Drill flight exhibits Super Hercules’ power, crews’ skill
A four-engine aircraft that weighs 38 tons and is nicknamed the Super Hercules is designed to carry a lot.
But those who fly and ride in it know about its sneaky agility, too.
Several of the planes were flown Saturday, and a couple of members of the media rode along. The pilots and load masters made good use of the three-hour airtime to practice cargo drops, while buzzing Pinnacle Mountain and maneuvering above the Buffalo River.
Several pilots at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville fly the C-130J, a transport aircraft that often is used to haul everything from ammunition to supplies of humanitarian aid.
Saturday’s exercise was the “capstone event” of what was started a few months ago, an annual exercise aimed to show the level of preparedness among the reserve duty pilots at the base, said Maj. Steve Freeman with the 327th Airlift Squadron, who led Saturday’s training.
“We were testing the
readiness of our guys to meet the full special readiness needs of the Air Force as a whole,” Freeman said. “We were testing various capabilities within the C-130.”
Freeman, 37, was on active duty for 12 years and is now a reservist. He works full time as a pilot for FedEx. His fellow pilots work in the civilian world in the same capacity — flying for various companies and airlines.
When they get together for drill one weekend a month, their enthusiasm for being in the air is revived. It’s a gig they all appreciate.
Freeman can talk endlessly about the plane.
“The C-130J has been around for quite a while, and the C-130 as a whole has been around for multiple decades at this point,” Freeman said. “For the foreseeable future, it will be around for a while.”
The other version of the plane, the C-130H, is different in terms of the crew complement. The Hercules, or “Herk,” by comparison, has two pilots, a flight engineer, a navigator and a load master.
The C-130J, which is more technologically advanced, has two pilots and one or two load masters, Freeman said.
In addition to humanitarian assistance and cargo drops, the C-130J is used in disaster relief, for casualty evacuations and more.
Staff Sgt. Jarren Terry was one of the load masters who took part in Saturday’s training.
His job is to ensure the cargo is secure and then released with the utmost safety and precision when the aircraft reaches its target.
“We usually don’t fly that close to each other,” Terry said of the planes that were in the air Saturday. At one point, one of the C-130Js seemingly flew within 100 yards of the right rear of Freeman’s aircraft.
Otherwise, it was business as usual, he said.
There were two drops conducted during Saturday’s media flight. One was a simulation of a heavy-equipment load drop.
The released cargo was intended to simulate a Humvee or some other type of large military vehicle.
The second drop was a simulation of a container-delivery system.
Basically, it is a box that would ordinarily be filled with water, food or some other type of supplies.
Terry, 26, described in great detail the procedures necessary to ensure that the cargo is secure while in the aircraft and safely released. He talked with the confidence of someone who has plenty of hands-on experience and has completed all the requisite classroom work.
“I love flying, man,” Terry said. “I love being in the air.”
Saturday’s mission was completed with no obvious mistakes.
Aside from one media member suffering a bout of air sickness, the mission went off as planned.
It was another satisfying drill weekend for Freeman. He said that when he is back in the cockpit of a C-130J, he realizes how much he misses it.
“I miss the flying,” he said. “Sometimes it can seem routine, man, but … the reality is that when we’re in the real world executing, each day is a new challenge. You don’t take it for granted.”