aircraft. The aircraft has no brakes, and
instead uses the friction of the snow and
reverse thrust of the propellers, bringing
it to a stop in a couple of thousand feet.
The true airspeed of an LC-130H
compared to a slick C-130H is 30kt
slower because of the skis, and ATO
bottles only increase that drag. During
the o oad of passengers and cargo the
engines are never shut down to avoid
any problems when restarting. Keeping
the engines warm is vital. Should there
be a problem the unit can send out
another LC-130 with a maintenance
readiness team (MRT) to deal with
anything that arisess.
‘After we land we come to a slow taxi’,
said Jankord. ‘If we do stop we may have
to cycle the gear down to break away
from the ice as the friction warms the
underneath and cooling down causes
sticking so we don’t stop at turns [and
so on] until we are at the cargo/pax
o oad area.
‘We try to load the cargo as far back
[from the] center of gravity [CG] that we
can within the limits of the aircraft to
assist with the lifting of the nose. Having
a good aft CG makes it much easier and
a ects the airspeeds.Supporting the scientists
The 109th starts planning for these
demanding missions a year in advance.
The tactics department will order
satellite imagery, review the landing
area and prepare brie ng documents.
The next step is to have a crew member
from the unit y in a DHC-6 Twin Otter
ahead of the LC-130 and land in order
to survey the area, checking for any
crevasses that might have emerged on
the landing site.The unit transports ice core samples
back to the US, a challenging cargo
when the aircraft is not tted with
refrigeration systems. ‘The ice cores’, says
Garren, ‘are prepared for shipment with
the expectation that the containers will
be exposed to warmer temperatures.
They are packed well in the containers
with dry ice and temperature meters
that will record that shipment.
‘The science community spends all
year getting pallets ready to go with
30 to 40 ice core samples. Millions of
dollars have been spent supporting the
camps. If we fail to get those ice cores
back to the US at the right temperatures
all that time and money would have
been wasted.
‘They don’t even have to melt; if
exposed to a temperature of a certain
level they are no good.’Each Greenland deployment normally
ends during August. In 2017 the 109th
stayed until September to support a
conference where high-ranking o cers
were able to visit the unit. In October
it deployed to Antarctica for its 30th
Operation ‘Deep Freeze’ season, ying
from McMurdo Station — the logistics
hub of the Antarctic program.
The 109th operates in one of the
harshest and most unforgiving
environments. With the training and
supply ights in Greenland putting it in
good stead, the scienti c community
can rest assured of the bene t of years
of experience the 109th brings to
operating at the ends of the earth.Acknowledgments: Thanks to MSgt
Catharine Schmidt and SMSgt
William Gizara of the 109th AW/PA.Top: An LC-130H
touches down
at Raven Camp
with its load of
passengers and
fresh supplies.
Above right:
Pallets tend to
be loaded as
far rearwards
as possible to
assist in lifting
the Hercules’
nose o the
skiway.109TH AIRLIFT WING | UNIT REPORT
69
January 2018 http://www.combataircraft.net60-69 Ski Herks C.indd 69 23/11/2017 11:51