Lockheed Hercules C-130
Lockheed Hercules C-130
Lockheed Hercules C-130
I have some memorable, personal history with this aircraft. I worked for Fairchild-Hiller at the St. Petersburg-Clearwater Int'l Airport. My job title was Aircraft Reconditioner. I worked there one summer between college semesters. It was a very tough, dirty job, but I loved flying and airplanes so that made the job fun.
Fairchild-Hiller had a contract with the US Armed Services including the US Coast Guard to refurbish and recondition Lockheed Hercules C-130 military aircraft. My job as an aircraft reconditioner was to spray hot paint stripper onto an aircraft to be followed by paint stripping and paint scraping using a wide, wire brush on a broom handle and also a narrow, hand-held wire brush to get into some tight areas.
We would also steam clean the inside of the large, rear cargo door as well as the latrines (urinals), once those parts were removed from the aircraft. The large wing flaps and ailerons from the main wing, the elevators from the tail wing, and the rudder from the tail were also removed by an aircraft disassembly crew. Then, our aircraft reconditioning crew would do the paint stripping, scraping, and removal. After all paint had been removed, aircraft quality control inspectors would inspect the aircraft and aircraft parts for cracks and corrosion.
The landing gear struts, which required hotter paint stripper than the rest of the aircraft, was also removed by the disassembly crew for our crew to begin paint stripping, scraping, and removal. The landing gear struts were later inspected for cracks and corrosion by the quality control inspectors.
To strip paint from the tail of the aircraft we would climb a tall tower surrounding the aircraft's tail on three sides and hang from multiple platforms on the tower to spray hot paint stripper onto the aircraft. After a few minutes, we would wire brush the paint from the tail. To finish the job we would use fire hoses to rinse off the plane or the plane's parts.
Imagine lying underneath the belly of a C-130 aircraft on a mechanic's creeper spraying hot paint stripper onto the belly's light-colored, painted surface and then having to wire brush that same surface using a brush with a broom handle to remove the hot, wet, loose paint, all while lying flat on your back? Then, imagine hot paint stripper dripping down onto your work uniform and sometimes into your work uniform with little room to move.
Our job was extremely hard work and hot work. The outside temperature in Florida on a hot and humid, sunny, Summer afternoon is usually in the low 90s with high humidity. We were each required to wear a firefighter's uniform to protect us from the burning paint stripper, but those uniforms also held in the heat and humidity.
Our firefighter's uniform consisted of an over-sized facemask, an over-sized, thick rubber overcoat, an over-sized, thick pair of rubber trousers, a pair of large, thick rubber boots, and a pair of large, thick rubber gloves.
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Mount Laughmore
by Kramer
©2010
Copyright 2010. Kramer. All rights reserved.