C-130 Cockpit

We were able to go inside one of the C-130s in the hanger. Yes, there were 2 of these beasts in the hanger PLUS helicopters. The hanger was kind of BIG! With no power on the plane and a black interior, the cockpit area was very dark. I shot these photos using some crazy settings (ISO16000 and 1/3 to 1/25 sec shutter) without a tripod. They came out much better than expected.

You see in the first shot that the cockpit is heavy in electronics. The pilot seat is on the left and copilot on the right. You see very minimal non-electronic flight-critical instrumentation just to the right of the pilot yoke. The dials in the lower area are indicators for the trim/position of the flight surfaces. I'm betting this plane is not much fun to fly if the electronics go out. As a fan of flight simulators, I can identify a lot of the controls and can make pretty good guesses on the operation of those screens. With this much going on, both pilots are probably pretty busy as they approach their mission goal. I was a bit surprised that the yoke-mounted controls are mirror opposites for the two pilots (left hand for the pilot and right hand for the copilot). I would have guessed that they would have been on the same hand so the yoke would feel identical in both seats. I can see the elevator trim control is on that group but not sure about the function of the remainder. You see the copilot side has more of the support systems controls in its area. The center console next to the knees is pretty much redundant. You see a throttle handle for each of the four turboprops. The forward fixed buttons look to be mostly radio controls. The screen and input pad is a MFD (multi-function display) where it can cycle through a ton of screens and input depending on the need.

In the second photo, you see more of the pilot area with its checklist and manual crank for the landing gear (in case the normal controls fail).

In the third photo, you see more detail of the aft center console. You can see some of the autopilot controls with heading and course adjustment knobs. You can see even more MFD screens as there is a third person just behind the cockpit managing the non-flight specific jobs - like search and rescue details. Just to the right of the MFD are some trim controls for the rudder and elevator. Finally, you see an operation manual next to each. These are reference books to be used when something doesn't go right and you need refreshers on detailed procedures not used every day. The every day operations are typically covered by checklist prompts.

The military branches put a lot of training dollars and time into the operators of such aircraft. Anyone telling you the military is just a bunch of misfits has no idea. Just like any workplace, there are strong and weak performers but the general quality is pretty damn good.

Thanks,

Doug White

https://jdwarchive.blogspot.com/