C-130 doing exercises over London, ON today

daemon5150 · Post by **daemon5150** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:09 am

Hi all,

On my drive to work in London, Ontario this morning there was a steel blue C-130 doing low-altitude exercises for at least an hour to the north-east of the city. This is unusual because the closest CFB is Trenton several hundred km's away, and we never see CF aircraft in this area unless it's for an airshow.

I got a few pics on my cell phone camera but none with any detail. I couldn't see markings on the wings and tail but I would assume it's a CF aircraft. They were getting low enough that when passing overhead I could nearly see into the cargo bay.

I'll have to admit I was quite jealous that I had to go to the office while they got to lumber around the sunny skies with the cargo doors open. *sigh*

Anyone know where this plane was from and what they were up to? I did see them do a cargo drop but the rest of the time they were just going around in circles. Could be DART?

Thanks,
Carl

ch135146 · Post by **ch135146** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 2:25 pm

Could have been 424 Squadron doing SAR training. They do a lot of it at CFB Trenton and nearby Mountain View, south of Belleville. But they do like to travel to different airports, both for familiarization and for SAR training.

Such training involves drops of smallish equipment bundles, usually no more than, say, 100lbs, and parachute jumps by the SAR Techs. The nature of these procedures involves a lot of checks and circling.

Miss Mae · Post by **Miss Mae** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 2:33 pm

I saw a C-130 while I was driving in the GTA today probably the same one headed back to Trenton.

cyyz · Post by **cyyz** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 2:35 pm

If you guys would turn off your ELTs, and closed flt plans, they wouldn't need to send Hercules.... I liked Heman personally, he had a cool sister...

Dust Devil · Post by **Dust Devil** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 2:48 pm

the winnipeg guys come to estevan once in a while and do this stuff too. usually causes some excitement with people in town when a hurc buzzes the city.

mculshaw · Post by **mculshaw** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 4:09 pm

I was in the CZ when they called up.
"Simulated" ELT/SAR exercise at a grass strip just east of the field.
They were homing in on the simulated ELT signal.
The flightcrew described that they were going to be flying by the field, low level <2000ASL for an inspection, dropping message bundles and then doing a live parachute drop of SAR Tech's, then heading into YXU for lunch.

We flew about 500' above them on our way back home to the East. My student got a good kick out of them.

mc

dangerous · Post by **dangerous** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 8:21 pm

The Canadian military had a serviceable Herc? Wow, that's unusual!

flyincanuck · Post by **flyincanuck** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 12:20 pm

dangerous wrote:The Canadian military had a serviceable Herc? Wow, that's unusual!

They have two - apparently.

I was in YHM today as the one Herc from London was transiting the zone back to Trenton (callsign Thunder - have never heard of that before. Thought it was Air Thunder at first until they said they were a C-130).

A second Herc was also dropping chutes over the field at the same time.

just curious · Post by **just curious** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 12:42 pm

They must have launched the fleet, there's one in Rankin too!

dangerous · Post by **dangerous** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 1:27 pm

Three serviceable Hercs in one day. I've never heard of that before. They'll be doing maintenance all next week in Trenton to recuperate from a busy week of flying!

gryphon · Post by **gryphon** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 2:02 pm

We consistantly have 2 svcble per day (out of 3) at the sqn. We even see 3 from time to time.

TheCheez · Post by **TheCheez** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 2:30 pm

Oh cmon gryphon dont bite on that one

ch135146 · Post by **ch135146** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 4:01 pm

flyincanuck wrote:...back to Trenton (callsign Thunder - have never heard of that before.

"Thunder" is the callsign of 426 Squadron, which is the Operational Training Unit (OTU) for transport aircraft. They're the school that teaches CF pilots to fly Hercs.

gryphon · Post by **gryphon** » Fri Jun 09, 2006 4:01 pm

Whad'ya mean, we're pretty proud of it!!! Of course, what else is there to do in the Valley......

red-neck · Post by **red-neck** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 3:04 pm

Do they still issue boots with no laces in the ditch

2R · Post by 2R » Mon Jun 12, 2006 7:50 pm

Please do not post information that could be useful to an enemy .
Giving details about the size , efficiency of our airforce ,the training done and where could be used by an enemy.

Loose lips sink ships

dangerous · Post by **dangerous** » Mon Jun 12, 2006 8:09 pm

If this was a top secret mission, they should have painted the Herc with invisible paint. You can expect that people are going to see you when you fly over a big city. If you're doing something that you don't want enemies to see, then don't do it in a city where enemies may lurk.

monkeyspankmasterflex · Mon Jun 12, 2006 8:40 pm

You really are dangerous.

dangerous · Post by **dangerous** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 5:14 am

monkeyspankmasterflex wrote:You really are dangerous.

That's what they tell me!

Guido · Post by **Guido** » Tue Jun 13, 2006 5:26 am

2R wrote:Please do not post information that could be useful to an enemy .
Giving details about the size , efficiency of our airforce ,the training done and where could be used by an enemy.

Loose lips sink ships

No worries man, it was an airplane - not a ship! Relaaaaax....