ELEANOR HALL: Now to the official retirement of the C-130 H Hercules transport aircraft.

The versatile heavy duty transport plane which has served the Royal Australian Air Force for more than three decades has reached the end of its active service.

The Air Force used the Hercules fleet to assist in evacuations after the Bali bombings, to respond to the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and to rescue Australians after a 1997 coup in Cambodia.

There was a fly-past in Sydney this morning and Brendan Trembath was there for The World Today.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: After 34 years, the Royal Australian Air Force is farewelling a veteran of the sky. Two of the retiring planes have flown over Sydney for one of the last times.

Robert Versey and Joan Weston had a harbour-side vantage point.

JOAN WESTON: And I thought it would be really interesting to come and have a look.

ROBERT VERSEY: Same. A friend of mine's son flew Hercules into Afghanistan and was a Hercules trainer for a while. So I thought I'd come down and take some photos for him.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: Well here they come, flying low over Sydney harbour, two C-130 Hercules, retiring gracefully from the Royal Australian Air Force. They've just flown across the heads and are heading past the Sydney Opera House.

Air Vice Marshal Greg Evans flew the C-130 H Hercules for 10 years.

GREG EVANS: They are a glorious thing, they are like a cross between a great big American Cadillac, a Land Rover that can cross any kind of country you like, and a military armoured personnel carrier. They are just a glorious, versatile, wonderful old aircraft that seems to be able to turn its hand to any military job that you give it.

Things like medical evacuations and disaster relief and all of the jobs that are required when things go wrong. They've just done sterling work ever since they were purchased as a disaster relief aero-medical evacuation and just a priceless national asset able to turn to anything the Government needs it to do.

We always used to speculate about how often they paid themselves off and most of the people who flew them used to say that they paid themselves off annually, they were just such a useful aeroplane.

Military service is often, when you're lucky, it involves endless years of practice at being very, very good at something quite specific. Military service flying the C-130 was an endless succession of very important work that just had to get done that was real and immediate and involved, helping real people.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: If you had to pick a couple of highlights, what would they be?

GREG EVANS: I would say that the tsunami relief that was flown after the Asian tsunami, that was a real highlight, they did enormous amounts of work up there and the rescue operation that was conducted into Cambodia in late 1997 to rescue Australians who got trapped in the coup.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: One of them happened to be Greg Evans.

GREG EVANS: I was one of the people they came and rescued, I was in a ground job at that stage and I'd much rather be in the air doing the rescue than on the ground being rescued I can tell you.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: I bet you were very pleased to see the Hercules.

GREG EVANS: We were sort of huddled in this old, smashed up terminal building and the first thing I heard was this characteristic roar as Dave Steel pulled the throttles into reverse and pulled it up and what a good feeling.

And then it loomed up out of the dark, no runway lights, no taxi way lights, all of the lightings had been destroyed in the coup and by neglect over the years and they managed to get it in and come and rescue them. What a great event.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: The Hercules is versatile and very loud. Air Commodore Gary Martin is the Commander of the Air Lift Group.

GARY MARTIN: Yes certainly very loud, it's more than the average commuter that's for sure, so hearing protection is essential for the passengers and the crew as we transit around there. So it's pretty agriculture in the back there, there's not many luggage holds or fancy seats.

BRENDAN TREMBATH: At least four of the retiring planes will continue flying in Indonesia. The governments of Australia and Indonesia signed a preliminary transfer agreement in July.

ELEANOR HALL: Brendan Trembath reporting.