Good Morning All,

This is my all time favorite time of the year and it's a great time for warmth in the heart during this cold time of the year. This holiday usually builds great cheer and awesome memories, which brings me to a holiday flying story I would like to share.

There I was, coming off of the Christmas holiday looking forward to the New Year break. I would never take Christmas off because I knew that flying would be scarce and if I took a flight prior to Christmas, I would be safely off the schedule. I would instead take the New Years week off. I had planned on driving home to Atlanta Ga from New Jersey to spend time with family. I took a flight just prior to Christmas and I was safely off. Well, I received a call saying there was a quick run to Lajes and I appeared to be the only one available to take the run. The trip over nighted in Lajes and returned the day my vacation started. I was assured it was a safe bet and they needed me because I was the only one available. They always say that and I immediately wished I had started my leave a day or two earlier. I was a hermit with leave and always worked it to minimize leave use when taking time off. In fact, I planned to game the system and leave the day before my leave started, but I was flying that day now. Never the less, I didn't resist or fight it. I mean, it's a quick cargo and pax run, what could go wrong? I packed an overnight bag, did some flight study and awaited the flight.

That morning, things were great and I felt great. I walked into the squadron with pep in my step and it was a complete ghost town. Did a final check of weather and NOTAMs, called for a bus and we headed on over to base ops to grab our flight package and our world pubs kit. After filing, we grabbed a bus out to the jet. That mighty C-141B looked ready to go as we pulled up front. Deuces to the bus driver as we climbed the stairs and entered the cargo compartment. The load masters were in the process of checking tie down straps and chains on the cargo. One load mentioned that he had arranged for the pax to come early so we could get outer there early. I approached the ladder and the engineer was climbing down stating that the jet was good to go and there were no Mx issues. We did a quick galley rally to brief the flight and up into the flight deck we went to load the flight plan and do the pilot checks. Everything was golden and we were ready for stations time. At stations, the engineer started checklists and we powered through the motions. We departed quickly and had no departure issues at all. On arrival, there was a stiff crosswind, which was typical of Lajes. We got in without issue and off to drinking and partying at the bowling alley.   

The next morning we were bright eyed and bushy tailed as we awaited the crew bus out in front of lodging. Everyone had that excitement and energy that you would normally see on the last leg of a long trip. A few others also had leave planned and talked about their travel plans. The bus came, made a quick stop by base ops to file and off to the jet. The day was severe clear and winds calm. This was NOT like the Lajes I knew. Someone stated, wow, we actually have calm sunny weather at Lajes for a change. We performed a quick pre-flight, grabbed clearance, engine start pilot's discretion and got moving. We let them know we would be ready upon arrival once we pushed to tower. Approaching the hold line, we were given the calm winds and cleared for takeoff. We lined up as we rolled on, set the stack and pushed them up to takeoff EPR. As we charged down the runway, I head Go and then rotate. Lifted the nose to 8 degrees and the jet leaped into the air. Continued up to 10 degrees as we thundered away. Up came the gear and that silence of the noise from the gear and gear doors. Called for flaps up and at 1000 feet AGL, KABOOM!

The sound came from the right side of the aircraft and the plane listed and yawed right. As the thought, step on the ball, passed my mind, a loud bell rang out and a red light illuminated in the number 3 fire handle. Tower notified, Reach 687, you appear to have heavy smoke coming from your right side. We acknowledged with tower and informed that we were taking care of a engine fire. Once the jet was stable and flying as desired, we went through the motions we practiced every sim. Throttle...Idle, Fire Handle...Pull, Agent...Disch 1, hack the clock. The light in the handle immediately went out. We accomplished a fire test and the test was normal. We continued the engine shut down procedures to secure the engine and the CO called for a visual traffic pattern back to the runway. I told the second engineer to exit the flight deck, grab a sip of water from the galley, smile at everyone and smoothly walk back to the right escape hatch and scan the engine. He returned and said the engine looked fine, but the pax all looked shell shocked. We flew the dreaded three engine approach and everything was un-eventful.

We pulled into the chocks at our original spot, shutdown and called the pax terminal for our pax. The second engineer ran up on the flight deck and said, guys, you have to come see this. We all stood behind the number three engine peering into the exhaust cone. The turbine blades looked like they had been eaten by termites. It literally looked like wood after termites eat and bore holes through it. Down the center of the cone was this thick trail of shiny powder like dust. I immediately thought, how quick can we get an engine and raced to call for a crew bus. I asked the crew chiefs how long does it take to change an engine. He responded, well, if we can get one............ 5 hours to pull down and hang the new one. Another couple of hours connecting everything, running and trimming the engine. That sounded pretty doable to me. I got to base ops and called mom(TACC) to look for an engine and options. They told me there was a TF33 sitting at Rota Spain and they will get it to us on a C-5 in a day. We partied like rock stars that night and called mom again in the morning. Guys, we have bad news. The C-5 is broke and need to be put on jacks. There are no other cargo planes scheduled to transit Europe until after the holidays. In fact, there aren't any planes scheduled to transit until after the holidays. You will have to wait till the C-5 gets jacks, fixed and bring you that engine on their way back home😑. I then had to give that news to the rest of the crew. We were stuck at Lajes till the end of the holidays. We were forced to celebrate New Years at the top of the rock club.

Of course, when the engine arrived, the weather was crappy and the winds were too strong to change the engine. That went on for a few days. Once we had a break with the weather being marginal, they were barely able to get the engine changed in those conditions because the winds were right at the limit. Once finally done, trimmed and ready, we setup to depart. Well, we spent two whole days trying to leave. We would get going and sit at the runway for 4 hours waiting on a break in the wind limits. Two days of sitting at the runway for 4 hours which was our crew protected time limit. The normal Lajes weather had finally showed up. By the third day, after sitting at the end of the runway for two hours, we were able to depart and head home.

In all, it was a fun great trip because we made the best of it. I missed out on spending New Years with family, but we managed to have a time of it. I want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Keep in mind to not let situations get you down. Always do what ever you can to make the best of it.

Rick

Edited December 22, 20223 yr by G550flyer
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Thanks for the neat story, Rick. Have a merry Christmas and happy New Year!

One thing, though...a C-5 on jacks is not news...a C-5 *not* on jacks is news!  😁

Great story Rick! Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 

Vic

20 hours ago, Bob Scott said:

One thing, though...a C-5 on jacks is not news...a C-5 *not* on jacks is news!  😁

On my first run to Ramstein AB, we were running flights out of there for 3 weeks(stage). We saw a few C-5s on jacks. My instructor said, see, a C-5 is just an over glorified crew rest facility🤣.

On the subject of Christmas time reading material, I usually dig out "The Shepherd" by Frederick Forsyth.

1 hour ago, Jude Bradley said:

I usually dig out "The Shepherd" by Frederick Forsyth.

The movie of that book played on TCM last might.  Great story.

Noel

Spent quite a few Christmases away from home and family Rick.

When at home I never got to carouse with the guys on New Year's eve.  Policy was guys with families got Christmas off and single guys got the duty.  On New Years the single guys were off and the family guys got the duty.

Noel