This weekend the Royal Australian Air Force will celebrate fifty years of outstanding achievements by its enduring ‘work horse’ – the C-130 Hercules aircraft.
I flew on all variants from the old A model in 1964 through to the J model in the mid 80s and appreciated their capabilities. I spent some time as Unit Emplaning officer of 1RAR in the ODF in Townsville and was forced by appointment to become precisely knowledgeable of their capability to manage the deployment of a Battalion group on Ex Swift Eagle. They have been a great asset to the military and will be for some to come.
Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Mark Binskin says;
Various models of Hercules aircraft have been the backbone of many of the Australian Defence Force’s most important operations during the past 50 years. The Hercules have provided combat air lift capability, including tactical transport of troops and cargo as well as special forces insertion, parachuting and air drops.
In marking 50 years of C-130 service, we recognise the dedication of the thousands of air crew, ground and support personnel and contractors who have worked hard to fly and maintain the Hercules in Australia and in deployed locations around the world.
In recent years, our C-130 Hercules have seen more active duty than any other aircraft in the RAAF.This service has been widely appreciated across the ADF. Today three RAAF Hercules are based in the Middle East, and continue to provide vital air lift support to Australian and Coalition forces.
Some of the more memorable achievements include service during the Vietnam War, the emergency response to Cyclone Tracy, the Katherine floods, the Boxing Day tsunami and the Bali bombings.
The C-130 fleet ran regular services to Vietnam during that war and most importantly conducted medevacs of ill and wounded service personnel. They were also tasked with refugee relief at the end of the conflict.
In 2005, the C-130s delivered humanitarian assistance to the hundreds of thousands of people affected by the Boxing Day tsunami and they brought home the Australians injured in the Bali bombings in 2002.
The C-130 Hercules began service with the RAAF in 1958, with the arrival of twelve C-130 A models. The success of this acquisition was followed in 1966 with twelve C-130 E models.
Twelve C-130 H models arrived in 1978 to replace the 20 year old A model and the latest version; the C-130 J model arrived to replace the E model in 1999.
RAAF currently has a fleet of 24 C-130s, comprising J and H models. While the C-130 has undergone several modifications over the past 50 years, its fuselage shape has largely remained unchanged.
The 50th anniversary celebrations include a flypast of Sydney, and a reunion at RAAF Richmond
Pictured is a C130J.
Facebook
Twitter
Not only a remarkable aircraft, but a remarkable history. The RAAF has not lost one aircraft – a record probably unequaled by any other air force.
I was on Swift Eagle so you emplaned me – sounds faintly rude today…
Kev Gillett ’emplaned’ me in Townsville.
“He did WHAT?” The incredulous onlookers cry.
I had a love hate relationship with ‘Hercs’ – especially after a dreadful flight across Canada in a battered old A model.
The fuselage was dented and scarred from enumerable landings on rutted gravel strips across the Arctic, it reeked of fuel and the ‘head’ burst after one bouncy landing (amongst 20 or so during the journey) sending its foul contents streaming down from the tail and swirling around the cargo bay.
Most of the cargo area was taken up with a jet engine and other bits and pieces of freight, which the aircraft was delivering to remote spots across the north, so I couldn’t sit straight in the ragged red nylon seat but had to twist and try to get comfortable with one foot wedged against the jet engine and the other tucked up on an adjoining seat as if giving birth.
Because the aircraft was diverted several times during the trip, the uncomfortable six hour flight became 26 hours with little food apart from a small packet of cream filled biscuits, no toilet and a grumpy crew who couldn’t give a ‘rat’s arse’ about the lone grunt in the back.
After a circumnavigation of the Canadian Arctic I was deposited back at my start point, filthy and exhausted and had to explain why I hadn’t turned up at my destination.
“But the Herc was diverted and I….” was greeted with a raised eyebrow and “…that’ll do soldier, get in the vehicle…and why haven’t you shaved?”
And lets try not to remember a flight from Adelaide to Darwin on which almost every member of C Company threw up courtesy of an enthusiastic ‘Crown and Anchor’ night organised to keep the battalion entertained during a closed camp the night before the early am flight and a period of flying through extremely lumpy Cumulonimbus.
Or returning from Butterworth to Townsville in ‘pollys’ with the aircraft aircon stuck on Antarctic so by the time the ramp dropped at Garbutt I was a popsicle with blue lips and puckered skin.
Apart from that they are great planes – to look at…
Couldn’t we all tell a hundred stories about Hercs. I can’t beat 26 hours but when I was posted in the West I did a trip from Garbutt to Pearce and due to horrendous headwinds and a desire by the pilots(who looked all of 19) to see the Rock and the Olgas close up, took all of ten hours. I can remember sitting in the jump seat on the flight deck , looking up and seeing nothing but red rock – pulling the stick back for the pilot was easy – he had my mental weight helping him.
Kev
Thanks for your interesting post about the C130. It triggered memories, although unlike you, I’ve only ever flown on the C130A and E – never the H or J.
One clear memory I have is of flying in a Herc (130E – I think) to somewhere near Nowra in 1969 for an exercise not long after I’d been posted to 7RAR. This was a tactical exercise, so we exited the aircraft in a hurry, with various NCOs encouraging this using all sorts of profanity. We used to strap ourselves in with backpack worn backwards on our laps. Upon deplaning, the very large digger on my left had a lot of trouble struggling to his feet, but eventually he was successful. Once down the ramp, as I doubled along behind him, I noticed a blue/grey strap dangling amidst the rest of the jungle green of his kit. He’s forgotten to unbuckle, and had reefed the lap belt completely off its mounting. He was a very big lad.
During the 1989 pilot’s strike, I was booked to travel from Townsville to Brisbane to attend a principals’ conference, when Bob Hawke called in the RAAF. When I arrived at the airport, there on the tarmac, instead of an Ansett DC9, sat a C130E. I swear it was the same aircraft (forgetting the grandfather’s axe principle) that took me from Rockhampton airport to Richmond after Shoalwater in 1969. We queued up to board, and I remembered that the forward end of the fuselage, where the undercarriage bays intruded, was narrower than the rest. I explained this to some of my principal colleagues, who were very impressed when I convinced them to move down the queue, to end up with a slightly more comfortable journey.
I always enjoyed flying on the Herc, more so when returning from exercises then flying out to start them.. The Caribou (defined as 10000 rivets flying in formation) was also a fantastic aircraft. I wonder what will replace it?
“…and a desire by the pilots (who looked all of 19) to see the Rock and the Olgas close up…”
Same, same – except it was teenage yanks driving a C141 Starlifter much older than their parents – well that bit’s tongue in cheek, but the ‘gaffa tape’ around the little portholes and the trucks held down with a prayer and one nylon strap had me VERY worried.
So several hours into the flight from Garbutt to Pearce, as we journeyed to be enemy for the US Marines at Lancelin, the aircraft’s movements jolted us all awake as the port wing chased the starboard wing to be closer to the Olgas.
I was standing behind the pilots looking back into the ragged car park the US crew had organised with our six wheel Mark 3s filled with pyrotechnics and blank rounds when they whooped and hollered and as if missing ‘fighter pilot school’ and ripped the ancient old thing onto its ‘beam ends’.
It was another ‘heads’ moment as the accumulated shit and piss from the previous ferry flights erupted from the tatty toilet slightly below me and surged the length of the hold.
Diggers various were rudely awoken from their RACT infused nap and tried to tear their seat belts off as the tide of chemically decomposed excrement rushed across the dented and scarred aluminium cargo bay floor.
I watched, as if in slow motion, as the US crew chief leapt onto a digger’s lap on his way to the safety of the spars upon which the red nylon seats were slung.
A moment of suspense ensued as I looked behind me and saw the windscreen fill with ever more detailed images of Central Australia until mercifully the shaking wreck pulled up and one of the yanks yelled “hey buddy can you take a photo of me with that rock behind me…?”
I took his ‘110 Instamatic’ and braced against the rapidly increasing Gs as the pilots fought to keep the Olgas ‘in shot’ by turning tighter and tighter as we descended.
One click … two click, and although I’d seen nothing but aircraft interior through the view finder I handed the tiny plastic camera back with a ‘thumbs up’ and to my relief the children driving their grandpa’s car levelled out and we resumed our boring straight and level trip to the West.
As a footnote the company did an outstanding job as enemy and caused the Marines enormous embarrassment as their commanding general berated their performance in front of a WA journo.
The Marine’s humiliation was reported in garish detail in the following Sunday’s paper just in time for our weekend of ‘post exercise leave’ – needless to say many local publicans sought to embarrass the poor yanks further by pasting copies of the “Townsville Diggers Humiliate Marines Says US General” headlines on their pub notice boards.
Alas as we debussed at Pearce on our way home the hard standing was filled with the same excrement stained C141 and a now unsmiling crew.
It was a long trepidation filled flight back to Townsville…
Oh, and though off topic this string of posts just has to make your blood boil…
http://defenceoftherealm.blogspot.com/
Read down – post after post – under equipped and needlessly killed.
What ever one thinks of the ‘war on terror’ these poor bastards did not deserve their fate.