APEX teaches Port Dawgs new tricks

Published July 9, 2015
By Airman 1st Class Amber Carter
60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- The U.S. Air Force Expeditionary Center sent a mobile training team to Travis Air Force Base, California, from June 22 to July 10 to hold a C-5 Aerial Port Expeditor Course.

APEX, a Community College of the Air Force-credited course, is designed to provide training for personnel selected to perform Aerial Port Expeditor Load Director duties and responsibilities.

"The APEX course trains air transportation Airmen to prepare an aircraft for flight like a loadmaster," said Capt. Matthew Chism, USAF Expeditionary Center public affairs director. "The certification directly allows leaders the flexibility to prepare and load aircraft at varying ops tempos without the need of aircrew personnel and extends crew rest to our loadmasters and aircrew personnel, increasing operational efficiency."

Training includes a comprehensive look at overall aircraft-loading functions. The course provides instructor-led training in the following areas: risk management, safety principles, loading procedures, calculating cargo center of balance, shoring and restraints, aircraft roller limitations, aircraft floor limitations, computing aircraft center of balance and aircraft winching.

Seven students from five bases, Travis; Ramstein Air Base, Germany; Dover AFB, Delaware; Hickam AFB, Hawaii; and Yokota AB, Japan; spent two weeks in classroom training with 68 hours of instruction and two tests.

"They must get a minimum passing score of 85 percent," said Staff Sgt. Ryan Stoks, 423rd Mobility Training Squadron C-17/C-5 APEX instructor from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, New Jersey. "The students are tested on many lessons ranging from safety to winching."

The hands-on portion of the class is one week with a minimum of 36 hours of instruction. Students worked with John Maranucci, 60th Aerial Port Squadron C-5 APEX instructor, and Ramon Duenas, 60th APS C-5 APEX load director, to conduct an aircraft download as they would upon being fully certified.

"The C-5 APEX students were offered an excellent opportunity to put their recent classroom training to the test in a live, real world scenario," said Tech. Sgt. Jeffery Akin, 60th APS ramp operations supervisor and C-5 APEX load director. "The students worked seamlessly with the 60th APS host unit, all while conducting fluid and safe offload of the latest variant of the venerable C-5 aircraft."

The MTT also teaches C-17 APEX training at various stateside locations plus two coalition partners.

"We teach two C-5 and five C-17 classes a year," Stoks said. "On average we teach 20 C-5 APEXers and 50 C-17 APEXers a year. Students have to complete computer based training on Advanced Distributed Learning Service before they can attend a class."