Evening all,
A reasonable day at Rockhampton Sunday 17/7 - even managed to meet up with Craig M and Dave K who are up from Brisbane for the week and Mick F who was also out and about.
Anyway, today was the day for the United States Air Force (USAF) mass parachute drop over Central Queensland. It occured West of Rockhampton this morning. Unfortunately, the drop went perfectly and the four USAF Boeing C-17A Globemaster III aircraft that were involved bypassed Rockhampton and landed at Amberley. However, one of the C-17s involved ended up making an appearance at Rockhampton Airport late in the afternoon.
USAF C-17 05-5148 (Hickam AFB tail stripe) arrived from Amberley and later departed to Guam as "Slew 99"
USAF Lockheed MC-130P Hercules 69-5832 was believed to have visited Williamson Airfield - which is with the Shoalwater Bay Training Area - this afternoon. The Hercules was using the callsign "Warrior 10" and arrived from and departed to Richmond Air Force Base, West of Sydney.
USMC Lockheed KC-130J, 168066 (Tail Code QD-066) of the VMGR-152 Unit popped into Rockhampton as "Sumo 86".
Of the Aussies...
Royal Australian Navy (RAN) Sikorsky S-70B/SH-60 Seahawk N24-016 arrived from and departed to Bundaberg as "Tiger 85". (there are a total of three Seahawks at Bundy)
There was also 2 formations of Townsville-based Australian Army Sikorsky S70A-9 Blackhawk helicopters. "Warhorse Black" consisted of A25-107 and A25-203. "Warhorse Blue" consisted of A25-222, A25-206, A25-224.
There was also two RAN Sea King movements with "Shark 10" and "Shark 21" flying to Shoalwater Bay.
Photos as always on the CQ Plane Spotting Blog -
http://cqplanespotting.blogspot.com/
Cheers
Damian