlifterfan]

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/d ... 992197.htm

[msm8378]

Nice article. I would suspect that at that time (1999) they were involved in supporting TF 160 (The Nightstalkers) and probably 16 SOW. The C-5, if my memory from Strategic Deployment School still serves, can carry up to eight helicopters of the size normally used by TF 160... AH/MH-6, AH/MH-60, etc....

A lot of factors go into the load planning, but if you can get the CG calcs to balance out, you can cram an immense amount of weight on the C-5....