I don’t like to write about sad things, because, surprise surprise, it makes me sad. The challenging thing about this story is that it involves doing something that I totally love, flying.
If you pay much attention to US Air Force changes then you know that the C-130H is being replaced by the C-130J which does not utilize the services of a navigator, which also means I am having to find a new job, but that is a whole different story. Fortunately, these old beautiful birds still have a life to live in the Reserves and National Guard.
I had the opportunity to go and drop one of these planes off at its new home in Ohio. While a few pictures and nice memories really don’t do justice to a plane that has served for more than 43 years, that is all that I have to offer.
The sunset as we were leaving Japan was simply stunning. Poetic as well as this was the sunset mission for tail 1659.
Our original plan was to fly the southern route across the Pacific visiting beautiful tropical islands as a good-bye to this sweet old lady. However, as these planes have done for much of their career, she had different ideas. She decided she wasn’t quite ready to leave Japan so she broke for two days. That meant that we had to take the northern route through Alaska which was equally as beautiful, just a lot more chilly.
Having been to Alaska last year I was not quite as excited as I was to visit Hawaii for the first time, but it was just as beautiful as I remembered. What was unique about this leg was the distance we were able to cover and the altitude we were able to reach.
Sunrise as we started to cross the Aleutian chain on our way into Alaska was equally as stunning.
Typically for us, 6-8 hours is a pretty long mission and generally the limit of our fuel depending on how much cargo we are carrying. We also are generally restricted to about 20,000 feet or so in altitude because we are so heavy. But a fortunate shift in the winds, and the small payload we were carrying allowed us fly for a full ten hours and climb all the way to 27,000 feet. I know that is nothing for a commercial airliner, or even our bigger Air Force brothers, but for a C-130H that was a pretty big deal. We also were able to make the trip from Japan to Anchorage without stopping which is an even more amazing feat for our non aerial refuel capable plane.
The Canadian Rockies are incredible to behold and probably more remote than most anywhere else I have ever been.
After some much-needed sleep in Alaska, despite the sun not setting until after midnight, we headed off for Great Falls, MT for another stop. I have never flown over the Canadian Rockies before so it was really fun to see just how stunning they really are. There was still a large amount of snow up there which made it even more majestic.
I know it is a small thing, that only my older brother may appreciate, but it was fun to just relax and toss a frisbee around for a few minutes. Yes there is someone relaxing in that hammock, the only way to travel in the back of a C-130.
I was also able to fulfill a career-long dream of mine on this leg, playing frisbee in the back of the plane while flying. Generally this is not possible because we are full of stuff and/or people, but since all we had was the crew and a bunch of spare parts there was plenty of room for activities. Fighter guys can do lots of cool fun stuff, but they can’t walk around and relax in the back of their planes. They also have to use a piddle pack, but that too would be a story for another day.
After crossing over Glacier National Park we descended down into the plains near Great Falls and enjoyed some of the beautiful scenery, in particular the Missouri River. Due to scheduling concerns, we actually had a day off in Great Falls where we were able to go out and enjoy some fishing on the river before proceeding on. The fishing sucked because the river was so high, but I will never turn down some time on the banks of a beautiful river surrounded by stunning mountains with a fishing rod in my hand.
A stop in Big Sky country seemed fitting as this is the place that many of our other tails will be traveling to. A nice little break before her last leg.
It was a little sad leaving Great Falls on the last leg of our mission knowing that this would be the last leg of an active duty career spanning more than four decades. There are only a handful of people in our squadron that were even alive when this plane was built, and now her time was up.
As we pulled into parking in Ohio and shut her down for the last time it was a little sad to say goodbye to another one of these sweet girls. She still has a good life to live in the Guard, but as the number of H models we have on the ramp here continues to dwindle it makes me sad to see the end of this era. If I’m being honest a little of that is selfish because I am losing my position on active duty, but I really think it goes deeper than that.
We often talk about how the C-130H was really the last plane in the Air Force inventory that you really got to fly because all of the others are so technologically advanced that computers do a lot of the work. There is also something comforting about all of the gauges and dials, that broke as often as not, but that were a credit to the craftsmanship of this beautiful plane. How many machines that are this complex have been able to take a legit beating for 40+ years and still keep working? Not many.
So as I say goodbye to old 1659, it is with a heavy heart, but with fond memories of the amazing things I have gotten to do on this amazing aircraft.
No rest for the weary. Before we could even get all of our stuff of the plane, her new owners had her all ready to be towed into a hangar to get cleaned up and ready to keep working.
