After USAF service this aircraft served with the Coast Guard from 1959 to 1972. It was later transferred to the Royal Thai Air Force.

Boxing day surprise visitor to LA

The Schweizer company model number is Schweizer SA 2-38A. It is a redesign of the single-engined Schweizer RG-8A (2-37A) drug interdiction surveillance aircraft. It was registered in Jul-1997 as N61449, but had become USCG 8103 when flight testing began on 10-Jul-1998. This was done by the Air Force 445th Flight Test Squadron at Edwards AFB on behalf of the Coast Guard. It was delivered to the Coast Guard in Miami, FL in 1999 for drug interdiction missions over the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. Reported to have been grounded in 2000 due to problems with meeting mission requirements and serviceability. Its civil registration N61449 was kept valid, but was cancelled in Oct-2013.

Built in 1981, ex N455F. To NASA at Langley Research Centre in 2011 and registered N525NA

Coast Guard 2135 is seen here crossing Harbor Dive from KSAN to the CG Air Station San Diego.

Originally built for the USAF as 55-4541 and transferred in August 1958. Here, the tail number has not been modified to match its new serial, but 4541 is worn in small numbers on the nose. On 8 May 1967 it crashed while flying circuits at NAS Agana, Guam.

This HC-130B was airlifting in divers and diving equipment for use in the search for missing crewmen from the USCGC White Alder. On the night of 7 December 1968 the White Alder collided with a freighter on the Mississippi River just south of Baton Rouge. All but three of the crew were lost. I took this slide late in the afternoon on 8 December 1968 while the a/c was being unloaded.

In the Coast Guard area at New Orleans NAS. Built in 1971. Still current on the register in 2021. I photographed it again in Alaska in 2008, no longer in Coast Guard colours.