Edwards AFB News

412th Ops and Maintenance Groups start up immersion program

  • Published
  • By Jet Fabara
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  There's a saying that goes, "you'll never know a person unless you've walked a mile in their shoes." Well, that saying is being put to practice both in the air and on the ground at Edwards with the help of the 412th Operations and Maintenance Groups.

In an initiative to give operators and maintainers the opportunity to create positive interaction so both gain insight into each other's work dynamic, commanders from both groups are collaborating to start the 412th Operations and Maintenance Immersion Program.

"The intent of this program is for our organizations to work better as a team through mutual understanding. As a member of the Operations Group, I can improve the overall performance of the Test Wing if I understand how my actions affect the Maintenance Group and their efforts to generate aircraft sorties. Conversely, a Maintenance Group teammate enhances Test Wing effectiveness by understanding Operations Group challenges and customer requirements," said Col. Christopher Azzano, 412th Operations Group commander. "So our goal is to better understand each other and to experience a little bit of the joy of doing both jobs, as well as some of the challenges involved."

With the program initially taking off in January, Col. Robert Weaver, 412th Maintenance Group commander, initiated the venture by flying on an actual flight test mission in an F-16 with Colonel Azzano at the controls of the aircraft.

"I've been in [the Air Force] for 22 years, but I have a complete new appreciation for what our operators and our pilots go through," said Weaver. "I now understand the importance and more of the details that go into the operational side of flight test. What this program will do for our young maintainers who are just starting out their careers, and how they will take that knowledge with them through the next decade or two, it's going to have a tremendous lasting impression."

After the mission, Colonel Azzano and Weaver had the opportunity to see and work a day from the maintenance side of the flightline on a separate day.

"To walk into a hangar and see dozens of people crawling over airplanes, going through hundreds of pages of tech orders and thousands of checklist items is impressive," Azzano said. "To see an airplane torn down to the skeleton, you really appreciate the skill with which our maintainers put it back together and prepare it to fly."

Just recently, the group commanders selected one operator and one maintainer to begin what they hope will be the first of many to be a part of the immersion program in which the selected maintenance group member will fly an actual flight test sortie and the selected pilot will tackle real maintenance items alongside that same maintainer they flew with.

"What's important is that we're learning to understand each other," said Weaver. "The biggest challenge between operations and maintenance, at most bases, is a lack of communication and a lack of understanding the requirements on either side. Anything that can add to the knowledge of an operator or maintainer about what the other is doing and how they contribute jointly to the Air Force Flight Test Center is going to be a good thing. This program will absolutely give both sides a better appreciation for what each other does."

As explained further by Azzano, the purpose of starting a program like this at Edwards was additionally a result of the growing workload, but the need to maximize both group's resources.

"We're in an environment of resource constraints unlike any we've known in recent history and we're being asked to sustain an incredible workload to support Department of Defense objectives," said Azzano. "To do that with fewer and fewer resources, we need to find new efficiencies that we never realized existed. A key element of that effort is to understand each other, to understand our processes and the second and third order implications of the decisions we make."

According to both commanders, the immersion program is not intended as an incentive or reward-based program, but something that will foster long-term teamwork.

"This is about leveraging some very unique skills to make us even more efficient and effective," Azzano said. "The importance of the program goes beyond flying and the experience of performing flightline or backshop maintenance. The important part is developing a bond between ops and maintenance so our dedicated crew chiefs and pilots can continue these working relationships throughout their assignments at Edwards and beyond. It's through this communication that we maintain a better understanding of our roles in fulfilling the Test Wing mission."

Although both groups plan to have the frequency of these familiarization flights occur once a month, they both want to ensure that each counterpart goes through the required amount of training beforehand.

"There's a balance between the time and the resources to promote the program and having it gain its own momentum," said Weaver. "It takes some foresight to make sure you have the right kind of sorties supporting the right kind of aircraft to maximize the benefit of this program. Same thing on the maintenance side, we want to make sure the visiting officer gets a good look at the type of maintenance activities that will most benefit them."

The first two participants to test the new initiative in the 412th Operations and Maintenance Immersion Program will be Staff Sgt. Brandin Bethel, a crew chief from the 412th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, and Maj. Matthew Hayden, 461st Flight Test Squadron test pilot.