I hitched a ride on one once, when I was about 4 years old. One of the last flights out of Iran before the fall of the Shah. I remember walking up the ramp, being handed orange foam earplugs, and sitting on the side bench.
I got to ride a C-130 from Gander, Newfoundland to Trenton, Ontario at Christmas when I was five. I think that we stopped in PEI and Nova Scotia on the way. Thirty someodd years later I still remember the noise and the fact that there were two urinals at the front of the cargo bay. I don’t think that they were intended to transport families :rolleyes:
My dad was one of the Australian scientists that flew with a NASA earth survey C-130 when it came out here in the mid-1980’s. I got to go along on the follow-up ground team as a field hand. Still have the mission patch 
You can actually buy the aircraft!
Flew on one a few times back in the 1990s. Fuck its a loud plane.
Bumped.
Here’s an AOL News photogallery: 25 photos that show America's most versatile plane can do almost anything
Occasionally a plane is built that is just so…perfect may be over-doing it, but it is the best word I have…in design and mission-performance that it becomes not only iconic, but virtually irreplacable. The C-130, along with the DC-3, UH-1 Huey, and B-52, are such planes (albeit the B-52 does not have the flexibility of performing multiple missions as the others do).
The Mighty Hercules, indeed.
I repaired radios on C-130A models back in the late 60’s. Our squadron deployed to Vietnam and Thailand on a regular basis to shuttle troops and drop flares over the Ho Chi Minh trail. We maintenance types could jump on a flight, help toss out flares and qualify for hazardous duty pay for the month. We thought it was cool! Until the first one or two got shot down - then it wasn’t nearly as desirable.
Got to see the original “Puff the Magic Dragon” up close and personal.
I hate these things. It’s a perfectly fine airplane, but sitting on a canvas seat getting shaken like a paint mixer for hours at a time is NOT FUN. I’ve never actually vomited in one of these, but I’ve seen more than few people lose their lunch.
I remember seeing Puff in 'Nam. Well, we couldn’t actually see the aircraft, as it was nighttime, but the streams of tracers from the miniguns were spectacular. Come to think of it, it may have been one of the original AC-47s, rather than an AC-130.
Great timing! I get to PJ in a C-130 tomorrow night. Nothing like leading a chalk of jumpers through a pitch black door, 1000ft up in the night sky. Good times.
Congratulations, C130!! We’ve shared so many memorable times together!
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One of my favorite warplanes, along with the Warthog.
Sweet! Thanks for that link.
Without a doubt the best ramp jump ever.
Little Rock’s economy benefits because of the The Little Rock AFB.
It’s the primary C-130 Hercules training base for the Department of Defense.
A lot of bases have closed. We’re very thankful that our base still has an important mission.
They have held a few public media days at the base. Showing off the C-130’s. I’ve seen footage on our local news broadcasts.
It seems like a cool plane and all. Like a C-17 with dwarfism.
But they’ll have to prove its short-field/austere-field performance, because in those circumstances, the Herc is simply money. There’s almost nothing else like it.
Can the 390 throttle down for a safe LAPES delivery? Never seen or heard of that done by anything other than a Hercules.
C-130 rollin’ down the strip
Marine artillery gonna take a little trip
It was a good ride, from Alameda CA to Fort Sill OK.