A C-130 was lumbering along when an F-16 flashed by. The jet jockey decided to show off.
The cocky fighter jock told the C-130 pilot, "watch this!" and promptly went into a barrel roll followed by a steep climb. He then finished with a sonic boom as he broke the sound barrier. The F-16 pilot asked the C-130 pilot what he thought of that? The C-130 pilot said, "That was impressive, but watch this!"
The C-130 droned along for about 5 minutes and then the C-130 pilot came back on and said: "What did you think of that?"
Puzzled, the F-16 pilot asked, "What the hell did you do?"
The C-130 pilot chuckled. "I stood up, stretched my legs, walked to the back, went to the bathroom, then got a cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun."
When you are young & foolish - speed & flash may seem a good thing !!! When you get older & smarter - comfort & dull is not such a bad thing !!!
Some people will tell you that slow is good - and it may be, on some days - but I am here to tell you that fast is better. I've always believed this, in spite of the trouble it's caused me. Being shot out of a cannon will always be better than being squeezed out of a tube. That is why God made fast motorcycles, Bubba...
I was thinking the Herk pilot was going to land in back of a Denny's, eat lunch, then take off again. The short unimproved runway performance of those things is amazing.
Things are changing the the world of the 130. Since the AF is buying nothing but stretch models now. Had one here not to far back that the pilot over rotated on TO. He drug its butt down the runway a short distance.
No self respecting crew would land at a Dennys. Now landing on a awful waffle is another story.
When The careers master at school asked me what I planned on doing when I left, (in his eyes as soon as possible) I told him I wanted to be a Hercules crewman. Sadly sub-standard eyesight & asthma put an end to that idea.
Where I grew up near Cambridge, we used to see them all the time, in & out of Mildenhall, Lakenheath, & Alconbury.
Also Marshalls, where I was an apprentice mechanic did the modifications to the RAF fleet for Lockheed, such as the in-flight refuelling systems and suchlike.
I've promised myself that if I ever win several million on the lottery I'm going to learn to fly & buy my own; get it nicely kitted out, drive an RV in, coupla bikes & away into the world.
Spent a lot of time at/on/around Mildenhall. Never stationed there, just spent a lot of time on the governments dime there. Some nice pubs to kick back and relax in.
Spent a lot of time up in the AF heavies. Always dreaded the long (distance, not length of the plane) Herc and any FRED flights. The Hercs are just too damn slow to cross the pond and the FREDs carry a pallet of spare parts for a good reason.
For the uninitiated, FRED stands for F*cking Ridiculous Economical Disaster, and is the loving term for the C5 Galaxy. Other then Old_man's joke, the other good AF one is: What is the average cruising altitude of the C5? Elevation of the flight line, plus the height of the jack stands.
FRED's redeeming quality, based on discussions with crew members at Altus and Mather (WARNING: I need to note here that I although I am a USMC vet I was NEVER DEPLOYED - I am also a licensed pilot who turned down the orders to PFT at Pensecola, FL) was it's range.
My Uncle used to have to log so many hours a month. They'd fly to bizarre places around the globe to buy sneakers for the kids, chewing tobacco and about anything.
He landed at Forbes Field (TOP) once to pick up my Grandmother big ol' dining room buffet and take it to New Mexico. They dropped off two school buses on the way.
They are amazing simply as a result of sheer size. How cool would it be to have a Buell event with 500 participants. . . ride the mountains of California. . . all ride in the cargo bay . . . load up . . have lunch enroute and enjoy a sunset ride at Deal's Gap?
That picture was taken at an Air Show at the Naval Air Base in Virginia Beach a couple of years ago. You can see how close we were allowed to the flight line, truly amazing show of force. The blue Angels were there and roared over the beach practicing every day. I gotta tell you, your military does you proud!
Gawd I miss that big ugly Bird of A-6 There really hasnt been a decent intemediate carrier based bomber since. The amount of ordance you could put on target.... The A-10 warthog has been chewing holes in ground targets since the 70s Pity the day they retire that bird.
Very nice video!! What was that, reverse then app. a 400 foot take off!! Holy Crap that would be fun. My home is on a horizontal line to Ft. Bragg and those Hercules nip the tree tops around here all the time. 1st it is the deep far off rumble, then the whole damn house shakes you run outside to make sure they are not going to crash, and the whole plane goes vertcal wing tip to wing tip to the ground and disappears behind the trees.