Going berserk for work perk in a Herc
Taking a test flight in an air force Hercules C130-H
Every now and then, through the swamp of press releases, is a gold nugget. At the bottom of this particular email was an invitation from the New Zealand Defence Force for media to board a Hercules C130-H with the Royal New Zealand Air Force No 40 squadron for a disaster relief training exercise — called TACEX 22.
Bugger the acute fear of heights. It’s not every day a lowly community journalist is given the opportunity to fly in a Hercules. This opportunity for a work perk in a Herc was worth a cheeky email requesting permission to board.
The return email was in the affirmative. There was an immediate rush of blood and a Google search . . . Hercules C130H New Zealand.
New Zealand’s fleet of Hercules has been used since 1965. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had just flown in one to Antarctica last month. They were used for a recent evacuation mission to Iraq, and also a Ukraine aid mission to Europe.
The big day was very windy, but there was no chickening out now. We would fly out sometime after lunch, and touch down again at Base O¯ hakea about an hour later.
The entrance to O¯ hakea was just like the movies. Someone in a control booth looked at security passes and took pleasantries before pushing a button to lift up a big road arm to let you drive through.
The terminal itself was empty, but for one or two personnel. During induction talks it was hoped none of us had eaten a large meal recently. Conditions would be windy, but don’t worry, white paper bags were within reach inside the Hercules.
The white paper bags were mentioned several times. There was an art to their use. Best practice was to put one paper bag inside another in case the first bag got soggy and compromised.
Don’t feel ashamed, one of the aircraft personnel chipped in, as the flights still made him crook sometimes.
With vomiting protocol established, along with other important stuff, we watched as her belly was loaded with mock supplies through the rear hatch. It was a training exercise, and the “supplies” would be dropped to a designated spot on the coast.
The annual training activity was designed to maintain tactical flying and airdrop capability, skills crucial when responding to a range of challenging situations, such as disaster relief. A Singapore crew was also participating.
It was now our time to board. We were ushered inside her through stairs at the side, behind the cockpit. Helmets and white paper bags were issued and seatbelts were fastened. We were told to expect a bumpy ride.
The crew and pilot held a last minute briefing inside the plane. It was too loud to hear what was being said, even from a few seats away, and it probably wouldn’t have made sense anyway.
Inside, she was functional and not very sexy, just a maze of wires and air ducts and buttons. There was some square netting on the sides to hold while she took off and before we knew it we were bouncing along, heading west towards the coast.
Behind the netting was a row of little round windows, like portholes on a ship, where the horizon bobbed up and down, alternating between blue sky and cloud and the gullies and paddocks of farmland and forest, and then sea.
It was only the odd animal or road that gave a sense of perspective as to exactly how low we were flying. Much of the flight was about 100m from the ground, although the drops themselves were from about 200m.
A key component of the exercise was low-level flying. Things became less queasy when the giant hatch at the back of the plane slowly opened, just like in the movies, to reveal more of the horizon. There was a countdown before each pallet was dispatched.
The squadron was working alongside NZ Army’s 5th Movements Company, which constructed and prepared the loads, and 10th Transport Company, which recovered the loads once they were dropped.
With the mission complete there was a tilt of the plane sideways as she turned to head back to base, and before too long were back on the tarmac.
This community journalist might have hitched a free ride in a Hercules and spent the whole exercise with one hand gripping tightly to white paper bags and the other to the orange netting behind him.
But at least he can tick “ride in a Hercules” off the bucket list, and he’s learnt a little bit about them along the way.
New Zealand’s fleet of C-130H Hercules will soon be replaced by the US-manufactured Lockheed Martin C-130J-30, which could start arriving as early as next year.
Pending the completion of a critical design review, five new aircraft could arrive by 2024, with the full fleet operating from 2025.
They would be more fuel efficient than the Hercules fleet, with a greater capacity.
The C-130J-30 has more capacity than its predecessor due to its additional 5.4m in length and a payload capacity of 21 tonnes.
The new aircraft will be able to travel 2400 nautical miles, compared to the current 1800nm, and that would make a substantial difference in how quickly the aircraft could reach a destination and offer support.