C130 Hercules Flight

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Thanks to a luchtzakmember who mentioned the excersise on this forum I knew
about the possibility to join a military exercise which included a flight in a C130 Hercules.
So I was a candidate and I get the possibilty to join this exercise 'NEO Active Trip 2010'.

After a start at 15h00 we were driven around Flanders ( Petegem ) to end up at the
airfield in Ursel (near Ghent ).
Due to time it was at night !(20h00)

We got a short briefing about safety in a military C130 Hercules and was quite surprised to
hear that there were a lot of escape paths but nearly 3 serious ones,incl. the 'laadklep-loaddoor?''.
All others were quite dangerous to use because of the propellors!
Also 'brace' modus looks quite cousy-all pax hooked in togheter !
Oxygen masks are a full head oxygen-cap with O2-capsule inside the cap,never saw it before!
Toilet is in front of the first row pax nose and this is the right way to say it!
Ear plugs were obligatory.
Seats were hard but with the net the seats were more comfortable and more room than any
Yseat ever, I prefer way BAF instead of SN-FR-LH.. in seats and space
As a prop I will compare with Dash Q400 next year for my friend Regi !


After this short briefing we were told to go to the runaway all lined up togheter.
The C130 did a low fly-by and 3/4 touch and go's and then landed.
Still with running engines we went entering the plane from the load-door guided by the load-master and
it was quite a feeling enter a plane like this with a lot of jet-blast and kerosine in our noses !
But as an enhousiast I loved it !
After taking place the load door closed we were go for take-off to Florennes, but after 25min we'll get a surprise we landed at Chievres to load the C130 full of pax ( we in Ursel were only with +-15 and in Chievres we were full!
So after this extra landing and take-off we had a go for Florennes AFB, quite an amazing big airfield,
I didn't knew it was so big ( biggest in Belgium ?? ).
We reached Florennes after again a 25min flight.


After landing we had the time for taking pics and enjoy the magnificant vieuw of the quite special
plane the C130 Hercules is.
The plane looks old with the removed painting of 'United Nations' but was still in a quite good shape IMO.
Nice experience!
Hope to enjoy these excersises again some time, and maybe in a few years with the A400M but it's still a lovely sight the C130 Hercules.

CX-B

Note : does someone know why these plane had 2 cables from the head to the tail and the other C130 at Florennes not? What's the meaning of these cables ?? Antenna,..

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[Desert Rat]

The "cables" going from to the fuselage to the vertical leading edge are the HF antenna, but if you talk about the two cables in the Cargo hold, it's where paratroop's hook their parachute....theres two winchs at the front against the fwd bulk.

[cathay belgium]

Hi,

Thanks for info and indeed I meant the HF antenna,the paracables inside was
clear to me.
Strange I saw these 2 cables also on a civil B737-200 in Indonesia, we were at that time
laughing (green) about it because this was an 'inforcement' of the fuselage .
( Sempati Air reg. PK-JHC, one of the famous Indonesian Airlines )

CX-B

[Devon Rex]

Nice report I heard the C-130 passing over Rebaix yesterday evening I live approx 5-10km from Chièvres.

[Jazzy]

For the last few days Ursel was a bit overwrowded. This time not with the "Natuurpunt" guys (the guys who protect the environment by cutting all the trees ) but with our beloved C-130s. Wedesday they even performed 'night flights' with the last departure around 2100. For that they installed landing lights and some kind of mobile ILS which was calibrated by continiouqs overflights of again a C-130.


Le moment supreme came yesterday around 1730 when CH-03, CH-08 and CH-10 made a fly by followed by simultanious landing(interval 30 seconds!!!!) and stood on the ground for only 9 minutes loading the troops and a few Iltis.

I will add some pics tonight

Military is seriously thinking of performing more excercises in the near future and was estonished about the tarmac's condition.

Jazzy

[regi]

In these peaceful era in Europe, we forget easely the importance of military airfields. Florennes is of NATO strategic importance. It housed the cruise missiles.
http://www.baha.be/Webpages/Navigator/N ... s%20FS.htm
Kleine Brogel keeps the nuclear bombs ( to be attached on F-16 I pressume ? )

A C-130 excercise involving loading paratroopers together with Iltis jeeps shows that the military still maintains its readiness for para-interventions as in the high days of the regiment in Congo-Zaire. ( intervention and civilian extraction )
At the military museum you can see the predecessor of the Landrover and Iltis: the Belgian made Minerva-jeep ( copy of the Landrover) with shattered bullet proof windows for the driver and passenger, a real para icon.

I wonder if Belgium would do a para drop-with-vehicles in Afghanistan I think it is more as general excercise to be ready for situation in central Africa.
( if the ATC's of Africa don't go on strike... )

[jan_olieslagers]

indeed I meant the HF antenna
Strange I saw these 2 cables also on a civil B737-200 in Indonesia

I inquired a bit in this area not long ago. Apparently HF radio is still in use in areas with insufficient VHF ground stations. Some such areas are:

Africa - weren't the Jumbolino's for AirDC fitted with HF for African operation?
North Atlantic routes - although the requirement is in a process of relaxation there
Australia - as I learned on a pilot's aviation forum

There might me more, though.

[tapclassic]

ENVY!!!