Yeah the C130 J is just about useless...if your trying to load anything to it...!
Yes, I am a mover, but one who likes to sit on the fence, so I dont dish banter about unnecessarily....!
Anyhoo....the C130 J was procured in a fit and able stae, then we (the RAF Chiefs) decided to save money...by removing the winch supplied by lockheed....and also by removing the soopa doopa yank side guidance syatem...
All this saved a few pennies, initially, until they discovered that they couldn't fit the old kit we were using on the Mk1 and 3s onto the J....no winch, no side-guidance = no real use as a cargo carrier.
What did we do!? we bought all the kit that we had removed back of the yanks, for a princely sum!
Now it is doing it's job, just...4 yrs down the line!
Oh, although it does have its limitations....cant tandem para drop from both doors, as the slipstream causes the grunts to whack their heads together just as they 'check canopy'...
Cant load pax to certain areas due to H&S issues (noise resonnance from the props)..
Can't para drop pallets from the ramp, as it won't fly slow enough (auto stall recovery or something)....
Any way...it cant do a lot of things it is supposed to, and that it's 30 yr old sister can .... I'd like to point out that the procurement board for this white elephant did not have any rear crew/movs membership....!
If my rant has been inaccurate, pse correct moi!
Monkey