Pilots resume training on Missouri's first C-130 Hercules greenlighted for flight

Monica Dunn, St. Joseph News-Press, Mo.
·3 min read

Nov. 24—After the U.S. Air Force grounded a group of aircraft at the end of September, the first C-130 Hercules in the state of Missouri is back up flying.

Col. John Cluck, the commander of the 139th Airlift Wing at Rosecrans Air National Guard Base, said he felt relieved when he received the propellers needed to fly one of the base's 10 C-130 Hercules.

"The heartbeat of this wing is those aircraft, and when we don't have it, everything just still seems to lose focus," Cluck said. "This is getting us back into a position where now we can start being a wing again. That's really all we want to do; we want to do our job."

The Air Force Air Mobility Command issued the grounding order on Sept. 27 after a maintenance crew discovered a persistent hydraulic fluid leak in the C-130 Hercules propellers. The Air Force collected all of the good propellers across the country to prioritize which wings get the fixed propellers first.

The 139th Airlift Wing received the first set of propellers earlier than originally anticipated. Cluck told News-Press NOW in October that he anticipated the base would get its first set of propellers closer to Christmastime and hoped to have one aircraft in the air by the new year.

The Air Force moved the base up in priority. Cluck said the move was due to some of the missions the wing does. Now, the base could have two C-130 Hercules flying by the new year, with a third closely following.

"We're looking at having three hopefully operational aircraft back in the air by mid to the end of January," said Rodney Ray, propulsion section supervisor at the 139th Airlift Wing.

Cluck said the moment he found out the base was getting the propellers for the C-130 Hercules, he immediately shared the news.

"I found that out and immediately called down to our maintenance group and said, 'Four are coming, so let's get ready for them,'" Cluck explained.

It was go-time once the propellers arrived, Ray said. Preparations started last week.

"Once we got our propellers built up, then we simply did the reinstallations on the aircraft, do all of our ground checks, our ground runs, to make sure that everything is ready to go for the flight crew to take this aircraft up for this FCF that we just passed," Ray said.

Rosecrans Air National Guard Base will be able to do formation fly and other trainings once it gets a second C-130 Hercules in the sky. The 139th Airlift Wing has had to send its airmen to Little Rock for flight training.

"Once we get that second one up, we'll be in pretty good shape. Then, we'll get three and four," said Cluck. "We'll go back to normal as much as we can, and we're excited about that. But, just having one will really advance our abilities."