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| Living the Herc
life By FLGOFF Eamon Hamilton Volume 49, No. 02, February 22, 2007 |
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Former 36SQN pilot David Street remembers when the Hercules was the latest word in airlift capability – he was one of the pilots who delivered the first C-130As to RAAF Base Richmond in December, 1958. Last November, he returned to Richmond to farewell his former squadron’s 48-year association with the aircraft. 36SQN has since relocated to RAAF Base Amberley to operate the new C-17s. In 1958, the 22-year-old FLGOFF Street was flying with various transport squadrons from RAAF Base Fairbairn. Much of that flying was undertaken on Dakotas with 38SQN, No. 34 (VIP) Flight and 36SQN. In July 1958, while with 36SQN, he was sent to America to become one of the Air Force’s first Hercules pilots. The order for Australia’s 12 A-model Hercules was a milestone for Lockheed. While the aircraft was in service with the US Air Force, the RAAF would become the first foreign air force to operate the aircraft. Mr Street said that 12 Australian aircrews were sent to Sewart Air Force Base in Tennessee, USA. They arrived to find the base on high alert, with many Hercules away on deployment. “When we arrived on the base, every aircraft was headed off to the Middle East,” he said. There was an insurgency in Lebanon resulting in the US sending its Hercules there in a rapid deployment – and setting a common precedent for the type. The business end of RAAF Hercules operations began in November 1958, when its first C-130As came on-line. On November 13, FLGOFF Street took his first flight in the Australian C-130 A97-205 as co-pilot for FLGOFF Stan Hyland. The first aircraft were officially handed over to the RAAF on December 5. FLGOFF Street later flew sister-ship A97-209 on its ferry flight across the US to Australia. The trans-Pacific trip took 38 hours’ flying time, spread over several days and four legs, and the first Hercules arrived in Australia in December. FLGOFF Street then returned to the US in January 1959 to bring back the remainder of the Australian Hercules, with a stopover in New York. They arrived without incident on March 3. He says the northern winter provided “bad ferry months” for the Australian C-130As. The aircraft were originally purchased without external fuel tanks, and flights across the Pacific experienced fierce headwinds. “We wanted for nothing,” Mr Street said of the delivery flights, “except for external tanks.” The decision to add the fuel tanks came shortly after the C-130As brought the British Blue Streak missiles from Hatfield in England to Woomera in South Australia. The C-130A represented a quantum leap in airlift capability over the venerable Dakota. It was capable of flying almost twice the speed of the Dakota, as well as being able to airlift vehicles and helicopters. Mr Street says he retains a soft spot for the Hercules. “I’ve flown 17,500 hours, and the Hercules is one of the finest pilot’s aircraft I’ve flown,” he said. |
