205 have hoped to have had. He had a great sense of humour, was tremendously competent and was extremely highly thought of by all. My understanding is that he has the record (at least at one point if not for all time) for the highest number of hours on the C130 in the world. It was about three years later that I joined 435 TAL, (Tactical Airlift School), formed with Frank as the CO of the school. At this time, he was promoted to Major. I was fortunate enough to be given one of the early TAL courses. Sometime after that I was asked to be one of the TAL instructors. I loved the tactical flying and was thrilled to be working with Frank and Ted . Flying with these guys did lead to some memorable experiences. Frank and I were tasked with doing what I believe was the first public display of a LAPES (Low Altitude Parachute Ejection System) drop, and it was to occur in Moose Jaw. The Load Masters were all geared up for this and had carefully used graphite to make sure the towplate, the device that connected the drogue chute to the extraction chutes, was properly set up. Unfortunately, that was our undoing. With the graphite, the toe plate was so slippery that the “T” end attached to the drogue chute, failed to slide into the “C” clamp attached to the extraction chutes. As a result, the demonstration didn’t go at all as planned. Frank perfectly maneuvered the bird to exactly the right spot; “green go” was called and I, in the right seat, pushed the pickle switch to release the load, which of course, didn’t release. As a result, we wound up trundling along the infield in Moose Jaw. Frank was as usual up to the task and shoved the throttles up and got us back into the air. After that the loadmasters set us up for the drop again but it seems that the organizers had seen enough excitement for the day so we weren’t able to have a second go at it. Another interesting experience I had with Frank and Ted started off in the officer’s mess as Griesbach Barracks, the home of theAirborne Regiment. I wasn’t privy to the exchange but somehow as the conversation progressed, just possibly aided by an Lockheed CC-130E Hercules (C-130E/L-382). Photo by John Davies - CYOWAirport Watch. Wiki Commons.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM0NTk1OA==