83-0492 —

Top shot Joshua. Antarctic base support?

Skier 92 from Stratton ANGB. The only eight blade LC130.

Cool shot! Yes gavin. It is for and Antarctica. Info on the LC-130 here https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_LC-130. And it’s rocket assisted take off here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F7eABcN9CHI

Nice shot

Its a C-130J model, and has now replaced the older H models

Does the gear retract a little or just stay down?

Ken, That is not a "J" model. Count those blades. The J models have 6 blades. It's an H2 with upgraded props. I got more than a few hundred hours in the center seat of that specific aircraft.
And the wheels do retract while the skiis come up flush with the fairing on the fuselage.

@jmonroe Yes, the skis do retract. Somewhat. They are affixed to the landing gear so that when the pilot selects "gear up" the wheels and the skis move up. The skis move up flush to aerodynamic fairings (you can see these in the photo - especially the nose gear) The skis can move independently, so the wheels can remain up when landing on the skis on snow. To land on pavement, the wheels extend a bit below the skis - again visible in this photo. These are based out of KSCH, Schenectady New York, the 109th NYANG squadron.

This particular aircraft and stablemates are actually even older (technically). They were built as Navy LC-130Rs in two lots, delivered either 1974 or '76 for the Navy Sqdn VXE-6. A Lockheed Georga contract completed a major rebuild in 1983 that converted their designation to LC-130H and reset their USAF registration to 83-. All in all, I would guess these are both some of the oldest 130s flying and some of the best maintained. I'd love to hear the story about those props...

Nice to see a pic from my former unit! Was a Squadron & Group Commander and instrumental in bringing the Antarctic mission to the 109th.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doll_Peak

@Karl DOLL, could you pls contact me on [email protected] ,Im m searching an old friend retired of USAF who was on this plane and C5.. Mike Zerbe , he should live in TX as far as I know.. MAy be you knew him we never know.

That's a big boy!