CH-53E's taken appart to fit into a C-5

Modeling Subjects Helicopters
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Hey all,

I thought some of you may find these pics interesting. These 2 Marine Corps CH-53E’s have been partially disassembled to fit onto an Air Force C-5A Galaxie for transport overseas. The thing on the very left side of the first picture (sitting on the palet) is the aircraft’s main gear box and main rotor head assembly. The blades, panels, cowlings and other parts are packed inside the 53’s cabin. The Aux fuel tanks and their support assemblies are sitting on top of the side sponsons.

Hope ya’ll enjoy the pics,
Semper Fi
Chris

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How long does it take to get the -53 ready to fly once it’s offloaded? That seems like a lot of work for the ground crew. Still, thanks for the cool photos.

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Thanks for the pictures. A lot of work on both ends, hope you don’t have to ship this often

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Lemon Jello - It took 2 days for about 40 maintainers to break these planes down. The real challenge is the build up which takes about 5

grandpajohn - We do this about twice a year.

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Great pictures, thanks. Not sure if this is a good place to ask this, but I have been working on the rotor hub of my HH-60H and a question occured. How is the rotor system balanced on a big helo? Does it need to be re-balanced if you take it apart and put it back together? How about if you change a blade due to damage?

Thanks again,
Phil

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ridleusmc - Very cool pix, thanks for sharing. Are you shipping out too?

BTW - I watched one of those Hercs doing touch-n-go’s at the airport here a few weeks back and I wondered where they were from. Jacksonville to the 'nooga is a pretty good distance just to do approaches.

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Par429- I don’t know about HH-60’s, but the main rotor blades on 53’s are balanced by weights inside the outermost section of the main rotor blades. We remove the tip caps to install them. Every blade is weighed when they are worked on and weights are added or removed to make the blades a specific weight. For the 53 every blade weighs about 350 lbs.

Trigger74 - yeah, I’m going with the aircraft, and luckily I’m going to a place which rarely makes headline news. I’m not sure what I’m allowed to say about that right now. I don’t know about the Hercs. Maybe they’re from a reserve unit.

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Wow, I don’t envy all the work you guys have to put into configuring your birds for a C-5, Chris. Guess you don’t really want to hear that all us skid guys have to do is remove a whip antenna off the vert fin and take off the elevators, lol.

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Great Pics Chris, I went on west-pac so I never got to pack up the C-5’s myself. Did you ever know anyone in your squadron Pete Day? Most likely a staff or gunny by now. (If still in that is)

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ridleusmc,

I SWEAR that looks like Cherry Point, NC!! Is it??? I was just there this past week visiting my son, who’s stationed there as an ATC. The Hercules is a KC-130H tanker. Cherry Point has two squadrons of them. I couldn’t make out the tail markings on the one in the picture, though, so I don’t know which squadron it’s with.

Good Luck to you, wherever you’re going. Semper Fi!!!

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AH1Wsnake, I know the skid guys have it easy when it comes to C-5ing, but I don’t envy your avi and ord guys. I know all that fire control stuff is a pain in the rear end. After seeing you put the 269 patch on your signature, I had to make sure 464 was represented.

kik36, no, sorry I’ve never met anyone named Pete Day

Devil Dawg, sure enough that’s Cherry Point. We’re stationed at New River, but we do the breakdowns at the Point. C-5’s can’t land at the River. The runways at NR are way too short.

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The KC-130s at “Cherry Pit” belong to the training squadron VMGRT-253 (KC-130F/R and I think they have some Js) and VMGR-252 (Fleet SQDN) is converting from KC-130F/Rs to KC-130J.

VMGR-352…MCAS Miramar, CA (KC-130R/F…transition to KC-130J)
VMGR-152…MCAS Futenma, Okinawa (KC-130F/R)

VMGR-234…NAS Fort Worth, TX (Reserve unit with KC-130T)
VMGR-452…Newburgh, NY (Reserve unit with KC-130T)