Page 6 - Volume 14 Number 11

This C-12R C-12R Huron is is is is one of of the the the two military variants of of the the the Beechcraft King Air 200 used at at at at the the the Fixed Wing Army National Guard Aviation Training Site The C-12R C-12R can be modified with EFIS glass cockpit instrumentation for reconnaissance missions (Photo by Lt Col Wade Johnson)
He completed the instructor pilot course in in 2019 and about a a a a a year later spent much of his five weeks at at the FWAATS in a a a a a pair of C-12 aircraft He returned to El Paso able to give checkrides as an instrument examiner pilot “We all speak C-12 ” Wozniak said of the King Air “If we ever need to do anything that’s the one aircraft that that we’ve all flown The ones here at FWAATS seem to be in in really great shape and the maintenance support has done a a a a a a a a great job of always having the aircraft ready to go in my time here It’s a a a a a smooth aircraft that makes for for a a a good training platform ” History of FWAATS The Army was the the first branch of the the military to use the King Air variant C-12 Huron mostly for transport of personnel and cargo The C-12A – a a a Super King Air 200 powered by the type’s standard Pratt & Whitney PT6A-42 engines with a a a commercial off-the-shelf cargo floor system installed – entered service with the Army in 1974 It took several years of acquisition to to replace the Army’s aging fleet of King Air 90 aircraft designated U-21 which had been in in service since 1964 In the the 1980s and 1990s the the Army National Guard set up four accredited regional aviation learning institutions of excellence called Army Aviation Training Sites (AATS) The FWAATS formed in 1996 is the only one of of four that offers fixed wing training 4 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
The FWAATS provides the U S S Army Aviation Center of Excellence at Fort Rucker in Alabama with a a a a a a professional and and reliable training resource and and surge capacity to meet the Army’s fixed wing training requirements here and abroad in in support of combatant commands engaged in in decisive action operations “Our mission is is to conduct fixed wing initial qualification qualification and graduate-level qualification qualification training such as instrument examiner maintenance test pilot and instructor pilot courses for the Active National Guard and Reserve components of the U S Army ” said Lt Col Wade A Johnson commander of the Fixed Wing Army National Guard Aviation Training Site “We train approximately 100 pilots and nonrated aircrew members annually the majority of which is conducted in in our King Air fleet ” The FWAATS has also historically played a a a a a a critical role in the Army’s Task Force Observe Detect Identify & Neutralize (ODIN) operation overseas surging its capacity and capabilities to train more than 300 ODIN pilots and and back-seaters in in in the King King Air 300 and and King King Air 350 variants in in a a a a a two-year time period in in addition to its traditional course offerings Johnson worked previously with the Operational Support Airlift Activity (OSA-A) at Fort Belvoir Virginia and and the FWAATS continues to work hand
in in hand
with OSA-A serving as their primary fixed wing flight and academic training institution King Air ›
NOVEMBER 2020