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C-130 News: Coast Guard to upgrade Kodiak air fleet with newer model


casey
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The Coast Guard is upgrading its fleet of multipurpose airplanes at an air station in Alaska to a newer model, officials said.

The current fleet of five C-130H airplanes at Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak will be replaced with the C-130J Super Hercules model over the next two years, the Kodiak Daily Mirror reported.

2018_03_19 Kodiak.jpg

The Coast Guard is upgrading its fleet of multipurpose airplanes at an air station in Alaska to a newer model, officials said.

The current fleet of five C-130H airplanes at Coast Guard Air Station Kodiak will be replaced with the C-130J Super Hercules model over the next two years, the Kodiak Daily Mirror reported.

Besides moving cargo and personnel, the military transport airplanes are used for search and rescue and law enforcement operations, said Charly Hengen, a Coast Guard public affairs officer.

The C-130J model, built by the Lockheed Martin Corp., has been updated with newer technology. It’s also equipped with capabilities allowing it to ascend higher and faster, and take off and land on shorter runways.

The first new aircraft is expected to arrive at the air station this summer. The rest of the fleet will be replaced by 2020.

The air station has begun construction on projects to support the new aircraft, including building a liquid oxygen facility, Hengen said. The airplanes are not pressurized, so liquid oxygen is carried to provide air. The current planes use compressed oxygen gas.

Hengen said the new planes require a support staff of 19, who will be either trained on base or swapped out with current service members.

The air station expects to add five personnel to the base as a result of the upgraded aircraft. About 1,000 service members operate on the base.


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This is pretty typical of the AP...They assumed since it carried LOX then it must not not be pressurized. All C-130s were pressurized that I flew and had a LOX system. The O2 system served two purposes. Smoke and fumes in the cabin or a HALO drop over 10,000 feet. My not so favorite mission was dropping leaflets at 22,000 on O2 and humping 60 lb boxes. 

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I forgot about one other use of the O2 system. In the unlikely event that you spend most of your 12 hours off self medicating at the NCO BBQ at TSN it did wonders for your hang over. Not saying that I have personal experience but "have heard others say that". 

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This makes my head hurt to read junk like this. The A and B model had (news paper calls it compressed oxygen gas) we called it GOX ,gaseous oxygen ,and the E forward uses LOX, liquid oxygen (So the non-airplane Folks know ) :). The airplane not being pressurized among other things, probably is what caused my head to hurt during flight, ha ha! Glad the new ones are pressurized for the young folks now. ;) Bill

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I was the loadmaster on George Elwoods crew when we set the Viet Nam C-130 altitude record. Right at 36,000'...We left some little field by the DMZ empty and no stops to TSN. WE had been hauling rolling stock and chains and devices were scattered all over the cargo compartment. I was stowing the stuff as we climbed through 30,000'...I got really light headed policing up the area. Once finished I went to the flight deck. we were still climbing stair stepping a couple hundred feet and then level then up some more. I looked at the cabin pressure and we were holding 8,000 feet of pressure. That explained my light headedness while working. DangI miss that stuff. It was lots of fun "most of the time".

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