Lockheed C-141 Starlifter

I was a Flight Engineer at the 7th Travis 88-91, Like everyone else I truly loved this aircraft and those I flew with for nearly 2000 hours. I Remember on my initial upgrade doing a round the world trip in 10 days. I remember doing the old Diego double dips from Clark to Diego Garcia and back twice,
Boring as hell but you racked up the flight time. Yep lots of great memories.

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Ihave a web site for Tachikawa AB Japan and someone posted a note that in 1977 a C-141 that had landed by mistake at Tachikawa ab instead og Yokota AB a few miles away and he was with the Yokota AB fire department that was called over to Tachi to watch it take off, the runway at Tachikawa AB was only 5,050 ft, anyonw ever hear of this event. here was his post Steve Sigman sorry Art but in 1977 one of yokotas C -141 landed from Travis by accident at Tachi I was on standby with 40 other firefighters to see it, and it was not sure it could clear takeoff but it did wrecking all the towers protesters built with the exhaust. second post:Steve Sigman Mike a lot of events happened people never heard of, after all its the military, after the aircragt returned to yokota the fuel guys were checking out a posible leak in the wing fuel cell. A young airman crawled down thete and never came out, then his supervisor crawl in neither reyurned. They called rescue and we hsd to stripe to our under wear to crswlin and rescue them. Stars and Strips took a picture of us half nake pulling them out, I think I still habe the picture /article where it statefd prior accidentally lsnding at Tachi. Gene Isabel was a SP then.

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I was a C-141A /B crew chief for several years at McGuire in the 70s and early '80s, with frequent TDYs to such exotic locales as Charleston (air drop quals), Cherry Point MCAS, "No Hope Pope", et al. We invested our blood, sweat, and tears into those aircraft, many times on TDYs working nearly around the clock and catching a few z's when we could, sometimes getting a quick power nap on the ground under the belly when we had a break in the action. Most of us took great pride in what we did, and I'm sure most would say our time on the Starlifter and in the AF in general means even more to us now in retrospect than it did then. Having my name on the side of "my" 141 will always be a special memory to me. I also crewed B-52D's, KC-135A's, and A-7D's, and served as an ATC instructor teaching new 135 CC's. I wouldn't trade my AF experiences for anything.

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I was a loadmaster from 1970 to 1972 stationed at McGuire AFB.I was a member of the 30th Mac. My most memorable trip was operation deep freeze which was a 17 day trip. Our crew did six shuttles to ice and then back to New Zealand. Six of us rented a house while we were there.

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I was loadmaster with 44th MAS Travis AFB 1966 to 1970. I had over 3000 hrs when I left Air Force . It was a great plane.

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Christian, I flew the C-141B from1998-2003 at McGuire. We could roughly figure 15000 lbs consumed for the first hour and 12000lbs for each hour of flight after that. Of course this figure varied based on altitude, gross weight and temperature deviation. Each TF-33 burned about 3000pph at cruise altitude.
Going to Europe from NJ, you would occasionally fill the tanks to capacity...152356 lbs if you didn't have too much cargo.

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I flew the C-141A in the 4th MAS, McChord AFB, WA from May 1967- August 1972. Then the 86th MAS, Travis AFB, CA from January 1974- April 1978. Total of 7,142 hours as a Flight Engineer in C-141A. Best aircraft that I had the pleasure to fly on. (Did a little tour in country from August 1972- August 1973)
Also flew on C-47, C-54, C-118,AC-119K, KC-97G, C-97G, C-124A and T-29A SA-16

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I flew the C-141A at Charleston from 1969-1973. Best job in the Air Force. 35 countries, from SE Asia to Africa, South America, the Middle East & of course, Europe. Ended up as an Instructor before leaving the Air Force. Great fun.

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I was an FE in the 14 MAS out of Norton in the mid 80's. Anyone out there recall a medivac mission to pick up a diplomat's wife in Bangladesh? Please email me if you do.

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I was assigned to MAC for 2 yrs at Hickham working the C-141 and C-5, I loved the Starlifter, did thru-flight Insp., refuels, block outs. The sad was the Air-Evacs, walking through the plane to access the Hydraulic filters, then to sit by the refuel carts with the rear side door open. Sad to see our wounded, it still lays heavy on my heart. There is a 141 on static display at the Pima Air Museum in Arizona. You can walk up and kiss the old Gal, great visit, worth the drive

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pls help me ..i want to know the fuel consumption of the engine or the aircraft itself of Lockheed C141B Starlifter?..

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Flew Vietnamese refugees from Guam to Hickam AFB. After the R /W was cratered in Saigon, I know of no 141's that flew in /out.

Longest leg I flew was Ascension Island to Charleston AFB in 1977.

I recall the ceiling as 45,100'; saw FL450 once, when the bird was capable of 490, per the F /E. 410 was rather routine. An amazing machine, indeed. The VSI tapes maxed out at 20k fpm.

Funny how those old numbers stick...153,352#, 325k#, 323,100#, 20500# thrust. Personnel airdrop was 130 kias, to answer one question.

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I was a maintainer joined the AF in 1969 the C-141A was still new and my first real hands on maintenance at McGuire. The 141 was one bad hot rod however as a Aircraft environmental technician it was not maintenance friendly, it had a hi pressure bleed air system and the HVAC packs were a nightmare to work on. I have never understood why Lockheed put the engine bleed air shut off valves down in the pylon where you couldn't really see what you were changing. Aside from maintenance the 141 was a dam good air lifter and nothing matched it until the C-5A came along. The 141 was a very fast aircraft and it took me all over the world and it was a blast on take off it stayed in service way longer than the life span it was designed to fly. Oh yea I remember the jet troops doing compressor stalls during engine runs that was wild.

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I served at Travis AFB from 1966 to 1970 as a Aircraft Mechanic and Crew Chief. I was Crew Chief of 64-0650, 65-0231, and 65-0277 on the Grave Shift which meant that I worked on those aircraft when at Travis and if they weren't here I worked on another aircraft that its crew had the night off. The Starlifter was a stellar performer. The C-141A model was certainly over-powered. I bet it used less then half the runway to go airborne while the B-52s used almost every inch. After reading the info about the Tacoma Lifter 65-0277 that is parked at McChord in Washington. I am frankly puzzled if the info presented is factual. Because I either worked on or knew the ground crew assigned to it at Travis for my entire career there from 1966-1970. If both facts be true, it would mean that there were 2 Tail Numbered 65-0277s!

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AutoPilot /Instrumentation Tech on the 141 from July 1974 to August 1988. Assigned to the 437 AMS, 608 MASS, 438 AMS, and 172 MAG. As is evident by the e-mail address I sure do miss the old girl.

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Worked on the Starlifter from mid 72 to mid 76 at Mc'Guire AFB, New Jersey. The hydraulic system was different to say the least. Went many a TDY to chand Spolier, Rudder, and Elevator packs. The most challenging was the spoiler packs as with the frame of aluminum and the bolts of steel, had a lot of difficult times temoving the mount bolts.

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Was a FE from 1989 to 1997. Loved the aircraft! Ended up with round 3500 flying hours. Sure miss the missions.

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Stationed at 7th squadron @ Travis from 1974-1976. Droned many nightime hours at .74 Mach, but the lady always got us to our destination. Flew all over the world, to Europe on reforger missions, all the way to Diego Garcia from Clark AFB, the hawaii week mission to guam, midway, kwajalien. Watched b-52's disappear on takeoffs from Anderson AFB. Loved landing @ Elmendorf, so, we could get boxes of whole king crabs. 10 minute bag drags outbound, and 45 minutes bag drags when getting back to Travis!! (haha)

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Started flying in 1952 crewchief C-47 Naha, Okinawa. Continued flying after return to Kelly AFB August 1953 C-54s then went to Moses Lake, Wn on C-124 A Models had a break in service but continued to fly C-124s in the reserves, recalled to active duty after a short stint in Okie Guard flying C-97s, back to 62nd at McChord on C-124s and finally to C-141's at McChord and Altus then to C-5's in Jan 1971 --- Most reliable airplane of all and the easiest for the flight engineer --- the pilot got the same systems training I did so if his memory was any good I did not have to contribute very much. The C-124 and the C-5 were the most challenging for the engineer.

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First assigned to the C-141 in 1979 at McGuire AFB with subsequent assignments at Travis, McChord, and Norton along with TDYs to Altus AFB for various schools (aerial refueling, instructor, etc). A wonderful and honest airplane. I'd like to say thanks to those with the vision to start the program, the company that made the plane, all those who supported the fleet, and the crews that flew them. Replaced by the C-17, the Starlifter will never be forgotten by those who were part of the program.

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