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motch

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Posts posted by motch

    C-17 lands short at Dover

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    The FE probably didn't know about all the Ecstasy that was stashed down in the cargo compartment! See, nobody likes the FEs... they won't even let them in on the easy cash from an international drug ring! Hahahaha... sorry, that one was too easy!!! No more trash talking from me on Mother's Day...

    That just hurts~

    LOL

    Poor FE's (along with the rest of the crew) had to deal with the BullShit that two idiots caused. Oh, and one of those idiots is the reason I didn't get my age waiver and UPT slot.

    Oh well.. it was fun having Customs go through all our bags for years following.. hope those two are enjoying their time in Federal Lockup.

    Always

    Motch

    so.. back to the Thread-

    where are the pics?

    C-17 lands short at Dover

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    The FE is trained from my understanding very differently than a boom or loadmaster. For one their ASVAB scores have to be Top of the Chart from what I understand. At least it used to be and an NCO with a maintenance background. Old school TOLD was their bread and butter. Slide rule engineering in the 1-1, E6-B experts as well. At one time about 10 or so years ago congress was about to force the AF to adopt the Warrant Officer position and align their rank with the other services. Randolph put a list out, it ended up in AF times somehow and the FE was at the top of the list. In the RAF the FE is a Warrant Officer.

    A former SQ CC told me back in the day that he flew Herks out of Clark. At the time his CC was a Nam guy and had a local directive for all of the FE's to have at least 3 take off's and landings a quarter. The reason behind it was in his squadron in Nam one of the crews cockpit got sprayed with machine gun fire on departure. Messed both the pilots up real bad. The FE had to fly the bird home. Long story short he got a DFC out of it.

    Surf...

    After reading numerous post on here, I had to finally chime in.

    A little background. I retired a few months after 27+ years in. Loadmaster (C/MC-130's,) CC (HC-130) and finally FE (C-5).

    On top of that, I hold A&P, CFI and ATP licenses/ratings.

    While I truly enjoyed being an FE on Fred (and would have remained, if my unit had not switched to -17's), your vision and version on what the FE of today and the past decade are is misguided.

    Yes, at some point they were system experts, and also outside the "Pilot" union.. but those days are long gone.

    My unit had some of the BEST FE's out there.. we also had some of the worse. No different that the Pilot section, or the Load section.

    The fact that there was one Class A C-5 accident, and a handful of Class B's is testimony that even with FE's on board, shit can and will still happen.

    Can we say for sure (100%) that this incident, or the Tampa landing, or the gear up.. would not have happened if there had been an FE onboard?- Nope.

    As a strat airlifter- the C-17 probably doesn't need an FE. Hell, the 74's flying cargo with new -400's/8's don't have FE's either. There comes a day/time that the FE position needs to go away.

    Now, don't get me wrong- an FE is a great asset to have. If he's a true Flight Engineer..an aviator, a guy who loves his airframe and loves his place in life. Unfortunately, those are far and few inbetween. Mostly the old heads and a handful of young tigers (until they get sick and tired of all the AF BS)

    Just like many of the gunners have left, same with navs and slowly FE's, there will come a day when many pilots will disappear. Just the way it is.

    Hopefully that's another 50 years away!

    Always

    Motch

    • Upvote 4

    C-17 Lands at Wrong Airport

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Not seeing the equivalent. Nothing was damaged. Aircraft flew within 12 hours. Obviously they ######ed up and will reap the consequences but to equate it to severely damaging something I don't think plays out. Also, not much skill involved in getting it stopped.

    Anyone think it's kinda weird that the plane flew out so "quickly"..?

    Nothing happens quickly in AMC. They got it offloaded, possibly defueled, did all the performance numbers AND got a new crew in there so quickly?

    Heard a rumor that a high ranking individual was onboard.. anyone really know who was flying, and who was in the cockpit?

    I agree, it sucks for the cockpit crew. They didn't start their day off with plans of landing at a wrong field and possibly ending their career. On the other hand, have to admit, pretty impressive for the airplane.

    Then again, as a C-5 FE (ex?!).. to bad they didn't have a sweaty sitting sideways to keep an eye on them~

    Always

    Motch

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