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Any Air Force C-40 types out there?

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Boxboy

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 18, 2002
Posts
287
Can any of the Air Force C-40 types give me the in's/out's of C-40 jobs at Hickam and Ramstein, or else where? How's the ops tempo, what are the missions like, do you do many over nights, is it mostly VIP flying, how's the squadron atmosphere, etc.
 
Is it still the 50th Airlift Squadron at Hickam. I was there when it made the transition from Det 1, 89th Airlift Wing to 50th Airlift Squadron, 15th ABW, PACAF.

Sorry, no C-40's as we had C-135B's and C's then.

Great unit and mission back in the day, can't tell you about now.

Former Ops Officer, Det 1, 89th AW and 50th AS.
 
C-40's at HIK 2003-2006

Flying the C-40 at HIK was a good gig. Trips to Japan/Korea were very frequent as well as back to DC. But we flew all over the Pacific to some remote/unique/fun places. Trips usually were about 6-8 days except for a few long pacific trips. In a typical month, probably fly a trip of 6-8 days, a few locals around the islands and the typical office squadron routine. Since we were so far from anywhere, they were always overnights, especially since the customer wanted a day or two to be with the base/guest he was visiting.

All of the missions were VIP's of course, since the customer merited flying on a C-40 or C-37. The squadron was any typical squadron in the USAF. Good things and bad. Since we were the only flying squadron on the base at the time, we had the bulk of scrutiny. Now C-17's are on property and share/deflect some of the spotlight.

The squadron at Hickam is the 65th Airlift Squadron. One C-40 and one C-37. IMHO the C-37 bubbas got a raw deal since one of our customers was rated in the C-37 and would "take" most of the takeoffs and landings. Hence the IP was in the seat monitoring and the other pilot was back on some couch looking out the window.
 
Flying the C-40 at HIK was a good gig. Trips to Japan/Korea were very frequent as well as back to DC. But we flew all over the Pacific to some remote/unique/fun places. Trips usually were about 6-8 days except for a few long pacific trips. In a typical month, probably fly a trip of 6-8 days, a few locals around the islands and the typical office squadron routine. Since we were so far from anywhere, they were always overnights, especially since the customer wanted a day or two to be with the base/guest he was visiting.

All of the missions were VIP's of course, since the customer merited flying on a C-40 or C-37. The squadron was any typical squadron in the USAF. Good things and bad. Since we were the only flying squadron on the base at the time, we had the bulk of scrutiny. Now C-17's are on property and share/deflect some of the spotlight.

The squadron at Hickam is the 65th Airlift Squadron. One C-40 and one C-37. IMHO the C-37 bubbas got a raw deal since one of our customers was rated in the C-37 and would "take" most of the takeoffs and landings. Hence the IP was in the seat monitoring and the other pilot was back on some couch looking out the window.

Thanks for the good info. Sounds like a good gig. I remember the good old days flying the C-9 around the Pacific. How tough is it to get this assignment? Do you have to fly in your blues?
 

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