Hercules musings

Last week I posted on the demise of the Huey and now the bloody C130 Hercules is under threat. Airbus A400 new Military Spec Aircraft Looks good but it has a long way to go beat the Herc’s record and of course Lockheed may have something to say about sales. They are not going to roll over without a fight. My career covered Herc modes ‘A’ though ‘H’ and while business executives notched up air miles in 707s, 727s, 737s and 747s I did it in Hercs. Few creature comforts but we could smoke and drink (mostly) and a hammock always beats an airline seat. The ingenious amongst us could get comfortable but poor insulation made it very cold and the noise made conversations difficult for days. I flew from Townsville to Perth when I was stationed in the West and we set some sort of record for slowness. 11 hours beating into a 200 mph headwind. An example of why soldiers get hard lying allowances In Thailand with US forces during the Vietnam War, the Commander gave us an Easter leave pass. A Colonel offered me a seat in a Herc to Sydney and back and I felt compelled to ask him if he had done such a long haul in a Herc before. He answered in the negative and so did I. You’ll spend most of easter in the air, Sir – Jesus had a better deal than that. The Colonel had one day of the four at home but he did bring back some ‘four and twenty pies’ and VB so at least some of us benefited. Which brings to mind the senior Aussie Sergeant Major who stated he was staying in Bangkok for the break while the rest of us took of to Pattaya. I said ” four days and four walls’ is not good for a man. He replied ‘Four days, four walls and four legs! Silly me! More>>> (on the A400)