Herc missing PUQ

Liquid Charlie · Tue Dec 10, 2019 2:16 pm

Going to the ice and never made it. Damn! now that is tragic. A lot of very cold water.

Being an old civie herc driver this catches my interest. We would bump into the Chileans at sim from time to time in Tampa.

David MacRay · Tue Dec 10, 2019 3:50 pm

It would be nice to hear it just lost communication. They claim the weather was ok.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-50723907

When I googled looking for C-130 news a story about a fellow that fell out into the Gulf of Mexico a month ago also came up. Yikes.

Liquid Charlie · Tue Dec 10, 2019 4:40 pm

I believe the Herc in the cover pic is a "J" model but I wonder if they were flying the new model or one of the originals. Googling doesn't help much since I don't speak Spanish.

David MacRay · Tue Dec 10, 2019 4:57 pm

I suspect they are busy looking and not answering the many odd questions from media types that lack airplane knowledge.

Who did you fly Hercs for? 30 years ago I used to hang out with a retired loadmaster, good guy, we lost touch after he moved to Ottawa.

vanNostrum · Tue Dec 10, 2019 6:03 pm

H model,former US Navy with the Chilean AF since 1995

Liquid Charlie · Thu Dec 12, 2019 3:24 am

H model, circa 1970's - stretched herc and I believe the H was the first civilian certified herc. PWA passed on their aircraft to NW Territorial and then on to Bradley/First Air. I flew the herc under 7F colours about 20 years ago - I believe I know who you are referring to but he went into business of his own prior to me going on the herc. The biggest pain in the ass and possibly ruining your whole day was propeller issues. My first year on the aircraft I had 9 precautionary shut downs and most were to do with propeller faults with chip detectors and low engine oil rounding off the list.

David MacRay · Thu Dec 12, 2019 5:09 am

Oops, I wrote that in a misleading way, sorry. My buddy was former loadmaster with Canadian forces.I only wrote that part because I was just thinking about him while wondering about the Hercs you flew.

They are interesting planes. I presume the civilian operated units are still pretty similar.

I also wonder what happened with the one that's missing.

Liquid Charlie · Thu Dec 12, 2019 1:44 pm

a it takes something major to take a 4 engine aircraft or off the air. It's in the water (debris found) so possibly never will know.

David MacRay · Thu Dec 12, 2019 4:20 pm

That's harsh.

Eric Janson · Fri Dec 13, 2019 3:31 pm

I also fly a 4 engine aircraft (jet) - the level of redundancy is incredible.

A340 has never had a fatal hull loss - shows what a good design it is.

We have no restrictions on 3 engine flight.

I hope they can figure out what happened.