C-130 help

[Guest heijoshincool2]

I'm putting the final touches on a novel and would appreciate help with the following re: C-130s.

1. The antagonist, an arms dealer, owns both a C-130, and a small island in the Gulf of Thialand. Bearing in mind that 1. artistic license is acceptable but still must be believable, 2. his pilots are "down-and-dirty" former GRU Spetsnaz, 3. it's an island! it can't have a long runway, what would be the minimum runway length? 1700 feet feasible? Less? I'm aware of the record landings and TOs on the Forrestal. Maybe I could put that in the book.

2. does the Herk have the ability to start without external generator? (can't remember the equipment name - been a few years since my Air Force days). Does it have an internal startup capability? If not, what are the basic steps for one man to startup? Not a lot of details needed here.

Can one man start the aircraft?

3. Lastly, what would be the proper terminology for an emergency takeoff checklist?

Thanks in advance for any assist.

Robert Banacek

Edited October 18, 2012 by heijoshincool2

[sixblades]

Let me grab the popcorn, this should be good...

[nunya]

So you're planning to steal a 130 from your local Guard base and you need a step-by-step. Got it.

[Butters]

Sorry dude, your best bet is to hire a Thai tranny hooker to get one of these guys drunk, then they will tell you everything you want to know. If you are lucky they may even tell you about the airline hiring boom that is just around the corner.

[LockheedFix]

1700' would be feasible if they don't plan on carrying anything. 2500 or 3000 feet would be more reasonable.

The Herk can start completely self-contained (i.e. no external equipment)

One guy can start the plane if he had to. Remember that an older Herk would need a flight engineer in addition to two pilots. Normally the Loadmaster stands outside the plane and monitors the engines during start as well, but you could get away without that.

Normally if there's an emergency and we haven't taken off yet, we don't takeoff, so there's no checklist for that situation. If you are taking off from an LZ with guys shooting at you, you would do a max effort takeoff, but there is no difference in the "before takeoff checklist."

If your pilots are Russians flying around Asia, it would make sense for them to fly an AN-12, the Russian Herk knockoff. Those things are everywhere over there.

Hope that helps.

[Napoleon_Tanerite]

So you're planning to steal a 130 from your local Guard base and you need a step-by-step. Got it.

A completely reasonable conclusion to draw from the OP's question....

[HU&W]

Why a C-130? Did they just stumble across one? Did they get it from a government? Are they actually flying an L-100? What kind of cargo are they hauling? Why are they Russian but didn't get an Antonov? Could they get away with a Casa 235, Casa 212, or even a King Air? An arms dealer with a C-130 wouldn't exactly be keeping a low profile.

[disgruntledemployee]

Harm did it in an episode of JAG. He "stole" a C-130 with Mac to escape from some bad place, probably Thailand. Anyway, he started it up all by him self (E or H1 based on the start buttons) while Mac asked standard silly copilot questions like, "You know how to fly one of these?" and "If we make any noise, we'll get caught!" Anyway, he was able to scilently start the engines and tookoff while being shot at. And of course, he pulled it off.

JAG fans seemed happy with that. I didn't see any huge controversy. Its not like if you write something in your book that us not true that the people will call you a huge phony and end your writing career. Just look at Creighton, he makes shit up all the time.

BTW, I'm not a JAG fan. I was flippin channels one day and saw a distance shot of a C-130 and thought, hey, whats this? I saw our impotent man, Harm, with the nice lady he cant ever seem to close the deal with, Mac and said, "oh, this is good." A few minutes later I was watching Law and Order and thinking, yeah, Hollywood is full of shit.

Out

[Guest]

You need a Nav somewhere in this picture telling the pilot what to do or the whole concept will be seen as unbelievable and you will be scoffed. Publicly. Like a duck.

[Prosuper]

If your using Russians you need to have them flying a dime a dozen AN-12, everything in the cockpit is in cyrillic not english. SOP is use internal APU that power 28 VDC starters, don't forget to pull in the crew ladder and run over it( it happens) also if your looking for realism describe the smell of vodka and feet inside the plane. For taxiing they start one engine release brakes taxi and have the other 3 start on the way to the hammer head. AN-12 the older ones still have a tail gun compartment, the windows are painted over and guns removed. Or use a AN-32 or AN-26 which are very common all over Asia, both are more or less the same plane except for different engines. Russians are cash and carry type guys, along as you pay them they will deliver, but sometimes you wonder if they own a watch or calendar, plus they all most always fly with a bottle of vodka somewhere in the jet so being sober is always a question.

[TacAirCoug]

You need a Nav somewhere in this picture telling the pilot what to do or the whole concept will be seen as unbelievable and you will be scoffed. Publicly. Like a duck.

Not only that, but unless your pilot has an engineer onboard with him to make sure he puts the gear down, he must always attempt to land gear up. Otherwise you might as well tell everyone your C-130 runs on unicorn farts.

[ziploc158]

If you want to make sure that it is really realistic, make sure something brakes on it every time you start an engine.

[bronxbomber252]

If you want to make sure that it is really realistic, make sure something brakes on it every time you start an engine.

THIS!

[Loach]

"Emergency Takeoff"?? No way man! We're going to start engines, and after the Before Taxi checkiist is complete turn 90 degrees and do an enhanced for the SCNS (4 minutes)! Then we can plan on an "emergency takeoff"!

- A Nav

[JPStryker]

What would really help here is some more info on the protagonist. What are his motivations? His history? Is he struggling against an external conflict, an internal conflict or, dare I hope, both. Is the effort to launch this C-130 from a short strip an allegory for the struggle of man to free himself from the shackles of oppression? Tell me more, I'm hooked!

[Winchester]

Most importantly is the crew going to land at the correct field. Gotta have a nav for that.

[HU&W]

1. Is the protagonist posing as a loadmaster?

2. Is he awake?

[FlyingBull]

This is all a moot point because the plane will be broken 90% of the time anyway. So really you need a small fleet of them to keep one available at all times, and thousands of MX.

[arg]

Like the parking brake?

Well played