U S Navy P-3B, with VP-11 Squadron, 153417
Air Force 13816 departed RAF Bentwaters, 50n 08w 2145 F140 turning point at 50n 10w 2212 50n 08w 2237 destination Upper Heyford
USAF T-29B with the 3rd Air Force under the command of 66 TRW, 51-3816 on a navigation exercise.
[Photo: © Henk Scharringa, taken at Ramstein AB in 1972, whilst with 7101st ABW]
It was based at RAF Northolt from September 1966 'till January 1969 operating as a T-29B. Served with 81st TFW at RAF Bentwaters in September 1969 and then loaned back to the 66th TRW (Upper Heyford) at Northolt for a short period in December 1969 but returned to Bentwaters later that month. Moved to the 513th TAW at RAF Mildenhall in February 1971, then to Wiesbaden Air Base, W.Germany in May 1972 and returned to Mildenhall later that month. It was re-designated a VT-29B in October 1973. After it's military service life had ended, it passed through RAF Mildenhall on 15/17th June 1975 en-route to it's storage at the MASDC, AZ from June 1975 'till June 1979 where it was assigned an inventory code of 'TB277'. It later went on to serve with Airborne Radio as N8049N and subsequently as N8022B with Air Carrier Transport, Cool Air and Renown Aviation, before being withdrawn from use at Van Nuys, CA and later St. Maria and finally broken up by September 1995.
Following my post on Air Force 13816, Daniel Howser, USA sent me the following interesting experiences:- "816 was assigned to Bentwaters before being reassigned to RAF Mildenhall. I arrived at Mildenhall in January of 1969. We still had C-47's at that time. In 1971 the Air Force moved 3rd Air Force Headquarters from Germany to Mildenhall. They also began consolidating T-29 aircraft at Mildenhall. I began checking out on the T-29. My flight records indicate that my first flight in ht e T-29 was on Feb 6 of 1971. It was in 51-3816. That was the first T-29 that we picked up. We began getting others from bases in England and Germany. We picked up 51-7899 from RAF Notrholt. I do recall 901, 103, 892, 169 and 159. I recall that 52-1103 was a "C" model. I thought that we also had a "D" model but my records don't support that. {Banterops: probably 52-5832}
ReplyDeleteAs we transitioned to the T-29, the guys that were not going to check out in the T-29 ferried the C-47's to Davis Montham. The T-29 was a great aircraft for the type missions that we flew back then. The hydraulic stairs and door made passenger on and off loads quick. We usually kept the left engine running, shutdown the right, opened the door and stairs for passengers to get on or off.
We had a scheduled courier run where we would takeoff from Mildenhall then land at Bentwaters, Alconbury, Upper Heyford and Northolt. We would trade passengers with the C-118 from Weisbaden and then run the route in reverse ending back at Mildenhall.
After leaving Mildenhall England I was crew chief / flight mechanic on C-123K's at Rickenbacker AFB in Ohio. After that I transferred to the Ohio Air Guard and was crew chief / flight mechanic on their C-131 support aircraft. Later, as the Air Force was retiring piston engine aircraft I became an A-7D crew chief."