Day Six - Thursday 22nd April 2004

Today was a home day, home in the fact that we were visiting the units on RAAF Richmond. A cadet misplacing their room key destroyed our chance of a cheep breakfast off base. So in we went to pay A$9 something EACH for breakfast, needless to say we tried to get the most for our money.

36 squadron was the first of two Hercules squadrons we were to visit today, both quite different. 36 squadron operates the C-130H series of Hercules and has 12 of them, only 7 more than we (the RNZAF) do. I've travelled in a herc before but I have never had the chance to have a good look around one like this. It's amazing how flat the main tyres are for the ruff field landings. It was also good to go up into the cockpit and have a look at all the gauges and buttons and even more gauges and buttons, in fact there are so many the flight engineer has an area of buttons and gauges that he/she is responsible for.

37 squadron operating the C-130J was the next stop. It's amazing how they can improve a beautiful plane and make it better. The length of the herc compared to the H model is the first visual appearance followed by the unique shaped propeller blades. Inside it's tidier and looks alot cleaner (they are newer). The major change in the front though is the "glass cockpit", remember all those gauges and buttons? well no more. Just a few glass screens a HUD (heads up display) unit and a small amount of gauges and buttons. Very cool looking at the data on the HUD, also when I pushed the throttle handles forward all these alarms sounded because of all the doors that were open, very cool.

Airport/Rescue fire was the last visit for the morning. Where we got to have a good look over their two main appliances as well as have a look around their control room. They then had a battle between the two appliances in the way of a water fight. All in all a great morning. Lunch was another incredible amount where we ate as much as we could to get our moneys worth again.

First visit after lunch was the control tower, not much more to add here from the other tower. Although we did get to see a C-130 take off and a 707 take off. Next visit was a surprise for the cadets, a C-130H simulation go. Unlike the Hawk sim this one was fully contained in a pod and was on legs, which moved around to replicate the motion of flight. I didn't manage to get a go on this one as it was required by some real pilots who had booked time on it, but there is always next time.

The last visit for the day was the RAAF Police Working dog section. I have NEVER before seen dogs so well trained nor as crazy while in their cages. While walking among the cages in our three groups I'm sure some of them were trying to get out of their cages to get us (as opposed to just barking). They then demonstrated the skill of the dogs and handlers. The first demo was searching a suspect. The suspect places their hands on their head while the dog sits about 10m away looking at them. The handler gave a command and approached the suspect warning them that if they moved the dog would strike. While searching the suspect, they moved one of their arms of their head and in a blink the dog was on their arm and had them on the ground. In the second demo the handler challenged a suspect and set the dog on them, the suspect gave up when the dog was released and a loud NOOOOOOO was heard from the handler. The dog which by this stage had jumped into the air swung around and just sat on the ground looking at the suspect, which then tried to run and the dog got them. It was just amazing and has to be seen to be believed.

As no pics were allowed on base, I have managed to dig up some pics on the differences between the cockpits:

Picture 22 - Lockheed C-130H Cockpit.

Picture 23 - Lockheed C-130J Cockpit.

Picture 24 - Also this is the main gate sign.

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