Continued

 

 

Fitzwater also reported that he had learned that the crews flying the three operational C-130BL aircraft were "As suspected with the short props on the C-1308 the Navy has been having difficulty in making ski takeoffs under soft snow conditions." He decided that one of the first missions would be to determine the optimum techniques for takeoff under poor conditions of sliding snow.

 

 

 

It was also reported that the weather was far from ideal for test conditions. The overcasts and broken cloud conditions resulted in the loss of depth perception for ski landings. The wind was also another problem, in that each day it had been well above the recommended 10% of lift off speed for performance and loads testing.

 

 

 

At last, data gathering test flights were begun on December 22. The first tests, made at 108,000 lbs. gross weight, were done to determine if airspeed stagnated during the takeoff runs as had previously occurred at Bemidji. However, the snow in Antarctica was considerably drier than that in Minnesota, which resulted in an improvement in takeoff performance. The shortest takeoffs were after ground runs of 3500 feet using 100% flap settings. The second series of tests were done with a forward e.g. configuration, also at 108,000 lbs. gross weight, and good data was obtained.

 

 

 

One hour of flight-tests at a mid c.g. location were logged on December 23 after a long delay waiting for the availability of a ground power cart needed to start the engines.

 

 

 

Tests were delayed until the evening of the 25th because of high winds and overcast sky conditions which caused poor terrain definition and depth perception for the pilot. One hour and 25 minutes of tests were conducted at an aft c.g. configuration.

 

 

 

All of the tests thus far were conducted on the smooth snow of the semi-prepared "skiway" at Williams Field. It had been decided that it was logical to do the smooth snow tests first, gradually increasing the gross weights, so as to verify the maximum gross weight of the C-130BL to 135,000 lbs. on skis in a minimum amount of time. That was considered necessary in view of the short time remaining until the end of the Antarctica summer season and the expected poor flying weather during the months of January and February 1961.

 

 

 

The Slide III crew found, in spite of the 24 hours of daylight in Antarctica at that time of year, it was unpractical to attempt to fly more than one data flight per day. That was particularly true in the Photography Section of the Task Force team, which should have had twice the personnel that they did.

 

 

 

Tests continued to be delayed due to ground power cart problems-either it was being used by other aircraft or it wouldn't operate. Further delays were caused by the other Navy (nontest) C-130s blocking the refueling pit.

 

 

 

The lead shot ballast was still a problem. Some 5,000 lbs. in bags were at the main camp but there was no transportation available to move them the 4-1/2 miles to the test site. Another 5,000 lbs. of ballast remained to be shipped from New Zealand. Without the ballast, the crew would have been unable to reach the required gross weights to complete the tests.

 

 

 

 

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