MCSO SEIZES NEGLECTED ANIMALS IN TONOPAH, PAGE 4
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Bombs away
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Luke AFB drops 1st training bombs in F-35 by Emily Toepfer
I SPI
assistant editor
This week’s featured pet is Spi, a brown tabby cat — Page 10.
SWING INTO SPRING
View photo by Jordan Christopher
Sports coverage starts on Page 11.
A SKYDIVER with the Wings of Blue U.S. Air Force Skydiving Team jumps March 17 at the Buckeye Municipal Airport. The team will be practicing at the airport through March 27.
NEAR DROWNING
Sky diving to success
Boy, 3, stable after pulled from pool — Page 4.
Wings of Blue skydivers train at Buckeye Airport by Emily Toepfer
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Even after jumping out of an airplane hundreds of times, there’s still something new to experience when you’re a member of the Wings of Blue U.S. Air Force Skydiving Team. The Wings of Blue will be jumping from about 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. through March 27 at the Buckeye Municipal Airport, 3000 S. Palo Verde Road in Buckeye. The team, made up of 25 staff members and 50 cadets from the United States Air Force Academy, typically trains during March at the Gila Bend Auxiliary Field, but its runway is being repaired, said Lt. Col. Anthony Mincer, commander of Air Education and Training Command’s 98th Flying Training Squadron. Last week’s jumpers consisted mostly of staff, including Master Sgt. Samantha Francis, who has been with the Wings of Blue for almost a year and is an instructor for the basic parachuting course at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. She’s jumped more than 100 times with the Wings of Blue and done a total of 650 jumps, but March 17 marked the first time she’s performed while presenting a flag. It requires minor adjustments from a normal jump in order to keep the flag from spinning and to make sure it’s being presented in a way that’s
pleasing to the crowd, Francis said. “When you practice something and work really hard collectively with your team and all of you go out and you do it — to me, that gets me motivated,” she said. The Wings of Blue perform about 40 demonstrations a year and participate in 15 to 20 air shows, Mincer said. The team only trains away from Colorado a few times a year during the cadets’ academic breaks, he said. About 60 cadets joined the training this week, which will increase the number of jumps to about 400 a day, Mincer said. Cadets need to have 500 jumps in order to obtain a professional demonstration rating with the United States Parachute Association, he said. “You don’t get good in two or three jumps; it takes about 500 to really know what you’re doing,” Mincer said. “Part of the reason for being down here is to build up those jump numbers and get experience for these cadets so they can be very precise in how they land. So when we go to air shows around the country or jump into football stands or baseball stadiums, that these cadets are very safe and accurate in their landings.” (See Skydiving on Page 3)
Luke Air Force Base took another step with its F-35 program last week when two aircraft successfully dropped four inert laser-guided bombs on the Barry M. Goldwater Range, about 70 miles southwest of the Valley. It was the first weapons release by F-35s assigned to the Glendale base, said Kiley Dougherty, chief of media relations for the base. The exercise gives Luke’s instructor and student pilots an opportunity to experience realistic training, she said. Maj. Matthew Strongin, 62nd Fighter Squadron weapons chief, was one of two pilots who employed the bombs at the range and said it marks a shift in the training focus at Luke. “The previous years centered on building instructor pilot cadre,” he said. “We are now focused on producing combat capable war fighters for the front-line fighter squadrons in the Air Force and our partner nations. Dropping fullscale munitions are a significant step forward for Luke’s instructors and students.” All instructor pilots will experience weapon drops from the aircraft in the coming weeks, and every graduate of the F-35 program at Luke will drop a 500-pound bomb before leaving the base, Strongin said.
More milestones Luke also celebrated its two-year anniversary of receiving the F-35 last week. “Two short years ago, we hadn’t flown a single F-35 sortie here,” said Lt. Col. Gregory Frana, 62nd Fighter Squadron commander. “Now, we’ve flown more than 4,000 sorties, trained pilots from the U.S., Australia, Italy and Norway.” The F-35 is expected to be in service for the next 40 to 50 years. Luke has 35 jets on base now, and 144 are scheduled to be on the ramp by 2024, Dougherty said. Over the last two years, 6,100 flight hours and 4,125 sorties have been flown in the F-35 at Luke, she said. Lt. Col. Matthew Hayden, 56th Fighter Wing chief of safety, started out as an F-35 test pilot in 2008 and was the first active-duty Air Force fighter pilot to surpass 500 flight hours in the F-35. His first two years in the program primarily focused on planning and designing future course material, with much time spent in the simulators and meetings with engineers. “My first flight didn’t happen until 2010. It was a very smooth transition because of all the time and preparation that went into my first flight,” Hayden said. “I’m excited there are so many of my fellow pilots at Luke that are very close to the same personal milestone in their F-35 flying experience, but also excited to see the program blossom with so much success.” Emily Toepfer can be reached at etoepfer@westvalleyview.com or on Twitter @EmilyToepfer.