July 23, 2025Jul 23 Earlier this week, while reading a bit about the C-130 Hercules, I came across the entity "Marshall Aerospace and Defense Group", located at Cambridge Airport, England, a key player in the Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul (MRO) of the Lockheed Martin C-130 Hercules aircraft. With nearly 60 years of experience, Marshall is recognized globally as an authority on the Hercules platform. It not only provides "depth" maintenance of Hercules aircraft but also has the capability to independently produce and repair parts with Lockheed Martin's authority to manufacture. Earlier this year, a 50th anniversary celebration was held in Cambridge to signify the C-130 Hercules operations in UK, also marking Marshall Aerospace to become the first C-130 Hercules Authorized Service Center in the world. "Lockheed Martin's leaders salute Marshall's 50 years as Hercules Service Center", it said. The C-130 has a significant history with the Royal Air Force (RAF), lasting over 50 years, dating back to the 1960s. So, it's no wonder that Marshall also has a long history of supporting the Royal Air Force's C-130 fleet. Anyway, this all reminded me that I've not flown the (MSFS) C-130J Hercules that I'd acquired for my Xbox, since a long while ago. Indeed, I did find a repaint of the RAF Lockheed C-130J Hercules C5 ZH883 available in the Marketplace, carrying special markings commemorating the 50th anniversary of the C-130's service with RAF (see images below). For this post, I fly the C-130J ZH883, from RAF Fairford (airport), EGVA, located about 85 miles west of London, up north 350 miles, across the Irish Sea, to Scotland's Glasgow Prestwick Airport, EGPK, a major center for C-130 Hercules related activities. On my route, I travel past the gentle pastures and flatlands...🙂...of England (see EFB map) as the setting sun adds to the beauty of this land, and shines on this beautiful aircraft...🙂... It was a short and sweet flight. And what a change it was...from the A350-900 ULR's ultra-modern (glass) avionics and flightdeck to the analog gauges of this airplane. Where again are the Autopilot controls on this thing....🙂... Oh well...both the A350 and the C-130 have their own unique place in our hobby... BTW, here is a wonderful (1m:51s) video clip of the (Real World) RAF Lockheed C-130J Hercules ZH883, of the same livery as below, taxiing and lifting off at Marshall Aerospace's home, Cambridge Airport. [Search for, "RAF Lockheed C-130J Hercules ZH883 at Cambridge Airport"]. I invite you to listen to the (characteristic) sound of those amazing (Rolls-Royce) turboprops at full sound... (with due consideration for family members and pets etc...🙂...) ...especially during the final 30 seconds of liftoff... Hope you enjoy this collection of images from my flight today with this legendary aircraft. Thanks for viewing...!
July 23, 2025Jul 23 Fine set of shots ! cheers 😉 08.2024 new PC is online : ASUS ROG STRIX X670E-F GAMING WIFI Mainboard, AMD Ryzen™ 9 7950X3D Prozessor, G.Skill DIMM 64 GB DDR5-6000 (2x 32 GB) Dual-Kit, MSI GeForce RTX 4090 VENTUS 3X E 24G OC Grafikkarte, 2x WD Black SN850X NVMe SSD 4 TB - Drive C+D, WD Gold Enterprise Class 12 TB for storage HDD, Thermaltake Toughpower GF3 1000W PC - Power supply, Thermalright Phantom Spirit 120 EVO CPU Aircooler with 7 Heatpipes, Design Meshify 2 White TG Clear Tint Tower-Case, 3x 4K monitors 2x32 Samsung 1x27 LG 3840x2160, Windows11 Prof. 23H2 - now Windows11 Prof. 25H2 Flightsimulator Hardware: Honeycomb Throttle Bravo, Logitech Extreme 3D Pro, Logitech Flight Joke System, XBox Controller, some Thrustmaster stuff, Winwing CDU Panels.
July 24, 2025Jul 24 Author 21 hours ago, rmeier said: Great set of photos! Thanks a lot, rmeier. I know RCAF has a large number of C-130J and C-130H Hercules in operation. I need to find a RCAF livery and fly it... 20 hours ago, pmplayer said: Fine set of shots ! cheers 😉 Appreciated the comment, pmplayer. Cheers...!
July 24, 2025Jul 24 Sadly that isn't a J cockpit. Do share your affinity for the Hercy-bird though! Edited July 24, 2025Jul 24 by kevinfirth Kevin Firth - AMD 9800X3D; Asus Prime X670E; 64Gb Cas30 6000 DDR5; RTX5090; AutoFPS
July 25, 2025Jul 25 Author Thanks, Kevin. Watched the video a couple of times...expertly flown by a Pro...🙂...low and slow with the Hercules...Great avionics too with HUD...! You're right, this (single) C-130 variant here in MSFS is bit of an imposter...🙂...with regard to model fidelity. I do recall the FSX/P3D "All-in-One" Pack from my past SIM, which was a decent set of C-130 variants. There was a National Guard former crewmember here who was giving me some tips how to fly it like a Pro...🙂...which are long erased from memory... I've not flown the Hercules in 5-6 years until I picked this up very recently from the Xbox/MSFS Marketplace...driven by an affinity for the Hercy-bird, as you say...🙂... Cheers...!
July 25, 2025Jul 25 5 hours ago, P_7878 said: Thanks, Kevin. Watched the video a couple of times...expertly flown by a Pro...🙂...low and slow with the Hercules...Great avionics too with HUD...! You're right, this (single) C-130 variant here in MSFS is bit of an imposter...🙂...with regard to model fidelity. I do recall the FSX/P3D "All-in-One" Pack from my past SIM, which was a decent set of C-130 variants. There was a National Guard former crewmember here who was giving me some tips how to fly it like a Pro...🙂...which are long erased from memory... I've not flown the Hercules in 5-6 years until I picked this up very recently from the Xbox/MSFS Marketplace...driven by an affinity for the Hercy-bird, as you say...🙂... Cheers...! Give the Blackbird version a try...yes it's alpha and needs some tweaks but she's fun to fly for sure. Kevin Firth - AMD 9800X3D; Asus Prime X670E; 64Gb Cas30 6000 DDR5; RTX5090; AutoFPS
July 26, 2025Jul 26 Author On 7/25/2025 at 1:07 AM, kevinfirth said: Give the Blackbird version a try...yes it's alpha and needs some tweaks but she's fun to fly for sure. That would be wonderful, Kevin. However, unfortunately, I read that Blackbird, as of now, is not planning to bring their Dirty 30 (ADV) C-130 Hercules into the Xbox platform for me. Maybe complex aircraft such as the PMDG 777 and the iniBuilds A359 will make them change their minds...🙂... I'll keep a watch for it...nonetheless...Thanks.
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