By GARRICK FELDMAN
Leader executive editor
When Col. Mark Czelusta, 314th Airlift Wing commander, introduced several members of his world-champion air rodeo team, they received a standing ovation Wednesday at the Little Rock Air Force Base Community Council luncheon.
“This was not a one-wing effort. It was the entire community,” Czelusta told community council members at their quarterly luncheon at the Jacksonville Community Center. “We’re proud to call central Arkansas home. This is home to us.”
Czelusta and his team won six first-place trophies at last month’s international air rodeo competition, taking home the Gen. Joe W. Kelly Trophy for best C-130 team at the Air Mobility Command rodeo at McChord Airfield on Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash.
The 314th Airlift Wing, flying the oldest C-130E in the rodeo, won five other awards:
Best C-130 Team
Best C-130 Airdrop
Best C-130 Aircrew Award
Best C-130 Maintenance Skills Team
Best C-130 Maintenance Team and
Best Overall Maintenance Skills Team
Czelusta thanked the council for its support and for opening the skies of Arkansas to C-130 trainers from all over the world. He said the base couldn’t function without community support and thanked the council for its financial support of the rodeo.
Several other commanders spoke to the community council and discussed the avionics modernization program and the addition of a new Air Force Reserve Command that will include hundreds of reservists and civilian employees, adding millions of dollars into the local economy.
AMPs installed
on older planes
Col. Steve Eggensberger, commander of the 189th Air National Guard Wing, told the council that three C-130s have arrived at the base with the new avionics. The first class of students has graduated after training on the modified planes.
The 189th will primarily train students in the C-130H-AMP variants — C-130s upgraded by Boeing’s avionic modernization program, which includes the installation of a modern digital glass cockpit similar to those on commercial Boeing airliners.
The AMPs cost about $7 million each to install, or about one tenth the cost of a new C-130J. Boeing is modifying some 500 airplanes, which could fly for another 30 years.
The upgrade includes all-new cockpits with new front windows, night-vision imaging and a new navigation system, which eliminates the navigator and other crew members.
Several flight simulators are being installed to train crews on many of the C-130s outfitted with the new AMPs.
Eggensberger said the Guard received nine C-130s from other bases as part of the base realignment and closure program.
Reserve Command
Put in place
Col. Edsel (Archie) Fry, commander of the new Air Force Reserve Command, told the community council that plans are well under way for the unit to start training reservists on older C-130H models.
The training mission will include about 700 reservists and support staff. The Reserves will primarily handle training in the older models that haven’t been modified.
The reserve unit, which is to be activated as a group, will include 18 full-time crews and 18 part-time crews, all of them instructor-qualified.
Many of those jobs will pay more than $70,000 a year, Frye said.
Air Force Reserve Command will eventually have 10 C-130Hs, while the 189th will have nine planes.
As older C-130E models are retired, a fleet of newer C-130Hs is arriving at the base for Guard and Reserve training. Those units will be the only ones with older C-130s on base.
Active-duty units with the 19th and the 314th Airlift Wings will consist entirely of the new C130Js.
The new Reserve unit will be associated with ANG’s 189th Airlift Wing. In 2013, when the Reserve unit is at or near full strength, the 314th will “hand the baton” to the 189th as the lead wing for the older C-130 training mission, alongside the Reserve unit.
The 314th AW will still have a hand in training the older aircrews at the wing’s 714th Training Squadron for classroom instruction and simulator training.
Capt. Joe Knable of Little Rock Air Force Base contributed to this report.
