The C-130 is the worlds most widely used aircraft. I have toyed with a fantasy idea where all the users get together in a place each year for a competition revolving around the use of these planes. The winner of the comp receives a new Herk or something like that, as I said, it’s a fantasy!

Sounds a bit like the Airlift Rodeo’s held in the US. Of course not all Herk users take part in those but there’s quite a diversity of operators there.
Normally some of the other USAF transport units take part as well with C-141’s and C-17s.
I have a nice pic of a line-up of participating aircraft somewhere and I’ll post it here if I find it.

Koen

PS. Airlift Rodeo 2005 will take place June 19 through 24 at McChord Air Force Base. I hope I can go there if the US hasn’t banned all spotters yet by then. At least I’ve got invitations to come over from some of the crews already. 😀

A few interesting aircraft there, especially the Greek F-4E which you don’t see at airshows often.

I also visited Brno’s airshow the same weekend and that was a bit more interesting participant-wise though; Ukranian AF Flankers, Serbian Super Galebs and Orao’s and a couple of Israeli AF Vipers.

All in all quite a good weekend. 😀

Thanks for the links to the articles guys!

What’s your definition of ‘Sports Plane’ to start with?

Actually the C-27J proto in your pic (MMCSX62127) is a modified G.222TCM.
Don’t think it can replace a Transall really since it’s got a rather small cargohold and it can’t carry as much. The C-27J has a MTOW of 30000 kilograms while a Transall has a MTOW of 49000 kg.
For comparison a Casa 295 has a 23 tonnes MTOW.

Still I would love to see a few more although it won’t have the fantastic sound the G.222 has of course.

For those of you that have seen the G.222 display at airshows must remember the slow roll the G.222 displays after climbing up from a dive to gain enough speed. Now the C-27J just rolls like a fighter. No need to get the nose up and no need for a dive to get enough speed, quite a sight!

Mariusz, are you going to put any more pictures on Airliners.net? I used your pics there for my desktop since the ones on your website are a bit small.

Yes that’s a pity regarding the Fishbeds. Do you know what happened ?

I might be there next year for the Mig-29s 😉

My #1 complaint was regarding that green slime coming out of the grass… I had a “fun” time cleaning shoes this morning ! I just went during the afternoon, when it was dry.

Don’t know what happend with the Fishbeds. The pilots were handing out MiG-21 frisbees after they taxied back but they never came anywhere near where I was standing or I would have asked.

About the slime; yup I had the same thing. No idea what it was but I came close to a close encounter with the ground a few times while trying to walk over it… Anyway I had a good time there and that’s what counts. 🙂