4 Feb 2025

Final flyover for Airforce Hercules brings back memories

From Nights, 8:30 pm on 4 February 2025

Earlier today three Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130H Hercules rumbled in the sky over the South Island and lower North Island as they made their way to Woodbourne air force base near Blenheim on their final official flights. During their service the Air Force's Hercules flew to pretty much every corner of the globe, clocking up more than 155,000 accident-free flying hours and nearly 100,000 landings at home and around the world. It's a plane very familiar to Former Royal New Zealand Air Force Wing Commander Gordon Ragg who as a young Flight Lieutenant landed Hercules NZ7003 at Whenuapai after a long delivery flight from the United States in1965. He speaks to Mark Leishman.