AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2022 - 26

SAFETY SPOTLIGHT
Train like you fight
Extraordinary performance is built on layers
of routine training
BY RICHARD MCSPADDEN / Senior Vice President, AOPA
Air Safety Institute / AOPA Foundation Legacy Society member
I DISCONNECTED FROM the air-to-air refueling boom and slid my
F-15 to the wing of the KC-10 refueling tanker, a military version of
the McDonnell-Douglas DC-10, to watch the rest of my flight gulp
their fuel. In the darkness, I could just make out the silhouette of the
massive tanker. Out the other side of my cockpit, wing pilots' glowing
green formation lights glared at me through the darkness, like a
predator's beady eyes. We were flying east over the Mediterranean
Sea in the final hours of our 12-hour flight from Langley Air Force
Base, Virginia, to Azraq, Jordan. At the far end of the Mediterranean,
a speck of sunlight spilled across the night blanket, saturating the
darkness as it moved toward us, arousing the brilliant colors of the
Med. The spectacular sunrise ended the most demanding segment
of our flight and marked just a couple hours flight-time remaining.
I knew from early in the planning that the flight would be one
of the most memorable events of my life. In the days leading up to
the trip, we packed and re-packed our cockpits, spending hours
to test different layouts. We stuffed provisions in logical locations
to fly single-pilot, with no autopilot, for half a day, in a space just
larger than an executive office chair, sans the cushions. We brought
" go " pills, approved by the U.S. Air Force flight surgeon and the
FAA to help sustain us through the night; reams of paper charts,
airport guides, approach plates, a couple of boxed lunches, flashlights,
and survival gear.
We departed Langley at midday East Coast time to ensure a daylight
landing in Jordan. We rendezvoused with air-to-air refueling
tankers 100 miles east, over the Atlantic, sipped some gas to test our
refueling systems, and settled in for the long trek. Behind us, several
more groups of tankers and fighters funneled through the departure
fix on the same route, taking their place in a conga line of more than
30 U.S. Air Force jets that stretched more than 100 miles.
We raced east toward the darkness racing west toward us.
Darkness swallowed us, then later, weather wrapped us, and a
mundane flight grew intense. We tightened our four-ship formations
and, when the weather thickened, obscuring visibility with
the tanker, the mission commander called for IMC refueling operations
and a delicate moon-walk commenced.
As flights finished refueling, they moved to the right side of
the tanker. Flight leads directed wing pilots' radars in standby to
reduce interference, called for close formation, then moved high
on the tanker's right wing. They slid to a mile or so in trail of the
26
AOPA PILOT / July 2022
tanker and stabilized there, maintaining spacing with a radar lock.
Nothing happened quickly, every move deliberate, methodical,
predictable.
Once the retreating flight was established high, right, and
receding, the next flight to refuel would slide forward in close
finger-tip formation, staying low of the tanker. Closing blind below
a McDonnell Douglas DC-10 in thick weather, you first begin to
hear the rumble of its engines, then you feel a slight shudder, turbulence
from exhaust, and the edge of the DC-10's wake. Still blind
on the tanker, wing pilots tucked in close, you walk the throttles
in teeny increments, creeping forward until the brightly lit behemoth
emerges from the muck, like an alien space ship beamed in
front of you, filling your wind screen. It's hard not to gasp. The edginess
gives way to relief and then preoccupation with the business
at hand, refueling checklists and tasks.
We orchestrated the shuffle a couple times during the night
and eventually moved through the weather into clear night
skies that gave way to the glorious sunrise over the Med. We
cruised south, over the Sinai Peninsula, across the gulfs of Suez
and Aqaba, around Israel and into Jordan. We landed at Azraq,
tired, proud, thankful.
Thankful for hard-nosed instructors and demanding training.
We layered skills honed from hours and hours of " routine " training
events to complete a complex and demanding mission, much
of it in a state a physician might formally label " fatigue. " Night,
instrument, formation, night formation, IMC radar trail, air-toair
refueling, night air-to-air refueling, IMC air-to-air refueling,
inter-flight coordination.
At the time of each training event, we had no knowledge that
we would one day use these skills under such pressure, but we
trained with a mantra: " Train like you fight. "
That paradigm wasn't just about the physical environment,
it was as much about the mental approach to training. It proved
invaluable, probably lifesaving. Simulate as best you can the " realworld "
environment in training. Search for instructors with
exacting standards. One day, you may need those skills in more
demanding conditions than
you can simulate.
Go fly.
richard.mcspadden@aopa.org
RICHARD MCSPADDEN
leads the AOPA Air Safety
Institute.
AOPA Pilot Magazine - July 2022

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