Beancounter8/16/2023 That camaraderie lent an especially high morale that pay dividends when we flew into some of the worst weather in the world on search and rescue missions. When we were flying out of Guantánamo, as we often did, the Navy officers seemed surprised and offended at the informality between aircrew members. There was an informality and camaraderie between pilots and enlisted that I did not see in the Navy or U.S. Some Coast Guard pilots and aircrew had prior service in the Navy, Marines or Air Force and almost everyone would rate highly in any Air Force of the world. They were so clean you could eat off the deck. What is the best thing about the HC-130H? The single best thing might have been that the technicians who worked on our aircraft were also the Coast Guard aircrew. ![]() In the simulator, they love to give you simulated fin stall so you have to put 200 pounds pressure on the relevant rudder pedal. All C-130 new pilots got the same basic transition training in Vietnam War veteran C-130 E models with battle-damage patches, mostly instrument flying, emergency procedures, and system failures. Marine pilots, I think, get specialized training as tanker pilots at some point, perhaps at their home base. They practice formation flying (same day, same way) and assault landings. How are HC-130H pilots different from USAF C-130 pilots? US Air Force C-130 pilots have a different mission, usually trash hauling. Then, after a couple years on Navy bases and an Air Force base, with my newly issued wings and C-130 qualification, I went to Coast Guard Air Station Clearwater, Florida, to serve my tour. Using the same base and training personnel for all C-130 pilots regardless of service is a great idea but entirely untypical of how the military does things so, as I said, someone will probably be punished for designing a system so logical and economical. My particular orders read, “upon designation as a Naval Aviator, you are hereby co-designated a Coast Guard aviator.” I suspect it is the same for Marine aviators so that in wartime, when the Coast Guard used to be a part of the Navy (maybe still will be) all Coast Guard pilots are current naval aviators and can be plunked into Navy cockpits where needed.Īfter graduation from naval flight training, in an outbreak of common sense for which someone will be severely punished, I went to Little Rock Air Force Base for C-130 training. In fact, all three of those services, when they earn their wings, are designated Naval Aviators. Navy in a mixed class, as they always are, of Navy, Coast Guard and Marine pilots. After a tour as a Coast Guard officer at sea on a destroyer-sized 378’ ship (a “cutter”), my flight training was by the U.S. I was a US Coast Guard pilot, “aviator” to the purists, at Clearwater Florida, in the mid to late 1980s. How can you describe love or women or anything that forms an important part of your life in just three words? I don’t think one can describe the C-130 in three words. You don’t have to come back.” That’s not some ooh-rah bullshit. Here he gives us the low-down on the demanding life of a flying coastguard. ![]() ![]() Steve Parker doesn’t flew the HC-130 for the U.S.
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