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AWACS C-130???


alphacharlie130
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I remember an AWACS type mod being installed on a Navy Special Mission P-3 at Lockheed Aircraft Service in Ontario, CA; but don\'t know where the C-130 mod might have been done.

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Yessir. It was called Project Delphi, acft MDS - EC-130V. That was us Det 4 folks. Chuck Louie was the A/C, Jim Dees the CP, Mike \"Navigadar\" Gaydar was the Nav, & Emmit Miles & Al Schwartz were the scanners. The USCG test mgmt folks were kind of skittish about the 1st flt - made GD string a rope thru tiedown rings fm FS245 to the end of the ramp (hand over hand escape device should the thing terminally nose over - no kidding, they really did) & required us to wear parachutes thru the init stab/ctl cks (1st hr or so of 1st flt). Every thing went just fine. As I recall, we flew 3-4 sorties to complete the aero certs then turned it back over to USCG for systems OT&E. It was all E-2 Hawkeye stuff - radome, consoles, computers, msn equip, et al. Had to be, the didn\'t have funding for new. Heard there was supposed to be about 6 acft total, but a new commandant came on board & wanted more emphasis on boats. Still have the wooden model GD gave to us.

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Yes. Watching them (plts) trying to induce flutter was interesting as well. Flutter is far beyond Vmax on a Herk it\'s not much of a concern, but certainly a consideration when doing structural mods. Soomething which must be tested. Saw a movie one time of flutter on a C-141. Literally took the acft apart.

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  • 1 month later...

I saw one, not long ago, at Brussels International, (EBBR). I made some inquiries. Seems that plane came from Ramstein AFB in Germany, and made a stop in Brussels due to a technical problem, which was repaired within the hour.

Anyone who knows if an Awacs C-130 is stationed in Ramstein?

Greetz,

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Yessir. It was called Project Delphi, acft MDS - EC-130V. That was us Det 4 folks. Chuck Louie was the A/C, Jim Dees the CP, Mike \"Navigadar\" Gaydar was the Nav, & Emmit Miles & Al Schwartz were the scanners. The USCG test mgmt folks were kind of skittish about the 1st flt - made GD string a rope thru tiedown rings fm FS245 to the end of the ramp (hand over hand escape device should the thing terminally nose over - no kidding, they really did) & required us to wear parachutes thru the init stab/ctl cks (1st hr or so of 1st flt). Every thing went just fine. As I recall, we flew 3-4 sorties to complete the aero certs then turned it back over to USCG for systems OT&E. It was all E-2 Hawkeye stuff - radome, consoles, computers, msn equip, et al. Had to be, the didn\'t have funding for new. Heard there was supposed to be about 6 acft total, but a new commandant came on board & wanted more emphasis on boats. Still have the wooden model GD gave to us.

I was there watching Jeff and crew take our bird up for the first time. Yep, the rope thingie was real. We were kinda pizzed that we couldn't go too. We didn't have the testing expertise that Jeff and his crew did. When we could fly I remember 'firing' the NAV for vectoring us into a big azz Texas sized thunderhead...I caught the Dash-1 as it came by...He asked the pilot if I could 'do that'..Pilot said it was the Coast Guard's plane!

The fun came when we flew that thing behind a Chinook for icing tests in Duluth in Feb!

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I saw one, not long ago, at Brussels International, (EBBR). I made some inquiries. Seems that plane came from Ramstein AFB in Germany, and made a stop in Brussels due to a technical problem, which was repaired within the hour.

Anyone who knows if an Awacs C-130 is stationed in Ramstein?

Greetz,

When Rhine Main closed down in the early 90's all the C-130 AWADS planes stationed there with the 37th TAS moved to Ramstien AB, they should still be there.

Dan

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c130awacs01.jpg

Hello Dan,

This is a picture I found while surfing in search of an AWACS C-130. It's a scale model US Coast Guard. The one I saw was painted NATO-green, and if I'm not mistaken with a black nose. I watched the plane taking off. A strange bird if you ask me.

Thanks for the explanation on Ramstein, and greetz.

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usafc130.jpg

This one comes very close to the one I saw at Brussels International. Now I've seen this picture I am wondering if I'm not mistaken about the NATO-green. It is possible it had a grey colour scheme. It's an EC-130V, equiped with an APS 145 radar.

Edited by JPVD
Adding some text.
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I didn't say I saw the plane at Ramstein, I saw it at Brussels International. I'm not sure at all that they are stationed in Ramstein, that's why I posted my question. It's my guess that they are stationed at Ramstein, but it may be at any AFB in the world. The plane came from Ramstein, (stop ?), and had to make a technical stop in Brussels. That's all.

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If you'd have been down around Howard '90 - '91 or so, you could have seen it its USCG colors.

Along with the "real" AWACS and USN Hawkeyes. The Customs Service even had one there...an Electra/P-3 with a dish on top. Lots of "AWACS". All of us were fightin' the "war on dope" among other things. Are we winnin' yet?

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