The 155th Air Refueling Wing of the Air National Guard has been selected to house a training flight simulator at the Guard base in Lincoln, Neb. The USAF KC-135 Operational Flight Training device will provide significant training opportunities, Col. John Williams said. (155th Air Refueling Wing/Facebook)
(Tribune News Service) — The 155th Air Refueling Wing of the Air National Guard has been selected to house a training flight simulator at the Guard base in Lincoln, Neb.
The USAF KC-135 Operational Flight Training device will provide significant training opportunities, Col. John Williams said.
"The full motion KC-135 simulator provides incredibly realistic training experiences to pilots in nearly every imaginable condition," said Williams, commander of the 155th Air Refueling Wing.
The simulator is capable of recreating realistic missions while providing training for any emergency situation pilots may face while in an aircraft. Electrical problems, engine failure and loss of pressurization are just a few.
The last time Williams used it, the technician running the simulator asked where he wanted to fly, and he chose Lincoln.
"The visuals were fantastic, all the buildings you see on our base were represented," Williams said. "It felt like I was back in Lincoln."
Convenience is another benefit of the new simulator.
Currently, there are four of these devices, spread among 18 wings. If Williams wanted to use one of these simulators today, he would have to fly to Milwaukee.
Williams said he makes the trip twice a year, traveling two days and using the simulator for two days each time. With a simulator in Lincoln, the opportunities seem endless.
"Having it here, I will be able to get in that device every day that I want to," Williams said.
Plus, his newest aviators can jump in "The Box," as they call it, whenever they're having trouble.
"They can do that 365 days instead of waiting for those one or two opportunities a year."
One of the strong selling points for a simulator coming to Lincoln was centrality. Two other bases, the 185th Air Refueling Wing in Sioux City, Iowa, and the 190th Air Refueling Wing in Topeka, Kan., will both be within a three-hour drive of the simulator.
The simulator is ready, but a final decision on what building it will reside hasn't been made. Williams said the Air Guard could use a reconditioned building that was formerly considered for a simulator in the past.
Since the simulator is also considered a new mission, they could use military construction money to build a new facility for it as well.
The simulator will also create up to eight jobs locally, with government contractors needed to run the simulator and perform maintenance.
"We have an outstanding campus here. This is really going to make our outstanding facilities that much better," he said.
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