They hear it coming, look to the sky and let the Hercules C-130 aircraft rumble through their bones before it lands leaving a cloud of red dust in its path.

"It's so loud, it's cold and you can feel it rumbling. It just feels awesome," Tegan Quinn, an Indigenous student from Lake Cargelligo Central School, told AAP.

The Royal Australian Air Force has been visiting the tiny central western NSW town and its more than 1400 residents for decades on training rounds.

From the sky the giant, sprawling oasis of the blue lake appears amongst the patches of green and red.

Generations have seen the planes flying overhead including Paul McFadyen who returned to his hometown to raise his family there eight years ago.

"You'd hear it before you saw it, it was a big thumping noise," the National Indigenous Australians Agency officer recalled.

Apart from creating moments of wonder for the town's people the aircraft may also inspire future careers.

RAAF Indigenous liaison officer Flight Lieutenant Tjapukai Shaw organises community days at air force training grounds like Lake Cargelligo.

He's passionate about the air force's goal of increasing its Indigenous workforce from 1.8 per cent to 5 per cent by 2025, he said.

"It offers Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people a way out. Sometimes people get trapped in some of the bad habits," he said.

"My brother has joined which I'm incredibly happy about. He's out of that cycle and he will continue to have a very rewarding career like myself."

When he promotes the career to kids he talks about the fun stuff like flying planes and travelling to the middle of nowhere but when it comes to speaking to his uncles, aunties, brothers and sisters he goes deeper.

"Unfortunately statistically Aboriginal people are not in a very good spot when it comes to housing, employment, health," he said.

"I receive subsidised housing, free medical, a job - that ticks all the boxes right now. That in itself creates a better lifestyle for our people."

A RAAF community engagement day was held at Lake Cargelligo with 30 defence personnel this week.

Michael Mitchell, an Indigenous teacher at a preschool in the nearby Aboriginal community Murrin Bridge, accompanied students inside the Hercules for a tour along with at least 60 other excited kids and adults.

"If you could see it over and over you'd want to put it on replay," he said on seeing the students faces as they walked inside.

"For the rest of their lives it will be a huge impact on every one of them."

Local science teacher Levi Monshing wanted to harness the buzz of his students talking about the planes and emailed RAAF to ask if the pilots could stop in.

The visit came at a good time with the area challenged by ongoing drought, he said.

"A lot of our kids are farm kids and you can really see how the drought has impacted them," he said.

A student feeling the effects is Jamie Morris, whose family has been on their sheep and crop farm for 70 years.

"It makes me wonder, what's to come? What's going to happen to us? Are we going to have to sell our sheep?"

In 2010 drought dried the town's lake leaving a mass of dead carp on the cracked surface, though, at the moment water levels are controlled and filled from the Lachlan River.

"We've just got to push through. We've lived through it before and we will keep going," Murrin Bridge Aboriginal Local Land Council's Betty Biggs said.

Recreationally the lake is a hot spot for skiing, fishing, kayaking and more.

"It's a special place. Anyone who has ever been here gets some sort of connection to it and some come back," Paul McFadyen said.

The RAAF pilots will return to the lake soon and it's likely people will be waiting. They'll hear it, before they see it.

Australian Associated Press