Photo By Tech. Sgt. J.D. Strong II | 94th Fighter Squadron, F-22A Raptor pilots drop Joint Direct Attack Munitions during...... read more read more
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The 1st Fighter Wing’s F-22 Raptors collectively reached their flying hour mark this fiscal year of more than 6,000 hours.
For each fiscal year, the flying hour program tasks the number of hours pilots need to acquire in order to maintain proficient in combative flying, based on budgeting and the maximum number of sorties the wing is capable of producing.
With limited resources available, the 1st FW completing the hours was an intricate balance between progression in maintenance and tactical logistics, which guided the Raptors to success.
“We have to maximize each and every sortie flown to reach the highest level of combat readiness,” said U.S. Air Force Maj. Michael, 1st Operations Support Squadron director of operations. “It takes a significant number of man-hours and resources to prepare and fix the aircraft for each and every flight.”
Innovative techniques by the maintenance crew allowed the pilots to receive more training with each flight by utilizing aerial refueling and hot refueling, which kept the pilots from having to land, shutdown, restart or take-off for flight.
Along with progressive maintenance techniques, coordination by the 1st OSS Current Operations Flight, also known as Wing Scheduling Office, got the planes off the ground.
“Current Ops are our single point of contact for airspace coordination and splitting that up among the three flying squadrons at Langley,” said Michael. “The 1st FW doesn't actually own our primary flying airspace, so it takes a lot of work and good relationships to make sure the space is available to us as often as we need it.”
Stretches of bad weather, the ability to produce sorties and availability of airspace pushed the current ops and maintenance teams to work creatively to ensure that each squadron was able to make their flying quotas.
The 1st FW team demonstrated their combat readiness to answer their nation's call and will continue to soar toward their next flying goal.
| Date Taken: | 11.09.2016 |
| Date Posted: | 11.15.2016 09:16 |
| Story ID: | 214629 |
| Location: | HAMPTON, VA, US |
| Web Views: | 33 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 1st FW Raptors, crew soar through flying hours, by SSgt Parker Dubois, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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