For several years, I traveled from Cape Canaveral area to various downrange tracking stations in the Bahama Islands and British West Indies. We flew from Patrick AFB, Florida on USAF airplanes. Most of the time the planes were C-124’s (double-deckers that looked like bumblebees with the little wings and a big body).
Once on my way to Grand Turk Island, we loaded on a C-124, sitting on the second deck with the lower deck full of cargo. The pilot taxied to the end of the runway about 5:45 AM and reved each engine over and over. I began to wonder what was wrong. Finally, the pilot turned onto the runway and started rolling. About half way down the runway, he throttled back and shut down two engines.
He taxied back to the hanger. We were told to go get a cup of coffee, because they had a misfire on a couple of engines. After about 30-minutes we were told that the flight would be rescheduled for the next day. We overheard that someone had topped off the fuel tanks with JP-4 jet fuel (similar to kerosene) and it had fouled the gasoline engines.
Apparently, the pilot had heard an occasional misfire during the engine runup, which is probably why he had checked the engines so long before attempting takeoff. One runway at Patrick AFB would have had us taking off over the ocean.
We were the another runway that would have had us taking off over the base with barracks buildings in front of us. If the pilot had not taken so long checking the engines, we would have been starting our climbout when the engines fouled. We could easily have crashed into the barracks buildings.
The next morning,I arrived at the hangar for the rescheduled flight. As I entered the hangar, one of the engineers scheduled to go with me was coming out. He was fuming and said, “I’m not going. This is the same crew and same tail-number aircraft we had yesterday.” He left, but I stayed for the flight. I felt that if the pilot was the same from the day before, he would be extra careful this time.
When traveling from Cape Canaveral area to various downrange tracking stations in the Bahama Islands and British West Indies we flew from Patrick AFB, Florida on USAF airplanes. One of the tracking stations was on San Salvador Island. The only runway at San Salvador was 3300 feet long.
At one end of the San Salvador runway, a road crossed the runway and there was a 20 or 30 foot drop to the ocean just past the road. At the other end of the runway was a swampy area called salt flats. I hated to fly into San Salvador on a C-124. The C-124 looks like it should not be able to fly because of the large body and small wings.
When landing, the pilot would touch down as near the end of the runway as possible and begin braking. He would reverse-thrust the engines almost immediately and the plane would feel like it was going to shake apart as it slowed down, using the full length of the runway.
When taking off, the pilot would back the airplane until the tail section was extending over the road at the end of the runway. He would rev the engines with the brakes locked until we were sure the plane was going to break apart from shaking. The pilot would release the brakes and the plane would begin rolling.
Just after passing the 2500 foot marker, the plane would rotate or lift slightly and the pilot would retract the landing gear. We would be only a few feet above the salt flats as we crossed over them and would begin a slow climb as we reached the ocean.
One trip to Grand Turk, about 700 miles downrange, the C-124 was loaded with fresh produce. After we arrived at Turk, the crew discovered they had a cracked exhaust stack (exhaust manifold). They wired an order for another exhaust stack and the plane sat on the tarmac with the load of fresh produce. This was during the Vietnam War, so there were no spare aircraft. Until this airplane was repaired, no one was moving up or down range.
After a few days, an Air National Guard C-119, Flying Boxcar, landed at Grand Turk with the replacement part, on their way to Puerto Rico. The crew laughed at the AF crew for getting stranded on Turk and not at a better place like Puerto Rico.
The AF mechanic discovered that he had ordered the wrong part number, apparently one digit wrong. It was the wrong part. The AF crew did not want to admit their mistake, so talked to one of the Pan Am welders on base. The welder told them he could weld the crack in the exhaust stack. He did and the plane continued its flight to Antigua with the load of produce, now nearly spoiled.
The plane returned to Turk the next day on its way back to Patrick AFB. We boarded for the flight uprange. The plane was loaded with people and cargo. When we landed at San Salvador, I think, I moved back to an area where there was no leg room because of cargo and stretched out on the side litter.
I then heard the Pan American staff clerk arguing with the AF load master about loading his people on board. The AF man was telling him that there were only a couple of seats available. The clerk said that he would come on board and put people off to seat his northbound passengers. This particular staff clerk and I had clashed a few times.
He came on board and looked around. He began putting people off to seat his people. He kept looking at me, but I was not seated in a normal seating area. I did not have any leg room. I had decided that if he told me to get off, he would have to physically extract me from the airplane. I was going home. He continued to look at me as if he was considering picking me to get off but did not. He did get several people off to wait a few days for another flight. I think that was my last trip downrange before I transferred to Kennedy Space Center.
Copyright © Jerry Blackerby 2009