[Milsurplus] Bomber Fantasy Camp, OK by me.
Bill Cromwell
wrcromwell at gmail.com
Sat Sep 19 08:38:05 EDT 2015
Hi,
The most impressive memories I have a very powerful aircraft engines and
pilot skills involve large military jets. *Big* ones. We marched up to
the rear of a huge aircraft and up it's loading ramp. I saw what looked
like tiny, toy engines, perhaps with military grade rubber bands wound
tightly inside. My thought was 'this thing swill be half way across the
Pacific before it can get airborne - is it rises at all'. Inside the
plane resembled being in a large Amish barn with no fewer than five
outhouses (the toilets) scattered about inside. The entire right side of
the cargo area was filled with racks to hold people who were carried
aboard on litters (it was a med-evac flight). Once aboard, we rolled to
the business end of the takeoff runway. The engines were run up with the
brakes locked, similar to Ken's description. The pilot released the
brakes and I was pressed back into my seat - *hard*. I was impressed.
On the other side of the Pacific the pilot announced that we would be
starting our approach to landing in just a few minutes. After several
hours of the dull roar it felt like he turned the engines off. We
approached weightlessness. That went on for quite a while. After a while
I could see lights on the ground (it was oh dark thirty). I waited for
the pilot to apply some power but it didn't happen. Suddenly he was
applying brakes and whatever reverse was available from those tiny (high
powered) engines. We never felt that monster airplane touch down before
he was braking. I was impressed with the flying skill.
I did experience the sound of those round engines while I was on a work
party at a naval air station in the Philippines. The plane was late WWII
or early postwar. The plane approached us after landing and parked a
short distance away - idling. The ground shook. A courier dismounted and
rode away in a Jeep. Within 20 minutes he returned and the plane rumbled
away to resume it's flight. Wow!
73,
Bill KU8H
On 09/18/2015 09:51 PM, Kenneth G. Gordon wrote:
> On 18 Sep 2015 at 19:28, Boeing377 via Milsurplus wrote:
>
>> BAHF is restoring a massive C-97 to flight status:
> Once, when I was in the Montana National Guard, for summer-camp, our
> entire Service Battery was flown in a C-97 to Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
>
> Our entire battery with all its equipment was loaded into one C-97.
>
> The runway at Missoula, Montana was a bit short, so the pilots had the
> airplane backed up so that its wheels were just on the edge of the pavement.
>
> Then they slowly wound the engines up with the brakes locked.
>
> I was sitting in one of the seats on the upper deck, very close to the "office"
> facing forwards, and could hear the pilot yelling something about "...Montana
> and their damned postage-stamp airfields...."
>
> The 'plane was rocking back and forth, side to side, like it wanted to go, but
> couldn't quite.
>
> Then the pilots released the brakes and my feet flew up over my head and I
> couldn't pull them back down.
>
> I have NEVER, EVER ridden in ANYTHING which had the accelleration that
> huge airplane did!!
>
> I suspect that it was doing well over 100 MPH within about 30 feet! (Not
> likely, but it sure felt like it.)
>
> After we were airborne, the aircrew invited as many of us soldiers as wanted
> to to come up to the "office". I was very impressed. At altitude, it felt like we
> were just barely moving, yet we were doing at least 300 MPH.
>
> I talked to the engineer for bit, asking about the engines. I remember he said,
> "28 cylinders and 56 spark-plugs". I was impressed.
>
> I've always loved flying. And the sound of round engines and V-12s always
> gives me goose-bumps and the hair on the back of neck stands up.
>
> Ken W7EKB
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