The Final Flight of a C-130H: The End of an Era
I had a bit of an interesting experience this week that I don’t think most people ever really get. I had the opportunity to be a part of the crew that took a plane on its very last flight. With the development of the C-130J it is quickly replacing the older, and better, C-130H. Yeah, I know, I’m biased.
Many of the older planes have gone to National Guard units around the country to finish out their service lives. However, there are a couple of planes that have finished their flying lives and need to be taken to their final resting place.
The disappointing part was that none of us knew this was the planes’ last flight, or fini flight, as we like to call them. Had we known I would have come prepared with my good camera and not left you with these weak images from my phone, but I did what I could.
It really was an honor for me to crew this plane on its last mission. That aircraft served for 40 years in all corners of the globe performing an incredible variety of missions. I don’t know any specifics, but it is reasonable to assume that it carried Soldiers and Marines to critical missions that brought freedom to people in all different countries. It likely carried young men and women that were injured in battle to a hospital that saved their lives.
In the case of those that weren’t so lucky, it likely performed that most sacred mission of returning them to their loved ones draped in the colors that they sacrificed everything for.
It hurts my soul a little to think about these great pieces of machinery having their careers come to an end, but they served their country well, and in the case of this plane, tail #2070, it will continue to serve on the ground for another couple of years. You see, we passed it off to one of the Air Force’s test and evaluation squadrons where it will aid in developing various different products and processes that will make the planes still flying safer and more effective.
It really made me stop and think about how cool my job is. I fly a historic plane that has served our country, and many others, for 60 years now. I get paid to fly in the footsteps of real heroes. It is truly a privilege to try in some small way to carry on the heritage that they left us with.
While most people will never have the opportunity that I did, nor will I likely ever do it again, we all have the opportunity to keep their heritage alive by visiting aviation museums, and by listening to the stories of those who flew these amazing aircraft. Most of us have at least a little bit of aviation history in our own backyards if we only look.
I would encourage you to look around and see what you might find, and please share it with the rest of us because that is the only real way to keep aviation history alive.
It’s sad to see a perfectly good airframe grounded. You’d think a cargo company, A&P school, allied air force, or other organization could make better use of the aircraft than putting it out to pasture, but I guess that’s how it goes.
How is it that you didn’t know this was the airplane’s fini flight?
It really was a sad day in that respect.
It was never really made clear to us as a crew what the long term plans for the plane were. We knew where we were taking it and who we were giving it to but it wasn’t until we arrived that they told us the long term plans for the plane.
An honor indeed. What a great aircraft.
After the final flight, do you know what happens to the plane? Does it get donated to a museum, or recycled? I really hope it’s something like a museum. It’d be a real shame to see such a fine craft dismantled.
It really all depends on where it is going. We were told that in the case of this plane it is going to be stripped apart in a couple of years after they are done with all of their testing. Many of our planes have actually gone to Guard and Reserve units where they will continue to fly, but others will just go to the Boneyard because they really have no useful life left.
I think generally if they can work something out with a museum or something they try to in order to preserve the history, but it isn’t always possible.
You really stopped me in my tracks. I have over 2000 hours as a navigator in the C-130H, at Dyess and Elmendorf. I remember #2070 as one of my favorite birds. If i remember, I flew across the pond on my first rote as a brand new LT, hadn’t been at Dyess more than 2 weeks. The Herk was my first choice out of Mather, and I bought a lot of beers on assignment night! Sometime around the year 2002, I remember seeing the future at RIAT in the UK. I climbed on the flight deck of a brand new RAF J model and was struck by two facts. No nav station, which was not a surprise, but what surprised me was the utter silence with the electrical power on. The E and H models of course had 3 altimeters on the flight deck, each with its own “clicker” to keep it from sticking. That was a lot of clicking when they powered up before engine start. The J, with glass cockpit, was… silent. Hardly felt like a C130 at all, but when they demo’d the assault takeoff, instead of running out of airspeed and leveling off, the thing just… kept… climbing! Anyway, thanks for sparking memories of the good ol’ days!
She flew strong right up until the end. Interesting thing was that she had tons of maintenance issues for the last few months, but on this last flight she couldn’t have flown any better. We all knew the future was coming, it just came a lot faster than anyone expected.
Thanks for the comment.