Warbird Information Exchange

Yesterday about noon a C-130, with a blue tail, upper fuselage blue and underneath fuselage and wings light gray, flew over my house southwest of Tucson heading wnw.

Anybody know what the identification could be with that color scheme?

bill word

Sounds like a Marine KC-130. They use a camo like you described. Looks blue at first and then ages to a gray. Those airplanes can be identified by the refueling pods hung outboard of the outboard engines. Just a guess.

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

sumthin' like this ?

http://flickr.com/photos/jamesdale10/21 ... 4/sizes/l/

Martin

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Flying is easy: just learn how to throw yourself at the ground and miss

What you saw may well have been a USAF EC-130E "Commando Solo". One was on display at Travis AFB some years back and when I first spotted it I thought it was a USN A/C but the 'DM' code on the tail gave it away as a USAF bird. It was a very dark blue color with a light blue /gray underside and had a variety of mysterious antennas hanging off of it including a 'net' antenna draped from the top of the vertical to the tips of the horizontal. Very strange. It was roped off and was surrounded by armed guards.

Good input, as DM AFB in Tucson has (to my knowledge) the only contingent of EC-130 Compass Call airplanes in the inventory, with the DM tail code. There are quite different, however, from the EC-130 Commando Solo psyops airplanes, which, again, to the best of my knowledge are only assigned to the PA ANG in Harrisburg. Always seen 'em in shades of gray, however the AF is known to tinker and the past decade has brought us enviornmentally friendly paints which weather terribly and can cause shade differences.

I'd still lean towards KC-130, but it could be either ....

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"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."

The blue was a different blue than the photo and was about to mid-fuselage. I have lived in Tucson and volunteered at PASM for 17 years and I have not seen any C-130s with this paint scheme before. I will admit I could have missed something with these well aged eyes.
bill word

Probably not it, but have you seen the current scheme on the MC-130P and her sisters?

http://www.airliners.net/photo/USA---Ai ... id=1395770

_________________
"Take care of the little things and the big things will take care of themselves."