Personal photos/text taken in/out of Vietnam combat zone from perspective of copilot on USAF C-130 345th Tactical Airlift Crew. Not just about the war, but also about the people/places of the region during 1972. This is where I got my first Nikon film SLR which turned into lifelong passion albeit now Canon digital SLR. The photos are recent digital scans from old 35mm slides wasting away in hot/cold attic for 40 years. Extensive Photoshop editing has been used to make them somewhat presentable.
Saturday, May 7, 2011
C-130 Oven Hue Vietnam
Hanging out the cockpit window of C-130-E while parked on the ramp in Hue, Vietnam - 1972. Without engines running there was no air conditioning, and the inside of the aircraft was like an oven in the Southeast Asian heat. One window on each side of the cockpit opened inward to provide just a little bit of ventilation. These windows also allowed emergency escape from the plane if you could manage to maneuver through it with aid of a handle on the inside above the window ... while dropping to the ground you would need to avoid the pointy object about 4 feet below the window. This was the critical pitot tube that provided airspeed to instruments in the cockpit. Important line items of the pilot's checklists were "Pitot Heat - On/Off" ... if these devices iced up at altitude they could provide incorrect airspeed that could be fatal.
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