Marine Cpl. Ricardo Hernandez had never flown on a C-130 Hercules, the aircraft used by the Marine Corps primarily for refueling, and didn’t know what to expect for his first flight, especially on Fat Albert, the Navy’s propeller-driven addition to the Blue Angels team.

“I’m ecstatic to be going on this ride,” Hernandez said Friday before boarding the plane at Marine Corps Base Hawaii in Kaneohe. “If there’s a trick or two in there, I’m sure it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Hernandez, 22, joined about three dozen service members who were given a ride on the cargo plane as recognition for their job performance.

“They’re very jealous,” he said of his co-workers on the Marine base.

Fat Albert was part of this past weekend’s airshow at the Marine base, and the crew took service members and a handful of journalists on a dress rehearsal flight Friday. Fat Albert was scheduled to fly before the Blue Angels F/A-18 jets.

Maj. Mark Hamilton, Fat Albert’s pilot, said the plane’s eight-minute demonstration flight provided just a small taste of the C-130’s capabilities.

Hamilton, who has been flying C-130s for the Marines for 12 years, said the plane is a “force extender” for the military with the ability to land on short, unimproved runways of coral or gravel, and it can make airdrops of troops and cargo. It can deliver large flares that light up the battlefield at night, be modified to shoot Hellfire and Griffin missiles, and carry equipment for midair refueling.

“It does a lot and takes a lot to be trained for all those missions,” he said.

On Friday the flight was delayed a few minutes because of low-lying clouds near the mountains and thunderstorms.

But after taking off, Hamilton flew the plane about 200 mph within 5 feet of the ground, then took the plane up at 45 degrees, generating about 2 G-forces for the passengers. He leveled out at about 1,200 feet, and Fat Albert crew members inside the plane touched their feet to the ceiling for that brief weightless moment.

Hamilton flew Fat Albert about 2-1/2 miles from the base, over Kaneohe and the bay, and made several 60-degree banks, before transitioning to a “push to land” maneuver, in which he dropped the plane’s nose 25 degrees to land as quickly as possible.

Navy Airman Kimondria Townsend, 21, had the best seat in the house, on a narrow bar at the roof of the plane with her head in a glass bubble. Other passengers were seated along the walls of the cargo hold.

“When you look out the window, it looks like the wingtip is about to touch the actual ground,” she said, referring to those moments when the plane banked at a steep angle several feet above ground and water. “It felt like an out-of-body experience.”