In the 1970's we flew the "H" variant in the USCG. I was an AC in them for almost 5 years and it's an amazing aircraft. That glass cockpit makes me feel old. We were all analog, no GPS ( hadn't been invented ), old school RDF and LORAN C. But I would put my life in it's wings any day and salute all who follow the "Herky Bird" tradition.

I was a crew chief on HC-130H, P and MC-130Ps, all built in 1965 and 1966. I retired in 2005, and the birds finally retired in 2017. They were tired in the mid 1990’s, and had more wiring problems than you could shake a stick at.

Touched it gently down like a butterfly. A true ace of aces landing.

I was a Crew Chief on the C-130 J Test Team at Keesler AFB, MS. The Pilot and Co-pilot are a lot busier in a C-130J vs. an E or H model. No more Flight Engineer or Navigator on cargo versions. The Loadmaster sits in the Engineer's seat and does some work in flight.

I spent a lot of time in the back of C-130s and I never really thought about what those guys were doing up front. I always put all my trust and faith in them to do everything they needed to get us all to our destinations safely. There were many times the plane would be in blacked-out darkness, diving and turning and getting jolted around by turbulence, and while the Soldiers around me would be wide-eyed or pretending to be asleep, I would just look around and smile. Those landings were always the most exciting. I knew those guys had it and no need to worry. Thanks for the fun!

Pure respect for these young people.. Very smooth landing by the looks of it. Great job..

I remember training for airfield seizures on the island of Ie Shima off of Okinawa. We would land on a crappy dirt airfield at night in Marine KC 130s. It seemed like we came in super steep, landed, deplaned really fast, vehicles and all. The C 130s turned around super fast and were gone. I was really impressed with those pilots. All done in the dark of night, Semper Fi

I was fire rescue @RandolphAFB TX in 73-74. I can still smell the JP4. I love the upgraded avionics in the 130J. Greased the landing.

Whenever I see a large plane video like this, I think of my maternal grandad. The one who flew 25 times from England in '43 in B17 and lived to tell about it !! He continued flying small planes for fun and (Kiwanis) service into his 80s. He would have absolutely loved a ride in one of these, listening to this team do their job so well. Thanks for the great video and kudos to the crew!!

I flew on a C-130 one time back in 1973, and that was down to Elmendorf for my own flight physical prior to spending the next 5 years on my beloved EC-121. I miss the sounds, I miss the smells, I miss the comforting feel of my flight suit. And I miss my old friends.

I served in the RAF as an aircraft engineer on the Herc for 5 years its weird to see her with a 'glass cockpit' I have also flown the Hercules simulator on our base - to the old airport at Hong Kong Kai Tak, with perfect take off and landings (surprising the sim tech!) But I do fly light aircraft taking my private pilot licence! They handle like a dream! The BEST take off and landings are 'TAC LANDINGS' with slam dunk approach and FULL REVERSE on touchdown taking off again with full JATO in a few hundred feet! We practice this in the air display 130's SUPERB. I was invited to the the states as a VIP guest with the Blue Angels and we saw 'Fat Albert' do this at the air show!

I hauled many loads of JP4 into Moody Field during the Vietnam era. All those trees planted in neat rows are pecan and walnut groves. There was one that was close to the road. I'd pull off under that tree and gather pecans that had fallen on the right of way. Run all the way back to Panama City munchin' on those pecans. Memories!

Gosh, retired 1* now, but that takes me back! Thanks for jogging the memories... and safe flying! 👍

That is one talented copilot, she had her hand lightly on the yoke through all that low level maneuvering. For a 5 minute video I spent 4 minutes wondering if there is a runway coming up anytime soon.

One the absolute safest aircraft flying. When I was deployed to the former Yugolslovia as part of the NATO SFOR II Peacekeeper Force, I routinely flew back and forth to Germany on scheduled C-130 flights. On numerous occasions, I was the senior officer on board and would get invited to sit in one of the jump seats up on the Flight Deck. Pretty cool experience for a non-rated officer like me.

So finally I know what these high windows on the cockpit sides are for: even at these high bank angles the flight crew can still see the horizon... nice approach! ❤

2:27 How confidently, with what precise movement, they brought the plane into a turn! Even envied, in the good sense of the word! 😊👍🏼

I must be old because they look like high school kids piloting that plane but I am sure that they are well experienced.

That right bank at 2:28 had me thinking the wings were touching the treetops! Well done crew.

I love that sound. I was stationary for two years before I went to Travis Air Force Base. Thank you for the video again.

I remember seeing a JATO (jet assisted takeoff) demonstration by a C-130 at an airshow at Donaldson AFB, Greenville, SC when I was a child in the early 1950's. I had no idea then that I would eventually join the USAF, and get to work on 3 different types of the Herky's. I worked on HC-130H air rescue types in the Azores, DC-130 drone carriers at Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ, and last but certainly not least, the Spectre AC-130 gunships at Ubon, Thailand. What an amazingly versatile aircraft! And they were tough! But, alas, they were quite noisey inside during flight!

I was sat in my office today (not too far from London Gatwick) and heard an unfamiliar airplane sound. I was surprised to find it was a New Zealand Airforce C-130 which went on across country towards Oxfordshire I think. Anyway, thought it a bit weird to find this great video on the same afternoon. Great landing demo btw. Love it!

Love that aircraft. Flew in them many times during Vietnam.

Very smooth landing by the looks of it. Great job.

Nice job! Made quite a few jumps out of the 130 from Pope AFB with the 82nd in the early 70’s. Brought back some fond memories. I can almost smell the JP4. 😂

The upgrades with the cockpit are super impressive along with the approach.

The skill of this crew is obvious in every move. Thank you for this. What a joy.

I live near an Air Force base that has C-130's. See them daily. I was in the service when I was in my 20's and yet it is amazing to see these 'kids' do so much at that young age.

Well done. Lots of work. Great CRM - and excellent landing. (retired Q11M) :)

Absolutely incredible. Thank you for posting this. I love the digital avionics in this thing.

I live in Cheshire and C130's usually fly very low over there, especially Astbury, literally just abouve the rooftops which is awesome. Also I flew in C130's at RAF Brize Norton years ago...

Beautiful landing Captain. Love that low approach, Cool!!

Great footage. I flew on p3's. Never gets old seeing a plane break for approach

My son’s USAF, A Capt..flies the MC130-J. A Beast..yet super-stable, powerful and agile.

Wow, that instrument panel looks SO different from the H model. Spent hundreds of hours in those seats doing maintenance in the 90's. Looks like the yoke is even a bit smaller. Its so much cleaner now. I like it. i remember when the J was first rolling out. Of course initially they all went to Guard units. I got out of the Air Force in 2000, I don't think any active duty squadrons got the J model yet. Those smaller blades just don't have the same sound as the older ones.

Brilliant, and a very nice landing Ma'am, the views from the cockpit as you banked around were great, I remember one flying over me so low I could see the crew waving and smiling at me, scary at the time,lol. Many thanks for your service, stay safe guys,gal's, best wishe's to all, Stuart Uk.

A really well captured video from inside a low level flying and steep turning "Super J". Focus and lighting was spot on. Love the Herc's! We see plenty in and around Christchurch New Zealand from our RNZAF and the "skiers" from the New York National Guard for seasonal flights down to the ice. Super smooth and accurate flying from this Captain!

i love the sound of the C130 in prop reversal. worked on C-130 at DMAFB.

Outstanding !! Thank you all for your service and sacrifice. 👍🗽🇺🇲

My biggest regret in life was giving up on becoming a military pilot. Any flying is better than no flying.

It is always fascinating to watch professionals be exactly that; professionals.

I've flown halfway around the world on a C130. They're uncomfortable and noisy, and I loved every minute.

Flew C-130s for ten years (1970-1980) as a flt. engineer. Loved those planes (C-130B and H models). This crew seems to be all female, I wonder if that's common place now. Love the way this crew flew that plane. Very cool!

Deck looks a lot different than the ones I remember. Love the Herky Bird, thanks for your service!

I liked this. You should post more. You guys fly over my house near Athens all the time. I can always tell just by the sound when it's a 130. Aim High!

Yes thank you for your service! Top notch crew!

Hey I gotta say the way the pilot whipped it in that turn was the most badass thing I've seen in a while

Could you imagine if a C-130 pilot time travelled from the 1950’s and saw this cockpit?

17 years working E’s, P’s and N models back in the day. I sure do miss those days. Flight deck looks pretty futuristic compared to the older models.

That aircraft was in safe hands. The crew were so well connected and plugged in.... just magic to watch

My father was a 130 Flight engineer from the 60's till the mid 90's... the J model cockpit looks like an old classic car with some upgrades! watching a video like this always makes me wonder why I did not become a pilot...

My father was one of the 8 original pilots to fly our new Herc's up to Trenton Ontario, Canada from the factory in the states with the RCAF. He flew the Herc for most of his Airforce career retiring with almost 40,000 hours. After his retirement he was 1 of 5 or 6 retired Herc pilots that ran the simulator program, following conversion to a glass cockpits in Canada's H models, our J models were just coming into our Airforce at that time. Nice airplane but the engine sound on the J model isn't quite there. Great video, I sure miss flying in the Hercules, I grew up in and around them.

Exhilarating, smooth, great piloting. Things you can do when you’re a military pilot. I guess it’s just about the best job when you fly professionally.

Wow! Outstanding. All of that new technology in an old old airplane. Great flying!

Smoothest landing ever in a fixed wing was a C130 arriving in Vietnam April 23, 1971...

This brings back a lot of good memories 1968 Abilene, Texas C130E going to Germany for 90 days. Could you find out what happened to 883 it looks a lot different in the cockpit I miss the old plane I kept it very clean for the crewmembers. Thank you for the video.

Speaking as a marine grunt (infantryman), we give the air force grief, but they always come through for us field hounds. Thanks for the awesome video and to all the men and woman who fly mission after mission to keeps in the fight. Air Force loadmasters regardless of airframe, fucking rock !!!

I was startled one time by a landing C130 at our airstrip in Long Thanh SV. The plane suddenly went to full power and almost straight up. One of our crew chiefs was doing radio checks in his plane when he heard the tower calmly ask the pilot of the 130 if he was gonna put his wheels down.

Many years ago I worked for the Pioneer Aerospace Systems where the company built all kinds of parachutes and 100 ft ,80 ft ,50 ft ,cargo chutes for the C-130 .And drag chutes etc .everything military you name it .It was built at the Zodiac Company where I worked .

I'm a Marine, currently supporting the USMC in a retired status after 24 years. I spent a fair amount of time in the Hercules (KC-130 mostly) and consider it the safest plane our military has. As cool a plane as she (no he/him, them/they here!) is, it's the young Americans in this video that make me proud. While much of our county talks about how terrible we are, these young American leaders fly this glorious bird like a walk in the park, and no doubt could do so in an emergency or under combat conditions. Bravo Zulu for posting this!

A plane,noisy as hell, but more capable of finishing a mission then many others. But as always , it's the crew that make it happen! Thank you for serving.

تصوير ممتاز تشغر وكأنك معهم... شكرا على هذا الجهد....

My A model only had 4 blades on each engine to beat the air into submission. Good job, Crew!

Loved it, flight engineer on n&p models and finished on the Talon ones, 21 yrs.

One of the coolest things I've ever done was to be on the flight deck of a C130 during an assault takeoff and landing. The flight engineer had me stand up behind him and brace myself on the back of his seat. We took off and landed at a 45 degree angle. Loved it.

Thanks Waffles. Nice landing. I would have liked to be higher, but I fly with no engine. Your missions likely have different constraints.

Excellent piloting ....Great confidence...wonderfull landing

in landing jargon, that one was a "greaser". Nice job to all the crew.

Now that's real flying

I can watch things like this all the time, having spent 28 yrs in the Air Force, 8 years in the Special Operations Command, I have nothing but the utmost in respect and admiration for “The Drivers”

you see that and you know Hercules gonna live FOREVER!!!!!

What a slick looking cockpit... and the aircrew made the landing look easy. BZ

C-130 is the best airplane ever built.

Wow! I was a crew chief on C-130's back in the early 80's at Pope AFB. The instrument panel sure has changed.

American ingenuity (a timeless aircraft design) & good, motivated citizens serving & defending the Constitution. Thank you, all service women & men-I was privileged to serve in the USAF. Cool video too!

Living near Dobbins RAFB, where many 130's are made, honestly - no other sound of aircraft gives me the sense of security these GOATs do. During overcast, you can hear them rev testing engines for miles. If all countries were forced to pick only 1 aircraft and no others, to include airborne tankers - - to me it'd be a no brainer- C-130 and variants. C-130♥️🇺🇲♾️🇺🇲♥️

My uncle was a flight engineer on C-130s in the RAF and I've flown in them a fair few times and even done 8+ hours in the full-range digital simulators that were at Lyneham back in the mid '80s. I've never seen a video with such a good view of the modern glass cockpit as this. I wrote the software for HUDs such as C-17, F-5 and F-16 for 20 years from the late '80s onwards but I've never seen the cockpit of the 130-Js (I assume) so many thanks for sharing this video - these really are in a completely different world to the original "steam gauge" cockpits I'd been in and that my uncle flew with for 30 years.

The Best Gunship I can’t wait to see what they do with the new models, my old H model was a flying tank!

Hitched rides in these in Vietnam, '68-'69. Most fun, except for the noise, was short field takeoffs in C-123s with JATO assist off of a 1400' dirt runway. LOTS of noise!

I grew up about 60 miles north of Moody (Douglas). I could feel the humidity just watching this video!

Flew in a Herc from Brize to Bosnia in 2003 !! Pretty amazing !! They let us come up and look in the cockpit halfway through the flight ,two or three at a time !

These things are just giant lumbering workhorses. This feels like the safest plane ever.

AWESOME landing, props to the pilots.

Brings back memories when I was in the Air Force.

Wowww,I didn’t know they were updated with glass cockpits,awesome!

At the end of my first tour in Vietnam (Oct. 1966) I was wounded and Med-evact by chopper to the Hospital Ship Repose. I was there for about 4 days until I was stable enough to be moved back to the states. We, (there were about 20 Marines who were wounded in various ways and conditions) were taken by chopper back to an area north of Da Nang and placed aboard a Marine C-130. I remember being strapped down in a stretcher attached to the wall, IV bottles hanging from the overhead. We were sitting at the end of a red dirt runway surrounded by jungle, the Marine pilots were holding the brakes while the engines were screaming and blowing large clouds of red dirt behind us. They released the brakes and the C-130 shot down the runway toward the trees at the other end. At the last moment they pulled back on the controls and we climbed out at a very steep angle, all the IV bottles were hanging at very steep angle from the overhead while machine gun tracers were passing the plane as the VC and NVA were shooting at it. That was a wild ride!! I went back to Vietnam again for a second tour in 1970 and was wounded a second time but didn't require evacuation. I really praise those C-130's and their crew. Tom Boyte GySgt. USMC, retired Vietnam 65-66/70-71 0331 machine guns Bronze Star, Purple Heart

Good old Herky-bird! Slow and steady, just like grandpa's old Ford back home on the ranch.

Awesome video, one of the best landing sequences I’ve seen 👏

On this flight, the cockpit has become "The Box Office"

Very nice approach and landing! At first I thought you were going to switch your flight display or that you were apparently flying a visual approach only, then saw the HUDs. I'd assume it's a combination, but the Primary Flight Display/HUD sure is a nice tool for precision approaches and landings. God Bless you and your crew!

Looked easy, but I sweated a lot in that 5 minutes! Lot of practice would have gone into it. All of that came out in the 5 minutes! And the growl of the engines were comforting. Comforting!!

Great video! Great look at a low, tight approach!

Damn you are good. Awesome work Sir. Thank you for taking the time to film / edit / upload.

Great vid, great pilots executing low level flying. Makes me proud... CMSgt Bob, USAF(Ret)

Beautiful, thank you for sharing that!

I used to catch frequent hops going into and out of South Korea via Japan. Back in the 70’s. Most in the C130. I was an Infantry type from the 2d Division. While not like commercial flying, I had more confidence flying Air Force, in a rugged truck than a 747. Just had to be mindful if it’s winter or not. Coming from Hawaii.

A long, long time ago, I wrote the graphics software for the flight displays of the C130J when I was at Lockheed. It was modern tech back then but has probably been replaced a few times by now. 15 years later, I worked on the FMS software for GE Aviation.

The flight deck is so much difference than the old analog C-130 I flew on

Worked in the HH-60 COSO when I was there...awesome assignment

Fantastic video my friend ✈️👍🏼