[MilAir] MilAir Digest, Vol 107, Issue 8

[Tom Clarke]

Nice shot of the NC-130H as we called it when it was assigned to VX-20 
at Pax River.

  I  have many hours in it when we were testing the new antenna and 
radar for the new E-2D  Hawkeye.  The airplane came to us from Edwards 
AFB as 87-0157, having previously spent time in the Coast Guard doing 
anti drug patrols.  When the Navy took it, we gave it a BuNo of 870157, 
which doesn't fit into any recent BuNo scheme. When the project was 
finished, the radar, the instrumentation, and the antenna was removed 
and she went back to the Coast Guard and became 1721 again..

During the time we had it, the cargo compartment basically had two 
pallet positions occupied with the consoles from an E-2C.  The prototype 
radar and the data instrumentation filled up the rest of the deck.  We 
basically flew (mostly at night due to less air traffic) up and down the 
East coast, either over land (the I-95 route) or just offshore 
collecting radar data that was recorded on an immense RAID assembly of 
hard drives for analysis later.  We actually didn't have a real time 
radar display in the airplane, we just collected zeroes and ones!

The dome installation imposed a 200 knot IAS limit, a 15 degree Beta 
limit, and also created some unusual flying qualities.  Her callsign in 
those days was "Waterbug 157", before they opted for the goofy "Score" 
moniker they use now!  Test Pilot School used to be "Teakettle", but now 
they user "Tester".  I guess they didn't sound "cool"enough!  VX-23 
(Strike) seems to be happy with "Salty Dog"

Fun times!

Tom, old school C-130 driver.
Pax River MD

On 10/28/2014 12:31 PM, milair-request at mailman.qth.net wrote:
> Subject:
> [MilAir] Fwd: [MilRadioComms] US Coast Guard "CG-1721" in US Navy colors.
> From:
> AllanStern--- via MilAir <milair at mailman.qth.net>
> Date:
> 10/26/2014 8:41 AM
>
> To:
> Milcom2 at yahoogroups.com, milair at mailman.qth.net, milcom at mailman.qth.net
>
>
> US Coast Guard HC-130 "CG 1721" at Patrick AFB, 24 Oct  2014.
>     CG 1721 still bears the colors of its US Navy service where,  on loan
> from the US Coast Guard it performed with an AWACS-style radar on its  back.
> CG 1721 was also lent to the US Air Force for service there.
> https://www.flickr.com/photos/allanstern/15631596315/sizes/l
>   
>   
> AL STERN  Satellite Beach  FL