The C-160D Transall transports of Lufttransportgeschwader 63 have been stationed at Hohn air base, north of Hamburg, for more than 51 years. Alexander Golz visited them in their penultimate year of operations.
The last remaining Transall unit within the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) received its first example of the type as a successor to the Noratlas as long ago as June 13, 1968. So it’s not surprising that the unit in Hohn is the only one of the three Luftwaffe Transall wings to reach the magic number of 400,000 flight hours on the C-160D. The milestone was reached at 1435hrs on August 26, 2019. To mark the occasion, Lufttransportgeschwader 63 (LTG 63, Air Transport Wing 61) prepared one of its aircraft with a special paint scheme. Under the leadership of Hauptmann Fabian Lorenz, Transall 50+72 received ‘worker bee’ markings, based on the wing’s insignia behind the cockpit, and a German flag, in addition to the legends ‘400,000’ and ‘Hohn’ Unfortunately, aviation enthusiasts only had a limited opportunity to see the anniversary aircraft – until the end of October. Serial 50+72 had been selected for repainting based on current operational demands, since it had only a short remaining service life…
