I'd like to hear from former C-124 crew members who have a story to tell about "Old Shakey". Photos of the C-124 and/or crew members are most welcome. Acounts of routine operations as well as special missions and airlift tests would be useful. If enough information emerges, we may try to have something published to benefit a C-124 restoration.

I have worked many Shahey's in transit aleart. They were big dirty and oily.
But warm in the winter when you had to service ADI on a cold night. They were the super haulers before the C-5.

I flew as a navigator on C-124s from about '66 until '71. I remember it as a very stable airplane. When making a celestial observation, any wandering/wallowing around was readily noticeable. We had previously had C-97s and they had a pronounced sinusoidal motion. Old Shakey was rock steady. Normal speed was 205kts with 3200PPH fuel (115/145) burn. Unpressurized, so the normal altitude was 8000 westbound, 9000 eastbound.

The cockpit/cabin noise level was high, about the same as a C-130. It was a different frequency but about the same db level.

I was in an ANG unit in the southeast US. To get to Travis, we would go across Texas then up central California, so it was about 12 hrs just to get to the starting point. From our home base to southeast Asia and return was about 110-115 hrs flying time.

It was not known as a rapid climbing aircraft, especially when loaded. I remember two instances that illustrate this. One was departing Travis, we needed to climb in holding to gain enough altitude to clear the hills down toward San Francisco. The other was departing Charleston eastbound, we needed vectors around a 950 foot tower over by the coast (18-20 mi east of CHS). In this case, it was a precautionary request and we would have been at the required altitude(2000ft).

When I first joined the Guard in 1961, it was as an 'Air Freight Specialist' (well, apprentice), don't remember the AFSC, but looks like the present equivalent is 2T2X1. Back then Passenger Service was a different AFSC. Tech school was based on the C-124 being the prime mover. The C-133 was the 'big iron'. I remember Wheelus AB, Libya, Dhahran AB, Saudi Arabia being talked about as frequent destinations in 1961, although that seemed to fade as the '60's went on.

South Atlantic stops were Kindley Bermuda and Lajes, Azores. North Atlantic stops were Earnest Harmon, Newfoundland, Prestwick Scotland and Mildenhall.

Pacific stops were Hickam, Wake Island, Guam, sometimes Midway.

Max fuel was about 66,000lbs. I believe it could be maxed out on weight (185,000lbs) with fuel only, which would give about 18-20 hrs endurance. The longest flight I can remember was from Madrid to Argentia, Newfoundland at about 14.5 hrs (with headwind). A sidenote, Argentia was a NAS, when we got in range, they ask if we could take passengers outbound to the States. The pilot, said yes. They then ask how many? The pilot said a few. (although we were empty, the pilot was thinking about no facilities except a honey bucket, and no seats except the side canvas) Wanting a more specific number, they ask again for a number. The pilot replied 'Oh, 15 or 20'. They chuckled, they had a family of 5.

Here is a link regarding Wheelus. This page has a link to a video made on Wheelus flight line in 1964. At the very end is a clip of a C-124 loading/unloading thru the front ramps. I believe the Med-Evac plane is a C-118 instead of C-54 as the used noted.
http://members.aol.com/thudeur2/wheelus.htm

pa

I flew from Hickam to Travis for a week one night. Not too long before one had gone down somewhere west of Hickam and was never found. Nada, nuttin', nyet! So when the 1502FLMS (Transient Maint) decided to send 1 or 2 guys pr shift to C130 school at Travis I wound up on an aluminum overcast one Sunday afternoon.
The bird that had gone down before had a few passengers, 1 escorting a body. The shakey I was on had a few passengers, 1 escorting a body. I thought, I hope to hell this is just a weird coincidence.
Needless to say, it was 'cause I arrived, alive and still breathing the next morning.

The weirdest thing I remember happening about a shakey happened one night on third shift also at Hickam. I was a Transient Maint. crewchief and had dropped my guys off at the flightline snack bar to be picked up when our first flight, a shakey came in.
While they were on break Maint Control called to say the bird we were waiting on had a body of a crew member on board and not to enter it until the body was removed.
I saw the plane land, stopped by the snackbar and went to the fuel pit the plane was going to use.
As we pulled up my guys saw an ambulance sitting there and asked what happened.
I told them about the dead crew member and they were satisfied.
The ambulance pulled up to the shakey, talked to the crew and left. Without a body! The crew left on a bus, too.
I called Maint. Control. They said they'd check. In the meantime I could go ahead with maint.
So I pulled in front of the shakey and told my guys to "get it." Nobody budged! I said lets go guys. Nobody moved.
Somebody in back said," I ain't goin' on there till you check it out, Sarge."
Damn. And there was no power unit delivered yet either!
I got a flashlight, puckered my fruit of the looms and went aboard.
Cockpit, cargo deck out thru the wings, everwhere and didn't find anything! Back in the truck my brave boys decided they might honor me by taking care of business.
I called Maint. again and they promised to check on it. I have no idea whether they did or not.
But that whole thing was probably the weirdest thing I ever was involved in.

Worked on 124s for three years at Dover 67-70, avionics, we had a couple of squadrons of them, along with the C-133s and the C-141s. Many a clean fatigue uniform was oil and grease if I got assigned a 124 engine problem.

Flew on them several times, once in an thunderstorm coming back from a TDY during Tet offensive from Barksdale. The bunks were good for sleeping I remember while we waited for parts I do recall.



DD

quote:

Originally posted by pa23:
I flew as a navigator on C-124s from about '66 until '71. I remember it as a very stable airplane. When making a celestial observation, any wandering/wallowing around was readily noticeable. We had previously had C-97s and they had a pronounced sinusoidal motion. Old Shakey was rock steady... It was not known as a rapid climbing aircraft, especially when loaded... I remember Wheelus AB, Libya, Dhahran AB, Saudi Arabia being talked about as frequent destinations in 1961, although that seemed to fade as the '60's went on.

I was a tower controller at Wheelus AB, Libya from mid '67 thru '68 and we got weekly visits from mostly ANG C-124's hopscotching around Europe. Had one crew obviously spend more time at the O Club than the VOQ. Lots of dead-keying the mic while taxiiing, got lost on the North Ramp and couldn't find the runway, SANG their IMC (IFR) clearance back to the ground controller, sat in the #1 position for almost a half hour and let their clearance from Tripoli Control expire, finally got rolling, used EVERY FOOT of the 12,000 foot runway, BARELY cleared the raised MA1A net barrier on the departure overrun, gradually disappeared over the east horizon (flight plan clearance was to the north) with landing gear still extended, sustained altitude of about 100 feet, no response to radio calls from the tower or Trip Control and too low for GCA to track. We were about to launch an HH-43 SAR helicopter to go look for him when a speck appeared about a half mile off the coastline and grew into a now westbound Shakey Jake, landing gear still extended and still no radio contact. But his altitude appeared to be closer to 300 feet this time. Directly abeam the big hangar on the North Ramp the C-124 banked right and droned off on a northerly heading toward Malta, still not talking to anyone and landing gear STILL extended.

I have no idea if this episode reflects upon the competency of the aircrew or that of the service staff at the Wheelus Officers Club. But it IS clear to me that the good ol' Shakey was a very forgiving aircraft and apparently easy to fly if you kept it in the ground effect as long as possible.

quote:

Originally posted by FloridaHorseman:
...But it IS clear to me that the good ol' Shakey was a very forgiving aircraft and apparently easy to fly if you kept it in the ground effect as long as possible.

Priceless.......

In the mid '60s we could always tell if a Shakey was ANG or reserves without looking because they smelled like a roadside fruit stand. Those guys coming back from out in the Pacific would load those things down with fruit and Philipino hand carved bars.