Final Flight

Our most senior flight engineer had his last flight today so a little effort went into the arrival home for him. Sadly with the untimely retirement of our C130H fleet last flights are becoming all to frequent, I treat every flight I do as my last

beautiful sendoff, what are they replacing those planes with?

Cool. Great idea they had there.

rick_reno wrote in post #14600380
beautiful sendoff, what are they replacing those planes with?

Same here. Trying to think what they would replace this with.

Good shots of an event that's becoming too common.

rick_reno wrote in post #14600380
beautiful sendoff, what are they replacing those planes with?

Defence will pay a high price

Googled

Nice

rick_reno wrote in post #14600380
beautiful sendoff, what are they replacing those planes with?

Thanks guys, pretty emotional day for us flight engineers, WOFF John Boshammer, the member having his final flight was on our first C130H flight engineer conversion cse held in Australia after the "H' model replaced our "A' models in 1978. He has had something to do with the training & development of not only every current C130 flight engineer but every current pilot, nav & loadmaster not to mention the number of maintenance personnel he has had contact with over the years.

Sadly the "H" fleet is being retired in the name of our government achieving a budget surplus, the minister has said that our C130J & C17 fleets will pick up the tasking but as good as the C130J may be at most things there are some things it just can't do fully now & putting C130 sized loads in C17's is just stupid.

All in all, trying to achieve a saving of $250m (which is operating cost to 2016) they are wasting a huge amount of tax payer money in retiring these aircraft. There are currently no flight restrictions on any of the fleet (average fleet hours is only 22,000hrs), they are the only fixed wing a/c in the ADF fully capable of supporting our special operations role, we own them, we know how to operate them safely & a "H" is still a cost effective battle field airlifter.

The C27J which we have decided to buy (10 a/c at $1.4 billion) is replacing our lost capability from when we retired our caribou fleet.

Just doesn't make sense to me????????????

Anyway, back on topic.......

I'm very proud to have been trained by, worked for, flown with, worked with & been there at the end to capture these photos of my good friend & mate, John Boshammer.

Phil

The H will be missed. Great shots though.

These are really nice shots. Definitely wall worthy.
Really sorry to hear they have been retired Phil. What are your plans? Retain to J's?

Ugh. That sounds like such a huge waste. I swear, they throw away so much money.

Desertraptor wrote in post #14603648
These are really nice shots. Definitely wall worthy.
Really sorry to hear they have been retired Phil. What are your plans? Retain to J's?

Thanks Pete, my future is unsure at this point. The bosses are making all the right noises at the moment & the most likely will be switched over to the C130J in some instructor roll but the company has a lot of irons in the fire so I could be re-rolled onto another platform. So it could be interesting times ahead, at the end of the day at 50 I'm to young to retire & I need some sort of employment to keep my wife in the life style she has become accustom to

Phil

Lovely to see this majestic bird get the send off she truly deserves. And great that you were there to capture, and therefore document this (sad) moment and celebrate the service she has given.