Photo By Senior Airman Kevin Holloway | Airmen from the 4th Civil Engineer Squadron's Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants flight...... read more read more
Subscribe
334th FS conducts ACC’s first hot pit refueling in training environment
SEYMOUR JOHNSON AIR FORCE BASE, N.C.--
The 334th Fighter Squadron recently became the first training squadron in Air Combat Command to conduct hot pit refueling while in a training environment.
“Hot pit refuel operations are performed to cut down the turn times, from the time the aircraft lands, to the time that it takes off to complete another mission, the turn around times are reduced by a significant amount compared to cold refuels,” said Master Sgt. Carl Countryman, 4th Logistics Readiness Squadron Petroleum, Oils, Lubricants Fuels Operations Section Chief.
Previously, during flight training student pilots weren’t subjected to hot pit refueling because they were typically conducted at the operational level once flight training was completed but due to looming aircraft availability issues, a dynamic solution was implemented to generate more efficient training.
“It was different from what we have done in the past,” said Capt. Tim Newton, 334th FS pilot. “I went through as a weapons system operator in 2012 and now I’m going back through and retraining as a pilot. While the training for a pilot and a WSO are completely different, both do have a lot of similar training in the process and adding in the hot pit refueling for both career fields has huge benefits in regards to high-speed learning and repetition.”
First Lt. Angela Kramanos, 334th Training Squadron WSO, said when a hot pit refueling is conducted, aircrew could potentially remain in the F-15 anywhere from six to eight hours which can lead to stressful and unfamiliar situations.
“Learning to cope with the stress and exhaustion has huge benefits for the operational Air Force,” added Kramanos. “It helps with deployments, learning the jet better and being more comfortable doing complex tasks while in training.”
Overall, the hot pit refueling process can be high speed and intense repetition for all personnel involved, even more so while in a training environment but it also creates a learning environment that is beneficial for the future pilots of the Air Force.
“Hot pitting is not a major portion of flying an aircraft and operational squadrons certainly do a fine job of teaching pilots how to hot pit,” said Lt. Col. William Kastner, 334th FS commander. “Hot pit refueling is one more thing that we can show them for the very first time in the flying training unit that will give the operational squadrons a more complete pilot and WSO upon graduation and could lessen their aircrew training requirements.”
| Date Taken: | 11.04.2020 |
| Date Posted: | 04.27.2021 15:55 |
| Story ID: | 394878 |
| Location: | GOLDSBORO, NORTH CAROLINA, US |
| Web Views: | 265 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, 334th FS conducts ACC's first hot pit refueling in training environment, by SrA Kevin Holloway, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
LEAVE A COMMENT