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C-130 Crew Calmly Handles In-Flight Power Loss
posted 9:32 am Mon November 10, 2008
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Jacksonville - On a practice flight, an Arkansas National Guard crew was put to the test when all four engines of its C-130E lost power in the skies over the Little Rock Air Force Base.
They remained calm, however, in the seconds-long emergency September 9th and landed safely.
As it turned out, a one-in-a-million fluke caused the problem, Air Force officials say, and was fixed with a $2,100 purchase of a new part. The so-called four-engine rollback is so rare that crews are not even trained for it.
Pilot Maj. Dean Martin, co-pilot Lt. Col. Rich McGough, navigator Lt. Col. Alan King, flight engineer Master Sgt. Doug McGroarty and loadmaster Senior Airman Amber Sowder were on the plane that day.
Moments after takeoff, the plane was about 1,000 feet in the clouds above the western edge of the base, when each of the four engines lost power. The propellers churned barely enough to keep the empty, 50-ton plane aloft.
Even with their experience, the crew members did not know what was causing the problem.
McGroarty, the systems expert, started analyzing the symptoms, looking for ways to put power back into the engines. He shifted to mechanical governing, manually controlling the electrical power to the engines and propeller speed. Three of the planes four engines immediately recovered.
Martin, the pilot, then looped the plane around the field and landed minutes later.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
They remained calm, however, in the seconds-long emergency September 9th and landed safely.
As it turned out, a one-in-a-million fluke caused the problem, Air Force officials say, and was fixed with a $2,100 purchase of a new part. The so-called four-engine rollback is so rare that crews are not even trained for it.
Pilot Maj. Dean Martin, co-pilot Lt. Col. Rich McGough, navigator Lt. Col. Alan King, flight engineer Master Sgt. Doug McGroarty and loadmaster Senior Airman Amber Sowder were on the plane that day.
Moments after takeoff, the plane was about 1,000 feet in the clouds above the western edge of the base, when each of the four engines lost power. The propellers churned barely enough to keep the empty, 50-ton plane aloft.
Even with their experience, the crew members did not know what was causing the problem.
McGroarty, the systems expert, started analyzing the symptoms, looking for ways to put power back into the engines. He shifted to mechanical governing, manually controlling the electrical power to the engines and propeller speed. Three of the planes four engines immediately recovered.
Martin, the pilot, then looped the plane around the field and landed minutes later.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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Say It On 7: C-130 Crew Calmly Handles In-Flight Power Loss
applegg
1:42 pm on 11/10/08
Yes you are way off. These things glide like a brick. Especially on takeoff when airspeed is not much more than stall speed. If they had not regained power, their only choice would have been to put it down in the softest (or most open) place possible. A classic mistake is to try to return to the airport, a maneuver that always fails, usually ending in the death of the occupants.
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