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GTR provides alternate location for T-1 operations, tests 48th FTS

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Keith Holcomb
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi, has three runways, each with thousands of landings from airframes as small as a training aircraft or as large as a C-5 Super Galaxy.

Currently ‘Live Oak,’ the outside runway used primarily for T-38 Talon training, is being resurfaced to reduce the chance of foreign debris affecting the flying training mission. This is the first resurfacing project since 2005, but the runway has been closed for short periods of time for repairs.

Construction

Capt. John Kulikowski, Air Force Civil Engineer Center Airfield Pavement Evaluation Team branch chief, from Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida, looked for cracking within the infrastructure on the runways at Columbus AFB. The APE Team completed their assessment of the airfield in October 2017.

“Our score was pretty low [on the Pavement Condition Index],” said Tech. Sgt. Andrew McAnally, 14th Civil Engineer Squadron construction manager. “The APE Team gave us the recommendation to do a mill and overlay for the airfield and at that point we got the Army Corps of Engineers to complete a design and now here we are with the contractors helping us complete this project.”

After being awarded almost $13 million for the reconstruction, the 14th CES worked with numerous squadrons and organizations to facilitate a quick and effective way to deliver materials and equipment to the build site, overall allowing pilots to keep production at a maximum.

“I know we are in the process of negotiating a project on the inside runway,” McAnally said. “We should be working on the auxiliary airfield after the inside runway in the October timeframe, so it’s going to be an almost complete airfield over-haul coming up.”

Operations

As a result of the construction, T-38 training has been relocated to the center runway. Due to the increased congestion caused by the outside runway closure, rather than share a single runway, the 48th FTS has relocated half of its operations to the Golden Triangle Regional Airport (GTR) in Columbus, Mississippi.

“Compared to the T-38, our aircraft is more versatile in terms of range, takeoff and landing performance, and ability to handle adverse weather,” said Capt. Josh Metzger, 48th Flying Training Squadron chief of programming. “In the past, we have operated out of GTR on a regular basis, so we were the clear choice to split our operations to alleviate traffic congestion at Columbus with the runway closure.”

Each flying training squadron has had to work with the 14th Operations Group to schedule and plan around the resurfacing, but the 48th FTS was significantly impacted and has been the squadron to take the mantle of flying half of their sorties from a geographically separated location.

“Operating out of two locations requires a significant increase in coordination with our maintenance and an increased burden on our operations supervisors to ensure that when flying is complete at the end of the day, we have enough jets at each location to launch a full schedule the next day,” Metzger said. “While we do have maintenance support at both locations, some malfunctions can only be repaired at Columbus, requiring the supervisor to divert jets between the two locations.”

Every week, the 48th FTS and 50th FTS meet for a hotwash, a meeting held to address any issues from the previous week and coordinate the plan for T-1 and T-38 operations on the center runway for the following week. This meeting is integral in ensuring both airframes can effectively execute their mission, while minimizing delays caused by traffic congestion at Columbus AFB.

In order to facilitate effective transportation between Columbus AFB and GTR and have a single point of contact, the 48th FTS has created a new position called the squadron duty officer (SDO), which is currently manned by students who have completed the syllabus and are awaiting graduation and will soon be manned by students awaiting entry into Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training. Each GTR crew coordinates with the SDO to get updates on vehicle assignments, ensuring no one is stranded at GTR at the end of the day.

“The squadron duty officer’s coordination with the SUP and schedulers, and having a clear and concise plan has been key to the success of our operations,” said Capt. Nate Clause, 48th FTS chief of scheduling.

Clause said having T-1’s located at two different sites provides the students a unique opportunity to learn the importance of being able to quickly adapt to changes and have the forethought to devise multiple plans to execute in the event of last minute changes, which is a vital skill required in follow-on assignments. As a scheduler, he has had to develop a keen eye for identifying issues in both flying and crew transportation that arise from the constant schedule fluctuations due to diverting aircraft and aircraft repairs.

“The complicated logistics and large number of moving parts make the efforts of each scheduler, operations supervisor, instructor, and student important to mission success,” Clause said.