Jump to content

Getting BUFF for Alert


VonL

Recommended Posts

For a SAC B-52H and KC-135A, c.1985: How were these planes typically configured for SIOP alert? I need some details regarding which power, or compressor AGE cart (if any) was hooked up, and to which engine nacelle? Were engine/inlet covers always installed? Was there any significant difference between winter & summer configurations? Have searched a bunch of online galleries and the results are inconclusive. I worked there a long, long time ago, but the memory fades.

 

Have got a 1/144 Revell alert combo in work. Mr. TOAD is now 99% finished, as is the alert pad base. Have not yet started Mr. BUFF. Am hoping to avoid scratchbuilding 1/144 AGE gear...but maybe that's a good challenge.

 

Any help appreciated!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On alert the aircraft were flight ready with no power carts or other exterior attachments. The engine covers were always in place front only. Each cover was attached to the next one by a cord. The covers where in tandem. On the 135 there is a duct at the wing root that has a cover as well. The pitot covers were in place and tied together with a cord that ran through the cockpit windows so the pilot and co-pilot could remove them when from the cockpit. Every thing was buttoned up.

 

In the winter there was a canvas snow cover that went across the front windscreen and was held in place by the closed side windows. All alert aircraft had rollover wheel chocks which were very flat and placed between the trucks on the 135. The only auxiliary equipment were large fire bottles with side wheels behind the aircraft. Remember that these birds were set up to get airborne as quickly as possible. The first person to the aircraft pulled the engine covers and tossed them behind the bird. The pilot, co and nav went up the crew entry to fire up the bird and the boom maned the fire bottle and got on the intercom for the cartridge start. Once the engines fired, he went up the hatch and buttoned it up. Nav copied and authenticated the launch message and the pilots got ready to roll. Nothing but armpits and elbows getting the bird in the air.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great synopsis and snapshot of the procedures! It gives a person like myself who has no idea of those things a glimpse of being on alert with SAC when it counted. Great diorama possibilities there! Thanks!

 

GIL :smiley16:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's been a long time(30+ years) but the memories of the kalxon blaring and crews running are as fresh as if it was yesturday. They come back really strong if there is the smell of burnt JP 4 in the air. :smiley14:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanx for that, Pete! Great description of the tanker configuration, especially.

 

So you did this in the 1970's? I was on BUFFs in the late 1980's and kinda remember the compressor unit hooked up to #3/4 (or maybe the #5/6) nacelle to start engines for preflight and for some exercise starts, since those expendable black powder start-cart's required clean-up of internal crud after use.

Sure, the MX guys could use additional AGE units to do work on the jets, but I've also seen some UNCLAS distance shots of SAC alert pads with carts positioned ahead of the leading edge of all the jets' wings and connected up. At our base anyway, the fire bottles were definitely positioned under the left wingtip for both types of jet. I suspect some of these procedures changed a bit, with time...?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanx for that, Pete! Great description of the tanker configuration, especially.

 

So you did this in the 1970's? I was on BUFFs in the late 1980's and kinda remember the compressor unit hooked up to #3/4 (or maybe the #5/6) nacelle to start engines for preflight and for some exercise starts, since those expendable black powder start-cart's required clean-up of internal crud after use.

Sure, the MX guys could use additional AGE units to do work on the jets, but I've also seen some UNCLAS distance shots of SAC alert pads with carts positioned ahead of the leading edge of all the jets' wings and connected up. At our base anyway, the fire bottles were definitely positioned under the left wingtip for both types of jet. I suspect some of these procedures changed a bit, with time...?

 

 

You are right about the positioning of the fire bottle. The memory dims a bit. My last alert was in September of 1981 at Fairchild AFB. Undoubtedly you have to choose the time and place for a diorama. I recall that there were compressors about also but they were there in the event of a failed cart start.

 

I suspect that the photo you have seen may be from the ORI. The aircraft remained in a cocked configuration prior to flying the inspection route but did not do cartridge starts for the mission. If the IG was on the ground, you very may have all the normal starting equipment in place, but the aircraft were no longer on alert per se. During active alert the only time it would be see such things was during maintenance, when you were swapping out of an aircraft or crew change over.

 

Crew changeover would probably be the busiest time. There were two crews at the aircraft. The oncoming crew would be loading up their gear and the retiring crew would be off loading theirs. Maintenance would be on site and the APU would be hooked up so the oncoming crew could complete the preflight and sign off on the aircraft. Thursday mornings were very busy in that respect. There was a lot of activity around the birds.

 

SIOP had several different stages of alert from normal to airborne. Each was designed for a different threat level. There were several higher levels which required the crew be in the cockpit engines off or engines running. In the engines off mode the internal APU provided power. In this case the intake and exhaust APU ports on the aft left side would be open. Also during very cold weather there would be a heater with the tube stuffed up the crew hatch. I remember hating cockpit alert in the winter. I was at Wurtsmith in Michigan and it could get bitter cold.

 

If the crew was in the cockpit, there would be a Dodge crew cab pickup parked off the right wing. That was crew transportation. It had a four sided yellow sign on the roof that said "Alert Crew" and a yellow strobe light on top. All traffic on base had to yield to those trucks if the strobe was on. The highest stage of alert before actual launch for airborne alert was with the #1 aircraft on the runway and the rest holding short behind it. The most terrifying and dangerous part of alert was a MITO-minimum interval take off. As I recall(and my memory dims a bit) the aircraft rolled at 10 second intervals. At Wurtsmith we had water wagons as tankers and Buffs both. As soon as the water injection kicked in, the space behind went IFR. Rolling down the runway into a cloud of black smoke in a 292,000 pound Molotov cocktail shot the pucker factor through the roof.

 

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Edited by PeteJ
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was flying KC-135As out of Grissom AFB in the mid to late 1980's. Much of what Pete wrote matches my memories, but I do remember a few differences - might have been local variations or procedure changes over time (and fortunately we didn't have B-52s stationed with us!)

 

In the summer (well, non-winter) we had intake covers on all engines, held in place with bungee cords around to the exhaust end. In the winter, there were exhaust covers as well, and they were attached to the front covers with those bungee cords. As Pete mentioned, we used a cover on the front windscreen, which was usually bright yellow. I think we had a ground wire plugged in as well, but I'm not sure - may have only used that when topping off the fuel after an alert start.

 

Pitot covers were on both sides, with bungee cords that were run down the side of the fuselage and hooked together underneath the aircraft. As a copilot, I remember trying to pull one off during a klaxon one day and having it hang on the pitot tube. I pulled on it, stretching the cord, until it came loose and snapped back at me - fortunately I turned and got smacked in the back of the head, not in the face!

 

We normally had a power cart off to the side of the aircraft (don't know what kind - it was big, green, and noisy :smiley17: ) By this time, we were not allowed to use the on-board APU due to several fires, so the cart was used to provide electrical power during daily pre-flight, maintenance, and such. In cold weather, the power cart was also used to heat the water tank (below 40F, it needed to be heated, below 20F, it was dumped...the crew chiefs spent lots of time heating water in cold weather).

 

Typically when the horn went off, the crew chief responded to the jet as well, and would be on the interphone monitoring engine start, the Boom would be upstairs with us (usually verifying the Nav's message decode...) We used cartridge starts for all alert starts, usually in the two outboard engines, but depending on the alert level, in all four.

 

If I remember, the MITO interval behind another KC-135 was 12 seconds, 15 seconds behind a B-52 (I think I did one of those at Castle AFB during initial crew training) And yes, a four-ship, wet MITO was an act of faith in the crews of the aircraft ahead of you!

 

Great synopsis and snapshot of the procedures! It gives a person like myself who has no idea of those things a glimpse of being on alert with SAC when it counted. Great diorama possibilities there!

Those were some interesting times, Gil. Fortunately, every time the horn went off, it was an exercise message - would hate to think about what would have happened if it was real.

And if someone made a decent KC-135A in 1/144 scale, I'd have done a couple of dioramas by now.

 

It's been a long time(30+ years) but the memories of the kalxon blaring and crews running are as fresh as if it was yesturday. They come back really strong if there is the smell of burnt JP 4 in the air. :smiley14:

It's been 20+ years for me, but every now and then I'll hear a klaxon-like horn go off somewhere and stop to check the time (to see if it's just the daily klaxon check!)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's great to hook up with another Tanker Toad! I remember the bungee cords on the engine covers. For a while the first pilot to the aircraft did the engine start, the second person cleared the engine covers and when up the hatch unless it was the boom. The boom did crew chief duties during start. If the copilot did the start, the they switched positions and ran the rest of the alert. Switching positions was never an easy task. In spite of appearances, the cockpit of a 135 is not that big and getting into and out of the pilot seats in a hurry was a challenge. After a couple of mishaps they stopped letting the copilots fire the engines and the AC had to do the job. It was safer and really didn't save enough time to make any difference.

 

For us, on normal operations the pitot covers went under the chin like you described. I don't know who's idea it was to run them cross cockpit on alert, but it really made it easier especially in winter when you had to open the sliders to get the windscreen cover off. One pilot would grab the end of the cover and pull it in and the other would wind up the cord on the pitot covers and toss them to the back.

 

Worst injury I ever had was the notorious waffle head. It happened on about the 5th or 6th alert. You only did it once, then you made damn sure that the hatch was secured before you stuck your head up. That hatch was heavy and hit like a ton of bricks.

 

I remember the booms helping out with water heating during the winter. That was a real thankless job. They did use APUs for heating water. They were yellow at both Wurtsmith and Fairchild. I know they would use the internal APU if they were short of carts. I remember that the Solar APUs use to scare the heck out of me when I had to start them. Never had a mishap but I really didn't like starting them.

 

I guess I was in during a time of a little more unrest. I can't say why but we had a couple of instances where the message was not a practice. The pucker factor went up real fast. I was also at Fairchild doing survival during the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The whole base when on alert. I wasn't qualified at the time(hadn't been Castle yet) but they had anyone with wings helping out. As a newly minted butter bar it was really quite exciting..

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Another question about the AGE gear on alert with SAC: About when did they stop painting it yellow and instead convert to the current green drab or OD, or whatever that is? Vietnam era pix show yellow gear, while my memory sez it was all green in the late 1980's.

 

And a funny story: On my first alert tour, awaiting get-the-new-guy pranks in the Loring winter, I recall skulking past a few of the tanker guys who were laughing about whether or not they should retrieve their new Boomer from the ramp. As the newbie on their crew, it was apparently "his turn" to put the snow chains on the tanker's tires...

 

Thanx again for all the great intell here. I've printed this thread for future reference.

Edited by VonL
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ah, just a bunch of kids!!! Back in the 60s we started the engines with a pull cord and Zippo lighter!!

 

The procedures changed a little through the years, but the mission and the dedication did not. As a tanker toad, we spent a lot of time in the winter heating, dumping and servicing water, but that was winter in Ohio. That was the only time we would use the MD-3A power cart. Probably wrong, but I don't remember using it even during the crew change overs.

 

My profile has a picture of me with my KC-135A taken in 1968. In June I was priviledged enough to visit my old bird. She is with the Iowa ANG and is in excellent hands. It was a very emotional day for me.

 

The Alert B-52E Bomber Bums used MD3s on a daily basis, if I remember correctly, for preflight at least. They did not use them for alert engine starts, but positioned them between engine pods #1 and #2, so it would be cleared when the aircraft did have to taxi.

 

I doubt that I want to repeat my experiances with SAC, but I am glad to have had them and will never forget them.

 

Mark

post-413-1279770818_thumb.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Oops, looks like I don't know how to post pictures. Need to go find out, huh?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Surprising how many Tanker toads are out there. I always thought SAC procedures were standardized but I guess not, but then that wasn't a flight crew issue for the most part. I suspect the use of the MD-3 was a function of use of the APU on the aircraft. I remember there were intermittent warnings about fires on board. I hated that piece of equipment. For those who can't understand that, think of using a fire prone piece of equipment on top of about 180,000 pounds of jet fuel.

 

Burning water. I will try to post a photo I took on a calm morning at Fairchild. I think most will love it. All smoke and noise. I also remember the crackle of the ol J-57's at 30 below zero, both in Michigan and Alaska. Takeoff at subzero was a lot less challenging than at a 95 degrees at U-Tapao. That old bird had a lot of different personalities from aggressive high performance to a ground hugging pig. A lot of thought went into flying it.

 

Thanks for sharing!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Aha! The power cart was used for preflight, but not alert starts. Now it comes back...

 

Mark - To post pix, I first upload them to PHOTOBUCKET. Then, when the photo shows in that gallery, run the cursor over it, revealing its data block. One item in that data block is "IMG", which is its image description/location data. I then COPY that "IMG" data string and PASTE it into my post on the IPMS forum. Then the forum program knows where to pull the pic from, to display it in the post.

 

As I recall, the water burned because GEN LeMay said it would.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi guys,

 

It is always great to talk to guys that have been there and done that. I was with the 17th OMS at Wright-Pat 1966-1970 and we had a reunion in early June. It was a blast from the past. Lots of war stories and you know every one of them was true!

 

I'll try pasting the Photobucket file here - let's see what happens.

 

AT-12-June-2010-58-0067-51.jpg

 

I really like the avatar with the water wagon on lift off. I was at a fishing pond, right off the end of the runway, one day when an 8 ship MITO came right over the head. Awesome.

 

"Gear Up - Flaps Up - Water burn out in...30 seconds."

 

Actually, from what I hear, LeMay wanted the J-57 over the more expensive, but more powerful, TF-33, reasoning that "Fuel is Cheap".

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey, it worked. Amazing.

 

This picture was taken 12 June this year.

 

AT-12-June-2010-58-0067-51.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I really like the avatar with the water wagon on lift off...

That's an official photo (read public domain...) I found in a gallery on the AF web site years ago. I can pass along a larger copy if you like.

 

Heaviest take off I remember was going out of Pease, en route to RAF Mildenhall, dragging some F-4s out of Seymour Johnson. Had about 175K of fuel, making our t/o weight somewhere north of 285K. Pushed up the power and started the water - we made lots of noise and smoke, but not much acceleration, as we headed down that 11,000 feet of runway. If I remember, we rotated around the 2K remaining marker, and were airborne with something like 1K of runway left.

 

Was chatting with a friend who recently (about 2 years ago) completed USAF pilot training, and is now flying KC-10s at McGuire. We were going back and forth with little digs at each others aircraft, when he came at me with a crack about needing water injection to get the -135 to fly, I reminded him of this important fact: We were Gods - we made water burn!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ok, as promised, here are a couple of shots I took one morning at Fairchild. I had seen the schedule and knew that we had a couple of heavy weight take offs planned. I was lucky in that the wind was out of the east and we had a very near perfect day to shoot photos.

 

Notice how close the aircraft is the end of the runway as it becomes airborne!

 

KC-135airborne.jpg

 

KC climbing like a Home sick............. well, more like an old man with arthritis up a set of stairs.

 

KC-135gearup.jpg

 

B52 a couple of minutes later. If you look in the second photo, you can see it taxiing out.

 

B52.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just found this on you-tube. It picks up mid engine start. It is an A model after they automated the fuel panel and installed the GPS but before they put in the glass cockpit. Still running the old HSI ADI setup. The video starts with the Copilot bring the generators on line. He starts with #3. They had to be manually synchronized with the two strobe lights on the right side of the panel and manually put on the buss. It is a copilot takeoff and departure. Brings back a ton of memories.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pete,

 

Thanks for the pics. I've gotten them downloaded and in my KC-135 directory.

 

BTW, the B-52 is a G, not a D as captioned. Small, non-droppable tanks and blisters under the nose are the first clues. All of the Ds wore black bellys and I am most certain all Ds were scrapped long before 1981.

 

I could not get the u-tube to work, as I am on a phone card in our camp trailer. We had one co-pilot in particular that was unofficially forbidden to bring the generators on line. He could shear a shaft just by looking at the generator sync panel. The boom operator usually did that part and was known to smack the back of the co's hand pretty hard if he even looked like he was reaching for the panel. One had to be very careful in cold weather. (You know these things, but others reading this might be interested)

 

Take it easy - Happy Modeling

 

BTW - you going to the Nats? I'll be there (if the creeks dont rise and the Dodge keeps running) and maybe we can get together.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi Guys,

 

This was a very interesting reading this forum topic. I see that you are all Air force vets and talking about alerts. So this brought back memories of my time in the Navy. I served as a catapult crew chief (topside Petty Officer) back in the 80's on carriers. As everyone can recall the cold war was still going on an every time we were out cruising in or near a non-friendly country or hot spot we had an Alert ready fighter or two on deck ready to go. During fight op's there was always a CAP (combat air patrol) plane's in the air. They were usuallly the third planes (E-2 Hawkeye was second and the helo's for plane guard always first) that we shot off in the launch cycle. There was always a Alert plane or two on deck as a back up. This plane would be on either Alert 30, 60, (number ment that was the time frame that that bird had to be airborne in)ect..

 

During non-fight time there was always a Alert bird ready and a catapult ready and on alert. The highest alert being Alert 5. This ment that the bird (F-14 Tomcat) would be sitting on the catapult armed to the teeth. The pilot would be geared up sitting in the cockpit. Plane checkers (squadron personel) around the aircraft ready to do final plane checks. And of couse us catapult crew guy geared up and manning the cat, topside and below. A typical catapult crew had five guys at stations below decks and eight guys on stations topside. I was the top enlisted crew member in charge of the crew topside. When the bird was on the cat and in the ready postion and tension was taken I did my final checks and gave the Handler (yellow shirt plan director) the go signal. He then turned the plane over to the cat officer, who gave the final signal to launch.

 

So one day while crusing off the Cuben coast in the 80's we were getting ready to start fight ops for the afternoun/night cycle. I was manning Catapult number 3 on the waist cats (Bow cat are number 1 & 2, waist (side/midship) cats are number 3 & 4) with the Alert 5, F-14. The fight deck was doing a FOD walkdown ( were every person, officers and enlisted walks the fight deck from Bow to stern looking for anything that can damage a jet engine. This took place before every launch cycle). About half way through the FOD walkdown the fight deck 5mc (fightdeck speakers) comes to life, 'launch the Alert 5, this is no drill, launch the Alert 5 this is no drill". Well in exactly 4min. 41sec. the plane was in the air and the alert 20 was getting ready to taxi up for it's cat shot next. Turns out that the Cubens sent out a couple of fully armed planes to test our response time. This happened from time to time during the cold war. Just one of the many games that was played during that fun war.

 

I hope that this gives people a different look at how other services did operations. I know that this has noing to do with the forum topic, but if any of you plane guys wanted to know a little about how the Navy operates, well there it is.

 

Enjoy,

 

Chris Graeter

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man, I love reading about these experiences and incidences. I was never able to serve (Tourette's Syndrome) so I can only experience this kind of thing through others stories. Both the Air Force and Navy experiences are great to read about. Thanks for sharing your lives guys!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Pete,

 

Thanks for the pics. I've gotten them downloaded and in my KC-135 directory.

 

BTW, the B-52 is a G, not a D as captioned. Small, non-droppable tanks and blisters under the nose are the first clues. All of the Ds wore black bellys and I am most certain all Ds were scrapped long before 1981.

 

I could not get the u-tube to work, as I am on a phone card in our camp trailer. We had one co-pilot in particular that was unofficially forbidden to bring the generators on line. He could shear a shaft just by looking at the generator sync panel. The boom operator usually did that part and was known to smack the back of the co's hand pretty hard if he even looked like he was reaching for the panel. One had to be very careful in cold weather. (You know these things, but others reading this might be interested)

 

Take it easy - Happy Modeling

 

BTW - you going to the Nats? I'll be there (if the creeks dont rise and the Dodge keeps running) and maybe we can get together.

 

Mark -

You are right about the G model. I had forgotten that and will relable the photo accordingly. All I could remember were the non fan engines. When I was at Wurtsmith in 73 they had the H's. I remeber seeing the D's on Guam at the time. Good ol black bellyed monkey killers!

Yes, I am going to Nat's but won't be there until late on Thursday. There is another AF vet that I am trying to hook up with. He was a Tweet crew chief at Laughlin. I will be bringing my Porsche, so you will find me hanging around the large scale automotive table a lot. I will have either a Porsche or Tamiya hat with lots of Tamiya/con pins on. See you there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Those were some great photos, Pete! And the video sure brings back memories.

 

If I remember correctly, that wasn't a GPS on the panel (if you were referring to the unit on the upper right of the fuel panel) That was part of the updated fuel control system - it was called FSA/CAS (I forget what the acronym meant, and my books aren't handy) It included the new fuel panel (with the little switches and buttons, I always thought it looked like it would be more at home in a biz jet then a tanker) The other panel allowed you to input certain info, and let you get stuff like take off data, CG, and such.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Those were some great photos, Pete! And the video sure brings back memories.

 

If I remember correctly, that wasn't a GPS on the panel (if you were referring to the unit on the upper right of the fuel panel) That was part of the updated fuel control system - it was called FSA/CAS (I forget what the acronym meant, and my books aren't handy) It included the new fuel panel (with the little switches and buttons, I always thought it looked like it would be more at home in a biz jet then a tanker) The other panel allowed you to input certain info, and let you get stuff like take off data, CG, and such.

 

 

I had no idea that was what it was. I picked up one of the first birds from McConnell AFB that was equipped with INS and it was in the place of the radar. When I flew these birds, that was all fuel panel with analogue gages and dotted lines and fuel valves. Boom had the wiz stick and was responsible for calculating the CG. It was all done manually. I just assumed that the little unit was a GPS. My mistake. Incidental, in my day you did all the takeoff data with charts and graphs in the back of the Dash 1 or checklist. We had a set of cards laminated and used a grease pencil. Those cards sat on the instrument panel just over the water light. No computers or calculators. A pilot had to use his biological computer to do that stuff.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...