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C-130 News: Visalia crew getting the Hercules to fly again


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2015-06-12_56-0473.thumb.png.ce0861a8a38

Workers, volunteers working to get C-130 flying again after 14 years on the ground at Sequoia Field

Over the three years that he has worked at the Bob Wiley Detention Facility north of Visalia, Stephen Fagundes frequently has noticed the C-130A (USAF 56-0473, TBM N473TM, Lockheed c/n 3081) Hercules airplane parked on the tarmac at neighboring Sequoia Field Airport.

In that time, Fagundes said he hasn't seen the plane move, except for once a couple of months ago when it was turned so its nose faced the northeast.

The truth is that the 40-ton airplane, one of the first to come off Lockheed Martin Corps' Georgia assembly line in 1957, hasn't flown in more than 13 years, and the cracked, faded paint and partially deflated tires are testaments to the wear that time and the elements have foisted upon it.

But Thursday morning, things had changed, as Fagundes and some co-workers arrived at the rural airport to store items in a vacant hanger, and they noticed the doors of the C-130 were open and people were working on it.

So Fagundes and his small crew stopped by and talked to Bryant Grantham, an airplane mechanic and flight engineer from Arizona, who along with flight mechanic Aaron Ashworth are part of a team preparing the Hercules for one last flight.

The two paid aircraft mechanics are joined by at least six former military mechanics volunteering to get the Hercules flying again for a half-hour flight to Castle Airport in Atwater.

 

Read the full article and view more images at: http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/story/news/local/2015/06/12/visalia-crew-getting-hercules-fly/71134428/

Image: C-130Hercules.net Production Number Gallery

 


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