combat aircraft

F

IFTY YEARS AGO, C-5A Galaxy

serial 66-8303 rolled down the

runway at Lockheed’s Marietta

plant in Georgia and into the

sky with test pilot Leo J. Sullivan

at the controls. That first flight

by ‘8303 heavy’ on June 30, 1968, marked

the start of a quantum leap forward in the

USAF’s airlift capacity.

The USAF went on to receive an

incredible 81 C-5As. A subsequent airlift

shortfall resulted in the restart of

production and a further 50

C-5Bs being delivered between

January 1986 and March 1989.

Today, the 22nd Airlift

Squadron, part of the 60th

Air Mobility Wing, is one of the

largest users of the C-5M — the

Galaxy with new avionics and new

engines, and the ultimate incarnation

of this mammoth aircraft.

The Galaxy has supported many

operations over the last two decades,

moving vast amounts of equipment and

thousands of people in support of major

campaigns such as Operations ‘Enduring

Freedom’, ‘Iraqi Freedom’ and ‘New Dawn’

in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The 22nd AS is located at Travis AFB in

northern California. It briefly flew both

the C-5B and C-5M, but since the first

C-5M flew from here in May 2014 the

tide has gradually turned in favor of the

upgraded version. The 22nd currently

flies 17 C-5Ms at Travis and is awaiting

a single example from the modification

line for its full complement.

The 22nd AS mission statement is for

the unit to, ‘Provide world-class global

strategic airlift — safe and on-time’. As

the Department of Defense’s only purely

strategic airlifter, the 22nd’s C-5s can

transport more equipment, supplies, and

personnel farther than any other aircraft

the US has at its disposal. It’s a capability

that has been greatly expanded due to

the advent of the C-5M.

Capt Matt Wangler is a pilot assigned

to the unit. ‘With aerial refueling we can

reach any part of the globe. The reason we

can provide such a remarkable capacity

safely and on time is due to the culture

that we have in our squadron. Each and

every one of the crew is a dedicated

professional, and we all understand the

key roles that we each play in executing

our mission well.’

Another pilot, Capt Joel Loftus,

continues, ‘The majority of C-5M training

takes place at the formal training unit

[FTU] at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland

Kelly Field in Texas. However, the 22nd

trains pilots in tactics, aircraft commander

upgrades, evaluator upgrades, and

occasionally performs in-unit upgrades for

air refueling and instructor pilots.

‘On average between 15 to 20 new pilots

come to the squadron each year, but we

probably have about 40 to 50 training

upgrades that we accomplish per annum.

Students are selected to fly the C-5 out of

undergraduate pilot training [UPT] based

on their performance and their dream

sheets. We also receive pilots from C-21s

and first-assignment instructor pilots

from the UPT.’

At the time of writing, Wangler had been

flying the C-5M for around 30 months.

‘I attended undergraduate pilot training

at Laughlin Air Force Base in Texas from

2011 to 2012’, he says. ‘After a hiatus from

flying I was selected to fly the C-5M in the

spring of 2015 and have been flying it

operationally since December of that year.

‘The C-5M is an awe-inspiring airplane.

The eyes of those unfamiliar with it are

often glued to the sky when they see it fly,

as they ask themselves how something so

large is able to stay in the air. Remarkably,

the aircraft itself handles similarly to any

other transport aircraft. From the pilot’s

seat, it’s often very easy to forget that you

have almost 250ft of airplane behind you.’

Heavyweight training

Student pilots are typically selected

to fly the C-5 based on the needs of

the community. Each type in service

generally undergoes a constant flux of

airmen coming into and leaving that

community. Each newly winged aviator

out of UPT is given a list of aircraft

to choose from and can rank their

preferences. The C-5 family is quite small

in comparison to others in the air force,

so opportunities to fly the Galaxy don’t

come around as often as many other

This image:

C-5M serial

87-0030,

callsign ‘Fred

31’, drops

away from a

KC-10A after

performing

multiple dry

contacts

over the

Californian

coast.

Right: A C-5M

on short

finals to land

at Travis.

The 22nd AS

currently has

17 aircraft

assigned.

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74-79 22nd AS C.indd 75 21/06/2018 13:52