First CF pilots certified on the C-17
Good news from the world of Canadian Forces air mobility -- Major Jean Maisonneuve and Major Jeremy Reynolds are the first CF pilots certified on the C-17 Globemaster III (CF designation CC-177)."It's like a CC-130 [Hercules] on steroids," says pilot Major Jean Maisonneuve. It carries four times the payload, flies 40 percent faster and can fly twice as far. And Maj Maisonneuve and Maj Jeremy Reynolds are the first Canadian Air Force pilots certified on the C-17 Globemaster III. Maj Maisonneuve, chief check pilot at 429 Transport Squadron at 8 Wing Trenton, says the aircraft offers much in the way of tactical and operational capabilities.Majors Maisonneuve and Reynolds have amassed 2,000 and 1,500 hours in-type, respectively. Both pilots flew the strategic airlifter as exchange pilots with the US Air Force between 2001 and 2004, taking part in operational missions. Certification took place at Altus AFB, Oklahoma, and included three weeks of computer-based training, four weeks in a simulator, and three weeks on the flight line.
-- Kristina Davis, The Maple Leaf, Vol. 10 No. 10. 18 April 2007
Maj. Jeremy Reynolds is part of the Transport and Rescue Standards Evaluations Team at 8 Wing Trenton. With 1 500 hours on the Globemaster, he agrees it is a capable aircraft. In fact, he says the only time the capabilities of the CC-130 and the C-17 overlap is when landing on an austere airfield. "The C-17 represents a stark technological leap forward in terms of automation, avionics and capability," he explains.With the first CC-177 due to arrive in August, the CF is training six more pilots and has set a lofty goal for IOC (initial operational capability): one of Trenton's shiny new C-17's is to fly an operational mission five days after delivery.
He says the technology has necessitated a paradigm shift. Before, he explains, a pilot would simply turn around and ask questions from another human being. Now, computers will do many of those tasks. And what does that mean to the crew? "I'll be doing less talking," laughs Maj Reynolds.
-- Kristina Davis, The Maple Leaf, Vol. 10 No. 10. 18 April 2007
In the end, though, Maj Reynolds says, the C-17 is all about one thing: fulfilling Canadian commitments and supporting other CF personnel.And I am sure you and your colleagues will do it admirably. Bravo Zulu, Majors. Per Ardua.
-- Kristina Davis, The Maple Leaf, Vol. 10 No. 10. 18 April 2007
posted by Chris Taylor at 3:01 p.m.
5 Comments:
"Majors Maisonneuve and Reynolds have amassed 2,000 and 1,500 hours in-type, respectively. Both pilots flew the strategic airlifter as exchange pilots with the US Air Force between 2001 and 2004"
I fired up my Windows Calculator and did a little arithmetic with the quoted flying hours. In both cases, the resulting breakdown of average flying hours assumes no leave time, no down time for training or other duties in this entire three year period.
The first case works out to 12.8 flying hours per week, 52 weeks a year, for three straight years.
The second case works out to 9.6 flying hours per week, 52 weeks a year, for three straight years.
I must be missing something here. Sounds more like they might mean total career flying time, which sounds more likely for a couple of young Majors.
Can someone explain how pilots can accrue 2,000 or 1,500 flying hours in a 3 yr. assignment?
Good catch. I will see what 8 Wing has to say about it, I took the figures directly from The Maple Leaf article.
If you imagine that a C-17 Globemaster flies from the USA to Iraq every day, the trip would be about 14 hours (give or take) of air time. If you did one shuttle trip a week you would accumulate 28 flying hours per week. Lets say the pilot does 1 trip every 2 weeks you have about 26 trips a year at 28 hours flying time. That would be 728 flight hours. Toss in some training at home in between and you could get about 800 hours in a year. I'm not saying that they did this, but for a transport aircraft the distances and times are huge, so accumulating a number of hours per year would not be unusual I imagine.
That's also a possibility. AMC's C-17 regs indicate that the max FDP (flight duty period) for an un-augmented crew is 16 hours. But there are all kinds of other restrictions that may come into play to restrict flight time or crew availability, like:
- home station night launch missions greater than 4hr duration
- lack of optimum crew rest facilities (quiet, cool, darkened -- there's the union to be in!) at stopover/destination locations.
- Off-station missions four or more time zones from home station.
- Missions that run consistently near a 14hr duty day.
I haven't heard anything from 8Wg PAffO yet but will advise when I do.
Capt (Ret). Brian Koshul, 1st Canadian Air Div, relates the following points from Major Reynolds himself:
- He has logged about 6,000 career military flying hours so far.
- The 1,500 C-17 hours were logged over threee years flying missions in OEF and OIF, approximately 500hrs per year.
- Airlifters fly many more hours per annum than fighter/strike pilots.
- CF C-130 pilots in Afstan are logging about 450hrs per year.
- USAF AMC strat-lift pilots are logging up to 900hrs per annum.
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