# Happy 50th CC-130 Series



## WingsofFury (15 Nov 2010)

A gathering of current crews and those from years gone by were at 8 Wing today to celebrate the 50th year of the Hercules being utilised by the CF.  It was a great time, and the smiles on everyones faces were amazing as old memories were relived.

If anyone has any stories they can share, feel free to post em in this thread, and cheers to you all!


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## PuckChaser (15 Nov 2010)

I wish I remembered the tail number of the plane, but I met a few Herc drivers while riding in the cockpit on the way back from Kandahar in '08. They even let me fly! Great group of guys, and such a great aircraft.


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## REDinstaller (15 Nov 2010)

From the pic, i see triple pig is still flying. 333 was the Boxtop hanger queen in 1999.


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## WingsofFury (21 Nov 2010)

Neat to hear some stories!!

A little bit of information I found on 333...

Taken on strength by the Canadian Forces on March 3/1975, this example of a CC-130H series Hercules operated on behalf of the UN in Ethiopia in November and December 1991.


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## Sparkplugs (16 Dec 2010)

Tango18A said:
			
		

> From the pic, i see triple pig is still flying. 333 was the Boxtop hanger queen in 1999.



Triple Pig is still, well, a pig.  She doesn't do so well in Canada, quite the hangar queen, but we used her as SAR for awhile here.  It used to be that she was better overseas, but the time I spent over there earlier this year, we had non-stop issues -- three prop changes in the same week, FCU trouble, all kinds of fun stuff.

Probably the most notorious herc we have here!

But hey, at least she keeps me employed!


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## Oldgateboatdriver (17 Dec 2010)

When the Naval Reserve ran "gate vessel week-ends" in the 70's to 90's, we usually travelled "Herkybird Air".

I remember showing some recruits a picture montage of one of those week-ends with one picture that showed the unit's crew boarding the Herc. This guy had a civilian pilot license and could not be convinced that you could cram about 80 people in such a plane.


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## smale436 (13 Jan 2011)

Triple Pig. That's pretty funny as we have our own Triple Pig (777) out here in Cold Lake. It too behaves better on TD's but it's not the worst hangar queen by a long shot. 

I'm curious about something. Do any of the Hercs have the elaborate camo paint scheme still? I remember living in Winnipeg from 94-02 and a few Hercs there had them at one point but I haven't seen any like that in quite some time. I'm not sure how long that paint scheme was used but it sure looked cool in my opinion. I wonder why they don't use it anymore.


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## Sparkplugs (13 Jan 2011)

CDNAIRFORCE said:
			
		

> Triple Pig. That's pretty funny as we have our own Triple Pig (777) out here in Cold Lake. It too behaves better on TD's but it's not the worst hangar queen by a long shot.
> 
> I'm curious about something. Do any of the Hercs have the elaborate camo paint scheme still? I remember living in Winnipeg from 94-02 and a few Hercs there had them at one point but I haven't seen any like that in quite some time. I'm not sure how long that paint scheme was used but it sure looked cool in my opinion. I wonder why they don't use it anymore.



I can't tell you why they don't use it anymore, but I've never seen a herc with it, and I'm pretty sure I've run across most of them in the past few years.  You're right, it did look pretty neat, there are tons of pictures up of them.  They all have the boring ol' grey now, I believe.  We've retired 4 or 5 herc here in Trenton in the past year or two, and they were all grey as well, so I think it must have been a fleet-wide thing.


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## WingsofFury (20 Jan 2011)

Interesting topic re: paint scheme.  Found the below, bolding added by me.



> Canadian Colour & Marking Standards
> 
> Colour Standards:
> 
> ...


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## Edward Campbell (25 Apr 2011)

An interesting article, reproduced under the Fair Dealing provisions (§29) of the Copyright Act from the _Ottawa Citizen_:

http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Aging+Hercules+flies+Afghanistan+toward+sunset/4669751/story.html 


> Aging Hercules flies out of Afghanistan and toward the sunset
> 
> By Matthew Fisher, Postmedia News
> 
> ...




A fine aircraft that has done us proud.


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## bison33 (28 Apr 2011)

2 errors in that article. The Herc's tail number would be 130319, vice 130819 and it is an E model, not an H.


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## Sparkplugs (28 Apr 2011)

Trunk Monkey said:
			
		

> 2 errors in that article. The Herc's tail number would be 130319, vice 130819 and it is an E model, not an H.



The pilot definitely told the newspeople that, so I''m not sure where the mistake happened.  But yes, you're absolutely right.  That plane did really well over there too, I miss working on it.


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## bison33 (28 Apr 2011)

Sparkplugs said:
			
		

> Triple Pig is still, well, a pig.  She doesn't do so well in Canada, quite the hangar queen, but we used her as SAR for awhile here.  It used to be that she was better overseas, but the time I spent over there earlier this year, we had non-stop issues -- three prop changes in the same week, FCU trouble, all kinds of fun stuff.
> 
> Probably the most notorious herc we have here!
> 
> But hey, at least she keeps me employed!



Funny how the Trenton folks always complained/still complain about triple pig...when we had it in Winnipeg in the 90's, it was our work horse and rarely U/S.  Guess we had the more experienced techs in the fleet, well at least fitters.  ;D


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## krustyrl (28 Apr 2011)

BaaaaZingggggggggggg


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## Sparkplugs (28 Apr 2011)

Trunk Monkey said:
			
		

> Funny how the Trenton folks always complained/still complain about triple pig...when we had it in Winnipeg in the 90's, it was our work horse and rarely U/S.  Guess we had the more experienced techs in the fleet, well at least fitters.  ;D



Zing!  But I remember not a year ago, when Winnipeg sent us a plane with 4 u/s brakes on it, with the spare parts on board and a message to have fun.   ;D  I don't think there's ever been a time when Winnipeg and Trenton didn't talk s**t about each other.  Besides, the 90's was 20-some years ago, she may have gone downhill since then maybe?   ;D


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## a78jumper (28 Apr 2011)

Sparkplugs said:
			
		

> Triple Pig is still, well, a pig.  She doesn't do so well in Canada, quite the hangar queen, but we used her as SAR for awhile here.  It used to be that she was better overseas, but the time I spent over there earlier this year, we had non-stop issues -- three prop changes in the same week, FCU trouble, all kinds of fun stuff.
> 
> Probably the most notorious herc we have here!
> 
> But hey, at least she keeps me employed!



333 was my second Herc ride from Wainwright to Victoria Feb 82, except it made it only as far as Edmonton. Not sure if it was a serviceability issue or the fact it was Friday night. In any event we hung around for a couple of hours, drank some beer at the mess and another airframe took us home.


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## bison33 (29 Apr 2011)

Sparkplugs said:
			
		

> Zing!  But I remember not a year ago, when Winnipeg sent us a plane with 4 u/s brakes on it, with the spare parts on board and a message to have fun.   ;D  I don't think there's ever been a time when Winnipeg and Trenton didn't talk s**t about each other.  Besides, the 90's was 20-some years ago, she may have gone downhill since then maybe?   ;D



What? I'm not that old!!! Well, looking back, there definitely was trash talk and glad to see it carries on. Triple pig should be a pedestal bird once retired and not made into pop cans.
The brake thing is funny, glad to see some things never change.  >


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