Buffalo Airways has bought a jet!

[FlyTexas]

Yep, the same Buffalo Airways who flies DC-3's, C-46's, and Lockheed L-188 Electra's. Ben should be thrilled.
https://youtu.be/Bn4eQek3sKM

Brian

[Paul K]

The day had to come. Those vintage aircraft are running out of hours and spares. It's a pity they won't license some of those C-130s lying at Davis Monthan for civilian use. I did read the reasons once, but can't remember now.

[Chris Trott]

Most of the C-130s sitting at Monthan have worn out wing boxes and would require replacement. I'm sure that Mikey looked at getting in on the L-100J that Lockheed offers, but the price is way too high for someone like Buffalo. Maybe one day they'll get one of the L-100s that Lynden or someone similar operates as they get new ones?

[Paul K]

Okay - if I remember the article correctly, it was more about re-certification of ex-military aircraft for civilian use. There was also speculation that the real issue was protectionism for aircraft manufacturers - they want to sell new aircraft rather than have a great stockpile of used aircraft released onto the open market - particularly that type of aircraft. I'll try to dig the article out; I can't remember the exact details, but it was specific to Buffalo Airways.

[Chris Trott]

There was an article many moons ago that made that claim, but it was more of a propaganda piece than actual fact, although it's even less fact today. It really is about fatigue. There are a decent number of C-130s actually already out there flying under Limited certificates. Coulson's C-130Hs are flying under a Restricted certificate. The CalFire C-130Hs are probably going to be under Restricted (instead of Public Use). However, these are *not* USAF or USMC C-130s. The CalFire birds are from the USCG. Coulson got its airplanes from the Norwegians (who had traded theirs for C-130Js). But the USAF and USMC C-130Hs with very little exception have been flown until "time out" on the wing box because of the C-130J delivery delays (due to continued cuts in acquisition funding), and will continue to be flown until time out, much as the P-3s are for the USN. Yeah, there's plenty of political posturing and "my toy" kinda BS that goes on, but not just from the people who want to fly retired C-130s, but also from the guys who were flying them into DM, the word has been for years that it truly is a safety and maintenance issue that is keeping them from going anywhere. The ones that might be able to get taken back out of storage and not parted out or outright scrapped are probably already marked for Foreign Military Sales anyway or as replacements for the militaries that might still have some C-130Es flying and want to "upgrade" to the C-130H.

[Paul K]

Ah okay, thanks for all that, Chris. Interesting stuff.

[Chris Trott]

I had the good fortune of getting to know a number of transport crew during my time with the vUSAF many moons ago (they were members) and then later when I was active in the US Warbird community. Some of the stories told of the antics the MAC (and later AMC) crews got into and the kinds of stuff they had to deal with are memories I'll treasure. It's interesting to note that weak wing boxes seems to be a thing with Lockheed. The C-141 fleet had all its wing boxes replaced during the late 1980s, the C-5 wing box was the whole reason for the C-5B (and most were replaced again with the C-5M), and the C-130 fleet has seen 2 wing box replacement programs to include even newer build C-130Js and including the C-130Hs that CalFire recently started getting into service. I don't know if/when Coulson will be replacing theirs, but it will be in the future if not already being done as it's a mandate from Lockheed.

Big transports have always been my "thing" in aviation. From the C-74 Globemaster on, the aircraft that have been built around the world to transport heavy and outsized cargo is pretty interesting to follow.

[dfarrow]

Gents , it's not that long ago that the US fire service lost a C130 with wing failure on waterbombing mission .

rgds dave f.

[Nigel H-J]

I used to watch Buffalo Airways regularly on TV. Buffalo Joe always gave me the impression that he was a very hard man and great pilot though did not stand for any-one messing up with his company.

One chap who had recently qualified as a pilot in the states applied for a job flying but first he had to start at the bottom by carrying and fetching things as well as doing deliveries by van and boy, did he moan about not being able to fly. Apparently you had to prove yourself as capable before even getting into the right hand seat.

Tough job only for tough pilots in miserable weather conditions.

Regards
Nigel.