C17 max pacs?

[Dave Siciliano]

Normal load is around 300!

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sebastienroblin/2021/08/16/800-people-one-jet-flight-trackers-reveal-heroic-desperate-effort-in-chaotic-afghanistan-evacuation/?sh=171ebb95bedb#:~:text=A%20C%2D17A%20Globemaster%20theoretically,134%20soldiers%20with%20their%20equipment

[Tom Charlton]

Hi Dave,
Had to've been one scary operation for the flight crew. Jeez-a-ree, Taxiing through a sea of zombies. Folks trying to cling to the exterior of the aircraft and falling off when airbourne.
Wonder what size the crew would've been. Pilot, Co-Pilot, Loadmeister. Does a C-17 have a Flight Engineer? At any rate they'd have been massively overwhelmed.

[Bill Bridges]

This all looks familiar. remember the World Airways B727 leaving Da Nang?

We would grease the skids on our slicks when doing medivac and resupply missions for the Vietnamese.

Some things never change.

[Gil Buettner]

C-130 was supposed to hold 110 pax or 90 with combat gear. I once had 149 Vietnamese refugees out of Danang with "combat loading," sitting on the floor holding on to straps across the cargo compartment. Right after takeoff, the loadmaster said, "Load's going on oxygen." One had vomited and that set off the others.

We took them to Pleiku, and after they got off we asked the fire department to come and hose out the interior. They refused because it wasn't a fire hazard. The loadmaster took a can of hydraulic fluid and punctured it with a screwdriver and spread it over the floor. "Sir, we have a fire hazard."

[Ray Tackett]

... we asked for the fire department to come and hose out the interior. They refused because it wasn't a fire hazard. The loadmaster took a can of hydraulic fluid and punctured it with a screwdriver and spread it over the floor. "Sir, we have a fire hazard."

Gil, you brought back two memories theee:
1. My only combat load ride was in a C-123 with the auxiliary jets and 5 seriously hung over guys from An Khe to Pleiku to board Big Bird home. The pilot made it a very special ride for those guys, contour flying over the mountain, plus some unnecessary control movements which made the tail sway and bounce. I was cold sober and laughing the whole way.

2. The flight school where I got my private and instrument required white dress shirts with ties for the instructors. My IR instructor looked uncomfortable in the summer. I solved it: "As Pilot In Command of this aircraft, I have determined that neckties pose a choking hazard. Please remove yours." Instructor very happy, school management, not so much, but absolutely stuck.

[Bill Bridges]

The loadmaster took a can of hydraulic fluid and punctured it with a screwdriver and spread it over the floor. "Sir, we have a fire hazard."

Your loadmaster, my kinda guy.

[Rick Durden]

The flight school where I got my private and instrument required white dress shirts with ties for the instructors.

So did the one where I instructed while in college (so much classier than the silly epaulets at the diploma mill schools now). For years I figured that I had to wear a tie while flying - it helped me tell when the airplane was upside down.