When Stretch and I drove out to the airport on Sunday, one of the first things that I noticed over on the Air Guard side of the field was two C-17 transports nestled in amongst the C-5 Galaxies that the 167th Airlift Wing flies.
It's a little thing next to the C-5, isn't it?
Admittedly, I didn't think too much of it as aircraft from other units can occasionally be seen over there on a transient basis, but I snapped a couple of pictures anyway. It wasn't until I got home and looked at the picture that I saw the markings on the C-17:
Damn. That's a 167th aircraft! WTF? Is the 167th going to fly both C5s and C-17s?
Apparently not, per their own press release, dated a week ago.
167th Airlift Wing ushers in new era with arrival of first C-17
Transition time. The last ANG unit to fly C-5s is switching over to C-17s. 8 C-17s in, and presumably 12 C-5s out.
I will miss the Galaxies. They've only been here since 2006, and I wasn't happy to see them come in and replace the C-130s, both because I like C-130s and because early C-5 operations really messed with the general aviation at the field, but I came to appreciate and admire them, especially when the Guard stopped treating every C-5 take-off like a space shuttle launch and closing down the field for lengthy FOD sweeps before each one. Still, there's never been anything quite like them flying, and once the last one touches down at AMARC out in Arizona, nothing like them will fly again.
Man, I can't believe the inlet noise on that sucker.
ReplyDeleteSounds like God's own Hoover!
I don't recall ever seeing one fly, but I used to walk through them at the MCAS El Toro air show.
Felt like it was about a quarter mile long from rear to front cargo doors.....
They were big suckers... no question... The ramp will seem empty now!
ReplyDeleteThere was an old joke that went:
ReplyDeleteWhat's the difference between a C-5 and a C-5 Pilot? The C-5 stops whining when the engines spool down.
That having been said, it was a heck of a lot better ride than a 141 or 130, as long as you were upstairs.
ReplyDeletefirst time I saw a C-5 was in 1969 at Cannon AFB. Working the end of the runway, we had a lot of time to watch the tansients coming and going. So we saw a C-141 one coming from a long way off and watched it come and come and come. We dicussed that it should stall gong that slow, and then something crawled out from the bottom of the plane. Holy snot thats the landing gear. Biggest damn C-141 we ever saw until we realized it was one of the new C-5s. That thing made more nose just doing crash and dash than the Blue Angles did taking off in 4 ship formation.
I will be sad to know I will never see them again there.
ReplyDelete