My son's new plane

[mriddick]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjCbpso_Wjo&feature=related

My son switched from the Jstar to the MC12 liberty for his latest deployment to Afghanistan, he'll be leaving to be part of the fall push in Kandahar. He was supposed to be there already but things got pushed back about the time McChrystal got fired.

The plane itself is a civilian King Air the USAF is buying off the market and then converting (not purpose built for the USAF), I always liked the way the King Air looked :)

[Mark Ducati]

Neat aircraft... At first I thought it was kinda strange seeing a pilot wearing a Molle Vest, but I guess it makes sense as it can hold a small survival pouch and pistol. The aircraft is gray, I guess it makes sense for camo in the sky, but it sure sticks out as a sore thumb on the sandy ground.

In an aircraft like that, do the airmen wear a parachute? Since the aircraft doesn't have any offensive weapons, does it have flares and such in case its shot at? Just curious how that works is all.

[abpt1]

We had a lot of multi eng aircraft with the airline and flight school my parents owned that's a absolutely awesome aircraft right there !

[mriddick]

Neat aircraft... At first I thought it was kinda strange seeing a pilot wearing a Molle Vest, but I guess it makes sense as it can hold a small survival pouch and pistol. The aircraft is gray, I guess it makes sense for camo in the sky, but it sure sticks out as a sore thumb on the sandy ground.

In an aircraft like that, do the airmen wear a parachute? Since the aircraft doesn't have any offensive weapons, does it have flares and such in case its shot at? Just curious how that works is all.
It does have flares for protection, I believe they don't get parachutes but they do get combat gear since a survable crash is an option, plus they are now flying from bases further out and are expected to help defend if need be. He had to go through the combat training this time around, I'm not sure if had that before with the previous 4 deployments on the Jstars.

[old Grump]

Is that a radar dome on top of the fuselage?

[mriddick]

I'd think it would be something for communication, from the way I understand it they are looking down not up :)

[remy1492]

MC-12 is the shit.
One of my students and one other instructor from here went MC-12s.
Its a limited time career, 6mo - a year for pilots, not sure about rear operators.

We fly 44s and 12s down here so for a C-130 guy with prior 12 time its an easy plane to fly.

From the debriefs, I have gathered there are some HOT missions doing realtime, realwork with operators on the ground. Its a long deployment but there is no lull or boring time.
I am looking to go UAVs next, and I gather the C-12 is a manned UAV type of lasing, spotting and comm platform that gets tracers coming its way.

He is sure to see heated stuff and be in the thick of it. He may get issued crap gear, like most of us do, so buying his own stuff is imperative. You might want to pony up some gifts, quality knife, leatherman, backpack, holster etc....
I would spare no expense to have quality egress and bug out gear/ammo carriage in his case.
The only factor is weight for the C-12 so he can't go overboard on gear.