Ice Cap Recovery of Aircraft
57-492 – Page 4
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happened.
The wind that had been blowing on the nose of the aircraft suddenly
shifted ninety degrees and started blowing against the right side of the
aircraft. As a result, the wind
blowing against the big vertical stabilizer caused the tires to begin to
slide toward the outside edge of the beams. I immediately had the men start
up the compressor manifolds to reinflate the air bags and called for the
bulldozer driver to start piling snow against the aft left side of the
aircraft. With this
accomplished, The aircraft was stabilized and we were able to reposition the
two beams and attach the arms of the ski to the landing gear struts. Once the main ski was pressurized
with hydraulic fluid, the two beams were removed and the aircraft was ready
to stand on the landing gear and skis.
The left aileron, wing tip and left auxiliary fuel pylon tank were
replaced, so it was time to replace the last damaged items, the number one
propeller and engine. The only
problem was that we didn’t have a suitable hoist available to do the
job. Using a little Yankee
ingenuity, I looked around and found a hoist that could be attached to the
blade of the bulldozer. As a
result, I had the bulldozer operator build a snow ramp that was wide enough
for driving the bulldozer up to the front of the damaged number one
engine. Once this was done, we
attached the hoist to the blade of the bulldozer and used it to remove the
propeller and engine and hang the new ones. We were then ready to service all of the systems and
perform the system checks.
Amazingly enough, after sitting in some really cold weather for nearly
six weeks, there was only one discrepancy when I ran all four engines. Upon completion of the engine run and the clearing
of all aircraft discrepancies, I called Sondrestrom for the flight crew to
arrive the following morning to pick up the aircraft. The aircraft was then taxied to the
end of the runway to await the arrival of the flight crew. Several days prior to the completion of the repairs, I had called Elmendorf and requested Captain Jim McKenzie, the C-130 Maintenance Chief, to assemble enough steaks and all the trimmings for the maintenance crew and the members of the Dye Site. I felt that this was only fitting, as we had been quartered and fed in the Dye Site for the entire time of the aircraft repair. We agreed to split the cost of the dinner between the two of us. Although neither one of us were ever reimbursed, we were still proud to do it. To show their appreciation, the Dye Site personnel offered to keep their bar open from noon until midnight on the day that our work was completed. It was quite a dinner and was thoroughly appreciated by all. |
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Photograph courtesy of |
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