309th Aerospace Maintenance And Regeneration Group

[Another Ahab]

Gave some A models to the Afghan National AF for use as transports, then supplied millions in parts and training to the tune of something like $400 million...then scrapped them all. /

It's sad to hear they got scrapped.

But when you got to go; you got to go.

 

[pat038536]

The transport team shows off UH-1H 68-16179, recently transferred to Randall County Texas by the National Museum of the USAF as a static display. The team begain the transit from Tucson to Amarillo on Friday, Nov. 20 and anticipated a Saturday arrival after an overnight stop in Albuquerque, NM. The helo will be displayed at its new home at the Texas Panhandle War Memorial in Randall County. - November 19, 2015

 

[pat038536]

It's a "BoneSaw" thaw this morning after temps dipped below freezing overnight. - Dec 15, 2015

 

[Another Ahab]

View attachment 599325View attachment 599326

It's a "BoneSaw" thaw this morning after temps dipped below freezing overnight. - Dec 15, 2015

That airframe looks carrier-based, but that's the USAF "star" isn't it? I am completely unfamiliar with it. What is that aircraft?

 

[SETOYOTA]

S3 Viking

 

[Another Ahab]

S3 Viking

Thank you

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_S-3_Viking
​

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

I just read the WIKI about the S-3 Viking. I am CONFUSED.

In the late 70's I did one carrier landing aboard a similar aircraft that had the same apparent external configuration but was internally configured for TWO Cockpit Crew + 5 Passengers (four facing aft - for less traumatic carrier landings - and one (at the door) facing forward).
HOWEVER, I did not find this configuration listed as an S-3 variant in the WIKI.

So I ask: What type of aircraft might I have flown on for my one and only carrier landing?? (I was far more interested in my purpose for the trip at the time than how I was getting there.)

Also, wasn't it an S-3 that then President GW BUSH copiloted on his in-office carrier landing?? Or might it have also been the "supply" type aircraft I flew as "cargo" on??

Thanks.

 

[combatmech]

I'm thinking you hitched a ride on a C-1A Trader. Navy flew C-1's until the late 80's. Kinda looks like an S-3 with props.
There were US-3A's. Navy took some S-3's and turned them into Carrier On-Board Delivery aircraft. Not many were mod'd and only flew with VRC-50 out of the P.I.

 

[Another Ahab]

I'm thinking you hitched a ride on a C-1A Trader. Navy flew C-1's until the late 80's. Kinda looks like an S-3 with props.
There were US-3A's. Navy took some S-3's and turned them into Carrier On-Board Delivery aircraft. Not many were mod'd and only flew with VRC-50 out of the P.I.

Hey John, is THIS what you remember?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_C-1_Trader
​

 

[USAFSS-ColdWarrior]

I just read the WIKI about the S-3 Viking. I am CONFUSED.

In the late 70's I did one carrier landing aboard a similar aircraft that had the same apparent external configuration but was internally configured for TWO Cockpit Crew + 5 Passengers (four facing aft - for less traumatic carrier landings - and one (at the door) facing forward).
HOWEVER, I did not find this configuration listed as an S-3 variant in the WIKI.

So I ask: What type of aircraft might I have flown on for my one and only carrier landing?? (I was far more interested in my purpose for the trip at the time than how I was getting there.)

Also, wasn't it an S-3 that then President GW BUSH copiloted on his in-office carrier landing?? Or might it have also been the "supply" type aircraft I flew as "cargo" on??

Thanks.

I'm thinking you hitched a ride on a C-1A Trader. Navy flew C-1's until the late 80's. Kinda looks like an S-3 with props.
There were US-3A's. Navy took some S-3's and turned them into Carrier On-Board Delivery aircraft. Not many were mod'd and only flew with VRC-50 out of the P.I.

Thanks for that info. The bird that picked me up at the small airfield at Ft. George G. Meade, Maryland was definitely jet powered though. When I got onboard the only vacant seat was the forward facing one by the door. My knee was rubbing the short stowed boarding ladder for the short flight to the carrier we were meeting. The other passenger seats were already filled with enough brass to make a ship's propeller!
I thought at first to be privileged to have a forward view of the carrier landing. I never imagined how bruised I would be from the G's and the 5 point harness. I do believe that upon arrest cable grab my testicles kissed my knees. It turns out that the brass knew better than to take the forward facing seat.

Hey John, is THIS what you remember?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grumman_C-1_Trader
​

Thanks for the WIKI link, Rocky. Nope, my ride was not a prop-plane.

I can only guess at this point that it may have been a specially modified S-3 (US-3A as suggested??) flying "supplies", aka human cargo, onto the seaborne airstrip.

I was equally anticipating a carrier launch, but alas, by the time I was ready to depart, the tugs were pushing the carrier to a pier at Norfolk and I left the deck sitting in the open doorway of a helicopter and was taken less than 1500 ft to the pier where I caught a ground ride back to FGGM.

My intel career was an interesting ride indeed.

 

[pat038536]

A Navy Centennial paint-schemed aircraft brightens up a line of similar T-39s. - Dec. 17, 2015


A former Myrtle Beach A-10A, 78-0666, once assigned to the 356 Fighter Sqdn, on it's way to HVF-West today for recycling. - Dec. 15, 2015

 

[Another Ahab]

View attachment 599622
A former Myrtle Beach A-10A, 78-0666, once assigned to the 356 Fighter Sqdn, on it's way to HVF-West today for recycling. - Dec. 15, 2015

That's too bad:

- And "another one bites the dust"

 

[pat038536]

http://www.hill.af.mil/news/story.asp?id=123465619

Retired A-10C appealing to the "software" side of Hill

 

[Jericho]

I spent twenty years in the USAF working all the a/c seen in the posts, I worked Jet engines to rockets, to launch and recovery to hangin bombs, I fully understand the boneyards purpose,BUT, the destruction of some of these A/C is nothing short of CRIMINAL, I am Biased, But at a time when we as a nation are facing our gravest tests since the second world war and when our AF is smaller than it has ever been with fewer A/C than it has had since 1941 we don't need to be turning 16s into drones so a happy go lucky shave tail can tally ho it in to the ocean. How many people realize there are fewer than 80 yes 80 flying B-52s and even those are more than 50 plus years old, 12 or so B-2s total around 100 ish B1s some already in the bone yard , NO Stealth fighter airborne in nearly 20 years. The fighter situation is equally as bad. DOne from here but consider it

 

[pat038536]

A beautiful snow line in Tucson's Catalina mountains accents a C-130 background! - Jan. 8, 2016

 

[pat038536]

One of the last S-3Bs to actively serve with the U.S. Navy arrived at AMARG on Jan. 8, 2016. Bureau Number 160147 was assigned to VX-30 the Navy's Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (Bloodhounds) at Point Mugu, Calif. prior to retiring. - Jan. 14, 2016

 

[combatmech]

AWWW Man....... Now NASA is the only Hoover flyer.
There should have been some Navy HH-60H's show up out there over the past few months.

 

[Another Ahab]

One of the last S-3Bs to actively serve with the U.S. Navy arrived at AMARG on Jan. 8, 2016. Bureau Number 160147 was assigned to VX-30 the Navy's Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (Bloodhounds) at Point Mugu, Calif. prior to retiring. - Jan. 14, 2016

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The wing pylons outboard the engines:

- are those for drop tanks?

- or weapons?

Or maybe either/or; both!?

 

[combatmech]

Both, plus a " buddy store" for in-flight refueling, and cargo pods .

 

[pat038536]

U.S. Coast Guard introduces first C-27J Medium Range Surveillance airplane in the service’s colors

http://theaviationist.com/2016/04/06/u-s-coast-guard-introduces-first-c-27j-medium-range-surveillance-airplane-in-the-services-colors/

The U.S. Coast Guard has accepted the first of 14 C-27J Spartan aircraft in the service colors on Mar. 30.

The Spartan will be introduced into the USCG medium range surveillance aircraft fleet and will conduct drug and migrant interdiction, disaster response, and search and rescue missions.

The aircraft, belonging to a fleet of 21 Spartans that the U.S. Air Force announced to be mothballing to save money back in 2012, was taken on charge by the Coast Guard HC-27J Asset Project Office (APO) in Elizabeth City, North Carolina; it will be transferred to Air Station Sacramento, California, this summer to continue the station’s transition from the HC-130H to the C-27J.

Read the rest of the article at the link above