Assaults?

[jjm]

I came into KILG the other night behind a C-130 in the pattern doing landing work. As we were positioning, the commander came on and said they were doing one more and then switching to a different runway for assaults. What are assaults? I see this on a lot of airport diagrams-- "assault strips" or assault runways.

[frog_flyer]

Assault landing.

You don't worry about making it pretty. You slam it down where you need to and get it stopped.

The herks at KNFW use the taxiway to practice assault landings

[jjm]

cool-
thanks. That is one neat aircraft-even at night. They fly the J models out of KMTN-- I would like to get on with them at some point, but I think I missed my age window.
JM

[frog_flyer]

Originally Posted by jjm

cool-
thanks. That is one neat aircraft-even at night. They fly the J models out of KMTN-- I would like to get on with them at some point, but I think I missed my age window.
JM

Not for long; they're getting shut down.

Planes are heading to CA ANG (2 guys here are in the process of SUPT for that unit) and to the RI ANG.

[bravodelta79]

Here you go... video of an assault landing:

http://shock.military.com/Shock/vide...Content=134318

[pressclick]

Originally Posted by bravodelta79

Here you go... video of an assault landing:

http://shock.military.com/Shock/vide...Content=134318

'Shock and awe' indeed. What's the status with the 'J?' Are they still being procurred?

I dealt with one doing some experimental airborne operations at Bragg in 05 and have to admit that I'd rather spend all afternoon pulling out nose hair with pliers than reliving the experience - mandatory inflight rigging due to the CG being in some strange place and the chutes couldn't be loaded on the ramp for the same reason. Inflight rigging full combat equipment with door bundles in a C130 is a tedious process even under the best of circumstances. Thank God I was only a safety and could sleep on the ramp for the hour ride to the DZ after the festivities were over.

And what could you possibly due with an Air Force airplane other than jump out of it anyway?

[MFT1Air]

Originally Posted by pressclick

'Shock and awe' indeed. What's the status with the 'J?' Are they still being procurred?

I dealt with one doing some experimental airborne operations at Bragg in 05 and have to admit that I'd rather spend all afternoon pulling out nose hair with pliers than reliving the experience - mandatory inflight rigging due to the CG being in some strange place and the chutes couldn't be loaded on the ramp for the same reason. Inflight rigging full combat equipment with door bundles in a C130 is a tedious process even under the best of circumstances. Thank God I was only a safety and could sleep on the ramp for the hour ride to the DZ after the festivities were over.

And what could you possibly due with an Air Force airplane other than jump out of it anyway?

Clarify your remark, please. 13 times I was pushed. I never "jumped" on my own. Just a thought.

[H46Bubba]

Originally Posted by pressclick

'Shock and awe' indeed. What's the status with the 'J?' Are they still being procurred?

I dealt with one doing some experimental airborne operations at Bragg in 05 and have to admit that I'd rather spend all afternoon pulling out nose hair with pliers than reliving the experience - mandatory inflight rigging due to the CG being in some strange place and the chutes couldn't be loaded on the ramp for the same reason. Inflight rigging full combat equipment with door bundles in a C130 is a tedious process even under the best of circumstances. Thank God I was only a safety and could sleep on the ramp for the hour ride to the DZ after the festivities were over.

And what could you possibly due with an Air Force airplane other than jump out of it anyway?

My brother is a C-130 guy a Pope. The J's are slowly coming on line, but will only be based at Little Rock. All the active Herc squadrons at Pope are being disestablished and the aircraft are going to the boneyard. These aircraft have been weight restricted for some time due to wing box cracks. It's cheaper to retire them than to get retrofitted new wing boxes.
The Army will take over Pope and incorpaorate it into Bragg. There will be a reserve or NC ANG C-130 squadron based there. They won't operate on a daily basis like the active duty squadrons were.

Note: This is how they dfound out about the wing box cracks

[pressclick]

That's interesting. I was an air operations planning officer at Bragg when the whole wing fatigue thing went down in 04 - actually sometime after the fire bombing plane incident. There may have been other freakouts before then but this shut things down for several months and a lot of people were hurting on jump currency.

I never liked the C130 though some do. You can't load without interlocking your legs with the guy across from you and 'tenting' your 50lb backpack with his. From that point you are essentially a part of the airframe until ten minutes out. When you stand up, the red mesh seats rip static lines out of stows increasing the chances of them getting tangled up with something. The outboard personnel have to stand up on their seats to allow room for the inboard guys to struggle, push, and pull themselves up, a difficult process with something upwards of 200lbs of junk strapped on in inconvenient places especially when C130s always seem to feel like they are flying through a thunderstorm even on a cool, calm night. Then you gotta bend over and fold up the red bench seats so there’s room to walk. Etc, etc.

Waiting to exit on a C17 always seemed about as calm as standing in line at Wal-mart as opposed to the C130 surfing in a hurricane ordeal.

Give me Call to Duty 4 and leave that stuff to the kids with the strong knees.