920th Rescue Wing fires up aging HC-130 to search for missing airman in Gulf of Mexico

Slated for retirement next month in an Arizona desert "boneyard," one of the Air Force's last legacy HC-130s took flight Wednesday from Patrick Air Force Base for possibly the fleet's final real-world mission — to search for a missing airman in the Gulf of Mexico.

The 920th Rescue Wing is the last Air Force unit that still uses warhorse HC-130P/Ns, which date back to 1964 and hosted generations of pilots.

In March, the first HC-130J Combat King II planes — their technically superior replacements — will begin arriving on the Space Coast. Digital screens illuminate J-model cockpits, while the legacy aircraft are controlled by dozens of old-fashioned dials, levers and knobs.

Master Sgt. Brian Kahmke has worked on the communications and navigation systems of older HC-130s for 15 years. He described the difference between those planes and the J-models as "completely night and day."

"Everything is going to be computer-controlled. Whereas now, everything is analog. We've upgraded over the years since the 1960s when they first came out, obviously — but it's like comparing a typewriter to a laptop," Kahmke said.

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Wednesday morning, Kahmke and about 20 aircraft maintainers occasionally ran across the Patrick AFB pavement, prepping two of the wing's three surviving HC-130Ns for the Gulf of Mexico mission. These aging aircraft arrived three years ago from the Alaska Air National Guard.

While the maintainers refueled the planes and worked on engine compartments, the Coast Guard and Air Force were leading the search for the missing airman. The unidentified airman went missing about 11 a.m. Tuesday during a static-line jump training exercise over the Gulf about 4 miles south of Hurlburt Field in Okaloosa County, on Florida's Panhandle.

One of the HC-130s and two HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters left Patrick AFB about 1 p.m. Wednesday to join the search effort, Maj. Jennifer Pearson said. The second plane remained on base as a backup.

Crews searched a 700-square-mile area off the coast between Fort Walton Beach and Pensacola on Wednesday. 

“We will search as much as the crew duty day, gas and conditions allow us until we find our brother in arms,” Lt. Col. Chad Senior, 920th Rescue Wing deputy group commander, said in a Wednesday afternoon press release.

The mission occurred days after the 920th Rescue Wing hosted a "sundown" retirement ceremony bidding farewell to the HC-130P/N combat rescue aircraft. The reunion last weekend drew hundreds of attendees to Patrick AFB and Crowne Plaza Melbourne Oceanfront near Indialantic.

"All these aviators from all these different eras came out to celebrate this aircraft's legacy. There's stories that they all have that help them stay connected to the mission," Maj. Cathleen Snow said.

"For 55 years, this wing has conducted search and rescue. And you just become so attached to (the plane), because it's the tool to get the job done. It's just the amazing workhorse of the Air Force," Snow said.

The wing received six legacy HC-130s from Kirtland Air Force Base near Albuquerque, New Mexico by October 2016, followed by four from Anchorage by January 2017. 

Col. Kurt Matthews, 920th Rescue Wing commander, said all but the surviving trio have reached their final destination: the "aircraft boneyard" for retired military planes at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base near Tucson, Arizona.

“We’ve been flying hand-me-down aircraft since 2015,” Matthews said.

He praised the labors of the wing's 720th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron in keeping the outmoded planes aloft.

“They’ve maintained combat-readiness all the way through — and there’s no parts anywhere. Lockheed stopped making them. The command has stopped buying them — they’re having to scavenge them off of the ones that are getting retired," Matthews said.

"There’s no support. All of the logistical support is now to the new aircraft,” he said.

When he became wing commander in December 2016, Matthews — a veteran Pave Hawk pilot — said he started flying HC-130s to understand his fixed-wing airmen's perspective.

“I love flying them. They’re relatively easy to fly, but very hard to fly good — does that make sense? It’s old-school with a lot of retrofitted, modified technology. Every cockpit’s different, so the air crew have to be very skilled. Literally, each tail number has a different cockpit configuration, because they’re been modified over the years,” Matthews said.

“The cockpits from Kirtland were different from the cockpits here, which were different from the cockpits from Alaska. The Alaska birds, each one of them is different," he said.

"When I took my check ride (last week), our primary aircraft had one cockpit configuration. It had a pressurization issue, so we went to the spare aircraft and it had a different cockpit configuration. So it’s like, ‘OK, where’s the button for this?' It was down here on that aircraft, and it’s up here on this one," he said.

The Air Force received its first HC-130J Combat King II in September 2011. Matthews said these sophisticated planes are superior for aerial refueling of helicopters; serving as a drop platform for pararescuemen and cargo; and working search missions.

Within five years, the 920th Rescue Wing should receive next-generation HH-60W Whiskey helicopters to replace today's aging Pave Hawks, which debuted in 1982.

Staff Sgt. Kyle Lutsic, an HC-130 crew chief, has maintained the planes the past 12 years at Patrick AFB. A muscle car buff, he likened the new J-models with the Dodge Challenger Hellcat — while the legacy aircraft are "a good '69 Camaro."

"All the legacies, they have their own personalities. One bird, like (tail number) 2104, every once in a while it has issues with predicted torque. You'll feel a shudder on 2105 that you won't feel on the others," Lutsic said.

After training at Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas and Kirtland AFB, 920th officials expect their first air crew to complete J-model flight qualification in February. The new advanced aircraft will also require "a very large learning curve" for maintainers, Chief Master Sgt. Dennis Grant said.

“Most of us, if not all of us, have been on these legacies for so long that we’re used to analog. Everything has gauges and dials. Where the J-models, everything is digital. We’ll plug in a computer — a laptop — and download the flight data," Grant said.

"It’ll be looked over, and (we’ll) identify any fault codes that we might have and start working that. It’s a large learning curve. But it won’t take us long to catch up. Because it’s still a C-130 at heart, and that’s all that matters," he said.

Neale is the South Brevard watchdog reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. 

Contact Neale at 321-242-3638 or rneale@floridatoday.com. Twitter: @RickNeale1