MCGUIRE AIR FORCE BASE, N.J. -- The
first C-17 is scheduled to arrive here in 35 days. Once here, maintenance
personnel must be ready for action.
With almost 50 percent of the active duty
maintenance personnel, 49 percent of the active reserve technicians and 17
percent of traditional Reservists trained on the C-17, McGuire is busy
getting everyone prepared for the new aircraft.
Maintenance personnel here began training for the
C-17 in March of 2003; they were sent to McChord Air Force Base, Wash.,
and Charleston Air Force Base, S.C., for transition training.
“Transition training courses are designed to
provide an effective and efficient means to convert qualified mechanics
from one airframe to another,” said Jeanette Hargrove, 305th Maintenance
Operations Squadron maintenance training flight chief. “In McGuire’s
case, it’s from the C-141 to the C-17.”
The length of training depends on the specialty. A
total of eight maintenance specialties are receiving transition training;
aerospace propulsion jet engine, aircraft electrical and environmental
systems, aircraft structural maintenance, aircraft hydraulic systems,
aerospace maintenance specialty, aircraft fuel systems, instrument and
flight control systems and communication/navigation/mission systems.
Training methods are a combination of formal
classroom and over-the-shoulder hands on training utilizing both the C-17
training mock-up devices and aircraft on the flight line.
Transition training teaches maintainers the basics
of C-17 maintenance, but does not qualify them on the aircraft.
“To become qualified on the aircraft, the
maintainers must work one year with the aircraft and have all the proper
tasks signed off on their training record,” said Master Sgt. Al Jackson,
C-17 education and training superintendent.
Ninety four of 201 active duty personnel have
received their transition training. Thirty-one of 61 Air Reserve
technicians have also received transition training with 36 of 206
traditional Reservists trained. Through September, an estimated 71 percent
of active duty personnel, 67 percent of ART and 31 percent of TR will have
completed transition training.
“Almost daily we are sending people to get
transitioning training,” said Sergeant Jackson. “All of the C-141
people will either be leaving or getting trained on the C-17.”
While a number of McGuire’s maintenance personnel
are yet to be qualified on the C-17, there is an initial cadre of 61 C-17
qualified maintainers here. These qualified maintainers came from bases
already operating with the C-17.
“They are here to provide on the job training to
the transition trainees,” said Sergeant Jackson. “Once we get our
aircraft we are considered organically capable of providing our own
training. The initial cadre will be responsible for that.”
A new training facility will aid the cadre in their
job. Once the facility is fully up and running in early 2006, the
maintenance qualification training program and field training detachment
will be able to do what it has been doing at McChord and Charleston --
provide transition training and initial training for three-level
maintainers coming from technical school.
“We are in the process of getting three mock-up
trainers,” said Sergeant Jackson. “We will have an engine trainer,
flight deck trainer and avionics trainer. These devices are enough to
teach certain types of training without needing an actual aircraft.”
With constant training and construction of a new
training facility, the McGuire maintainers will be prepared for the C-17.