Here's a Cracker - L-100 (updated 08 Nov 17)

[Uuoret]

Over to you - extremely rare!!



J





Thanks for looking!

[PorkScratching]

It's an L-100 Hercules (not a C-130 - no lower cockpit windows). I'm guessing it was at Teesside. I've never been airside there, but the lighting gantries etc in the background look similar to some shots posted on here recently. BMA also used to operate DC-9s between Heathrow and Teesside, and there's one in the background. As to when, well, based on the BMA livery I can narrow it down slightly to anywhere between the early 1970s and late 1980s!

[Uuoret]

It's an L-100 Hercules (not a C-130 - no lower cockpit windows). I'm guessing it was at Teesside. I've never been airside there, but the lighting gantries etc in the background look similar to some shots posted on here recently. BMA also used to operate DC-9s between Heathrow and Teesside, and there's one in the background. As to when, well, based on the BMA livery I can narrow it down slightly to anywhere between the early 1970s and late 1980s!

Well done!! Absolutely great deduction - is your second name Holmes?

Teesside 1977, L100 RPC-101 taking a transformer to the Middle East, slightly out of trim (I warned the captain - but he said it was still inside limits). I was the flight dispatcher.

It was taken at 06:30 in the morning.

It took ages taking off, then a very shallow climb over Darlington.

More pics of it if you want!

John

[Uuoret]

Just for info - and I don't want to be accused of being non-PC, but the Captain was only 5ft tall.....he had cushions on his seat in the cockpit....

J

[PorkScratching]

Shelock Holmes will be required to work out the location and a/c type for what you posted on Fighter Control today! I have some ideas, but I'm not real sure (might try looking them up on the Internet if I get chance before somebody else works it out).

Back to this one though, and yeah a Filipino L-100 is certainly a rare beast! More pictures would be most welcome. When you say it was out of trim, do you mean the CofG was out of limits? If so, obviously a little naughty of the Captain to fly it. Although being a Herc it can handle abuse (as it evidently did). Sounds as though it woke up most of Darlington on departure!

[Uuoret]

Shelock Holmes will be required to work out the location and a/c type for what you posted on Fighter Control today! I have some ideas, but I'm not real sure (might try looking them up on the Internet if I get chance before somebody else works it out).

Back to this one though, and yeah a Filipino L-100 is certainly a rare beast! More pictures would be most welcome. When you say it was out of trim, do you mean the CofG was out of limits? If so, obviously a little naughty of the Captain to fly it. Although being a Herc it can handle abuse (as it evidently did). Sounds as though it woke up most of Darlington on departure!

Astonishingly, the picture on Fighter Control was solved in 4 hours!!

The transformer for the L-100 was a solid lump, packed in a huge long wooden box. It arrived on the back of an articulated lorry. The rear ramp of the aircraft and the lorry deck were somehow levelled and they tried to pull the transformer directly into the hold with the onboard winch.

The transformer cleared the lorry deck - only just - and decided to lodge itself on the ramp. The internal winch could't cope and started overheating. Nothing could get into the hold as the transformer was completely blocking any heavy equipment that would mitigate the problem. The captain and the loadmaster were quite distressed - not just because of the predicament, but losing the ATC slot time for the flight.

It was decided (not be me, I hasten to add!) to line two airport tractors, one either side of the fuselage, both facing forward. A chain was run between the two, and gingerly they took up the load moving the transformer forward and building slight momentum, allowing the internal winch to finish the job. This was almost successful, but the winch failed again at the very last moment and the transformer, although now fully inside the aircraft, was four feet aft of its intended position.

Captain still wanted his slot time, so he went almost immediately. Don't think that sort of thing would be allowed to happen now.......

I've got another couple of pics - I'll upload later....

[PorkScratching]

What an interesting story. He was lucky - plenty of people have paid the ultimate price for "pressonitis", as I'm sure you're aware.

[waghorn41]

And here she is on a damp day at Kai Tak in 1976
Philipine Aerotransport L100 by Ian Pursey, on Flickr

...and on a sunny day her sister RP C-100
RPC100 by Ian Pursey, on Flickr

[LondonEye]

Nice story John.
RP-C101 was at Gatwick in July 1978 so stirred a memory.
Pete.