Cont from part 1
This was my introduction to working with a FAC! A lot of things to learn to work with them properly, plus you still have to fly the aircraft, deliver the ords on target and keep the FAC in sight at all times. Of course you are tooling along at usually 250 to 275 knots in a dive and the guy in the L-19 is doing maybe 90 knots, down hill and they could turn them things on a dime, so there you are, trying to make a steep enough bank to keep him in sight, talk to him on the radio, keep the "G" loading in the turn in mind and wait for more instructions. If, for some reason, you could not make contact with him, he would roll up on his right side, fire a white flare pistol out of the cockpit window, and you knew you had to keep him in sight at all times now. Only had to do that once, guess they couldn't afford the white flares.
OF course you had some dive bombing training also, but with the drill like this, release ords at 4,000AGL, with "floor" of dive at 3,000AGL, I might have hit Florida a couple of times but not real sure! Don't think I hit what I was aiming at on the ground for a couple of reasons, number 1, the first time, a lot of thunder boomers in the area and trying to stay clear of them, deliver the bombs and do your "jinxing around" you were supposed to do inbound to and away from target to avoid flak! All this was great fun for a young brash kid from the country, but I knew in the back of my mind that some day, there might be someone on the ground or in the air, shooting back at me. Didn't sound so exciting then when I would stop and think about it, but, had a job to do, so nothing to do but do it!
One afternoon, with a scheduled takeoff of 3PM, I think it was, while pre flighting the bird, going over the dash one with the crew chief, I couldn't help but notice a lot of build ups North and West of the field. Hmm, might be a little "dicey" getting home later in the day. Mission profile was 3 hours, which would put it around 6PM RTB, just about the time those things would be mature and marching all over South Georgia.
I had flown this bird about 3 other times, so was familiar with the creaks and goans of hi speed turns, dive recovery and so forth, so I felt very comfortable flying this one. Take off and climb out to 11,000 was un-eventful, heading 160 and settle back for about a 40 minute ride. I did notice one thing different, as I was reducing RPM to cruise settings, I did notice a little vibration, so increased RPM a little, then reduced it back to cruise, didn't notice it then, so just dismissed it as Pratt & Whitney making sure I was awake!
Checked in with the range officer, got 3 assignments, make all passes SW to NE, stay away from the active railroad which was outside of the bombing range.
By now a lot of buildups in the immediate area and I knew then it was going to get interesting getting home, but what the heck, you can't just fly on good weather days, so you don't think to much about it. Deal with it as it comes up!
I had made pass 1, had pulled up to climb back to 5,000 feet and prepare to set up for pass 2, when "bang", aircraft skidded to the right and I have a full blown engine failure right side. No fire, but oil all over the outside of the cowling and on the wing on the between fuselage and engine. Idle mixture to cutoff, feather prop, close throttle, boost pump to off, ignition switch to off and open cowl flaps for few minutes to clear out smoke, but I was afraid the extra air though the engine might ignite a fire, so closed them shut! I turn back to a 340 heading, range officer screaming in my ear that I was on fire and thinking he could see something I couldn't, I went ahead and fired the bottles on the right engine. A lot of white stuff coming out now, but still no sign of fire, and no warning lights on. As I headed further Northwestward, the sky was turning black and ugly, so knew I had to file so got Jacksonville center on the horn, told them of my predicament, they asked if you are declaring an emergency and say no, was to much paper work if I did that.
Cleared direct to Moultrie, expect ASR vectors and could expect Tacan approach, runway 24. OK, read back OK, now try stay out of the heavy stuff and getting this thing trimmed up for single engine flight back to base.
Now I have to review single engine approach procedures, in case I have to go around for some reason. Right turn out, heading 260 degrees, climb to 4,000 to Barker, hold 270 degree bearing, 1 minute legs, should be no problem.
NO worries about the wings coming off this thing, as long as I keep it out a cell, so with no radar except what Jax center and Moody approach could help me with, I turn on the ADF, which worked pretty good as far as showing where the lightning was, but still, you gotta fly the darn airplane. I was doing all of 180 knots at normal cruise on the left engine and everything looked pretty good. Asked if they had a GCA operator on duty and they said yes so I ask for one, just as a back up to the tacan. I shot the approach and I felt pretty good about the approach, broke out at about 1200 AGL, just a lot of rain and not much forward visibly but really was no big deal, touched down and I then saw all the red trucks sitting by the runway and I knew then that Jax center had alerted everybody of my situation. I asked for a tug to meet me off the runway as I could taxi, but didn't want to wear out the brakes, so was pulled into the ramp area. Found out later that a "jug" blew on the second row of cylinders. They, the maintenance officer said he didn't see how it kept from catching fire!
Was a lot of fun and excitement the 2 months I was there, but was told to report to Biggs AFB in El Paso for B-29 training. I had put in for that before I ever went to 26 school and we will talk about the 29 at a later time.
