AEDC junior officers observe flight line operations first-hand

  • Published
  • By Philip Lorenz III
  • AEDC/PA
ARNOLD AIR FORCE BASE, Tenn. --  Recently, 1st Lt. Jason Lackey and 2nd Lt. Drew Miller, junior Air Force officers who are test project managers with AEDC's Turbine Engine Ground Test Complex (TSTB), took full advantage of a unique opportunity.

Lt. Col. Brent Peavy, the TSTB commander at AEDC, had suggested that they accompany John Kelly, a senior project manager, who drills with the Air National Guard's 180th Fighter Wing, to see how the user operates and maintains what is literally being tested at Arnold.

Lieutenant Lackey, who was raised in a military family, said he found the chance to see aircraft operations first-hand to be irresistible.

"After being offered the opportunity to attend a drill weekend, I immediately said 'Yes,'" the Valdosta State University graduate said. "I [had] always thought when I got into the military I'd be working on and around jets - so, getting to actually go and see that was awesome."

Lieutenant Miller also found the trip to Ohio beneficial.

"I had an idea of what maintenance guys did, but just to be there and follow them around and be involved was pretty neat," Lieutenant Miller said. "I got to follow a crew chief for [an aircraft maintenance] turn around the plane and see what he saw - he explained everything as we went through it - it was a really good experience."

Kelly, who is a senior master sergeant and a maintenance crew chief with the 180th Fighter Wing, said the opportunity to show his colleagues the "operational side" of the Air Force was invaluable.

"In November they came up to Toledo, Ohio and spent the weekend with me and other members of my unit and got [as close as they could to a] hands-on experience on the F-16 [Fighting Falcon] with the F100-PW-229 engine," Kelly said.

The two junior officers observed the unit's maintainers disassemble an engine in the unit's shop, watched as an engine fan was replaced and witnessed the mechanics remove a low pressure turbine from another engine.

"They also got the opportunity to tour our alert facility and see flight line operations first-hand, including recovering jets from a flight," Kelly explained. "The crew chief goes from nose to tail, through the whole aircraft looking [at] everything that he can, [like he is] literally kicking the tires and making sure everything is ready to go. Then the pilot comes out for the next go and the launch procedure takes about 20 minutes [while] the pilot and the crew chief are talking again on the headset, going through flight control and engine checks - the crew chief is kind of the pilot's eyes on the ground."

Kelly said the experience was special for another reason.

"We just [recently] finished the 6,000 Total Accumulated Cycles (TAC) or full life AMT [Accelerated Mission Test] on the F100-229 engine and coincidentally the very first one in the United States is at our guard unit, in use."

A TAC is a unit of measurement for major rotating engine components tracked during an engine's operational life.

Colonel Peavy explained why he encouraged the officers to make the trip to the reserve unit.

"As developers and testers I see one of our key roles as balancing the requirements of the design engineers, the maintainers and the users of the new systems that the Air Force is fielding," Colonel Peavy said. "In order to make this happen we have got to understand all three groups. One of the best ways to gain that understanding is to get involved with the work they do day-to-day.

"Maintainers are our most under represented group in the test community, so it is important for us to go look for that knowledge and perspective," he said. "The folks in the maintenance community are always enthusiastic about teaching, if you are willing to learn."

Colonel Peavy said he also wanted the officers to get a wider perspective on other organizations in the Air Force.

"The 180th [Fighter Wing] offered them the opportunity to see how an operational Air Force organization is put together and how it functions," he said. "I am extremely grateful to them [the 180th] and to John for the great career development opportunity they gave Lieutenant Lackey and Lieutenant Miller."