{"id":33831,"date":"2018-03-14T21:10:05","date_gmt":"2018-03-14T21:10:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/uncategorized\/2018\/03\/14\/t-6-hypoxia-fix-on-the-way-but-grounding-hurt-pilot-training-pipeline\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T20:57:06","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T20:57:06","slug":"t-6-hypoxia-fix-on-the-way-but-grounding-hurt-pilot-training-pipeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/airforcetimes\/news\/your-air-force\/2018\/03\/14\/t-6-hypoxia-fix-on-the-way-but-grounding-hurt-pilot-training-pipeline\/","title":{"rendered":"T-6 hypoxia fix on the way, but grounding hurt pilot training pipeline"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 The Air Force\u2019s training command will now likely graduate 1,109 new pilots this year, a 10 percent drop from what it originally expected, due to a rash of physiological episodes in the service\u2019s T-6 turboprop plane<\/a> used for basic pilot training.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier this year, the service grounded all T-6 Texan flights for almost a month after an increased number of unexplained physiological episodes<\/a>, in which pilots exhibited symptoms of oxygen deprivation or other oxygen-related<\/a> physical problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of the Air Force\u2019s T-6s should be back in the skies as early as this summer after the service makes a couple fixes to key parts on each aircraft\u2019s onboard oxygen generating system, or OBOGS, Gen. Dave Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff, told lawmakers Wednesday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The service is on track to return 275 of all 444 operational T-6 aircraft to flight status by the end of the month, Goldfein told members of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got over 2 million safe flying hours, but we had a series of incidents that happened in a short time frame that caused us to stop, ground the fleet, and put a team of engineers and operators together to go in and look at the entire system and pull it apart,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd what we\u2019ve found is that there were three parts of the system that were actually failing at a much higher rate than we had anticipated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo we put our actions to go replace those parts. As those parts come in and we complete those actions, those airplanes are getting back in the air.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, some damage has already been done to the Air Force\u2019s pilot training pipeline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Col. Lee Gentile, deputy commander of the 71st Flying Training Wing at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma, said in a Wednesday email that Air Education and Training Command originally expected to graduate 1,235 new pilots in fiscal 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The nearly month-long grounding cost the command as many as 14,000 sorties, Gentile said. Last month, Lt. Gen. Mark Nowland, deputy chief of staff for operations, told lawmakers that AETC was losing about 700 sorties a day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That means AETC will now likely graduate only 1,109 new pilots this year \u2015 a 10 percent drop from what it originally expected and another blow to the Air Force as it struggles to correct a 2,000-pilot shortfall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Air Force Materiel Command head Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, who spoke to reporters earlier on Wednesday, said the root cause of the physiological episodes is still unknown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the service is implementing a three-phase approach to try to ameliorate the episodes, which could variously be categorized as hypoxia, hypocapnia, hypercapnia or other medical conditions that leave pilots short of breath and in danger of passing out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first measure includes going into every aircraft\u2019s onboard oxygen generating system, examining it for wear and tear, and making repairs as necessary, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein speaks during the State of the Air Force address at the Pentagon, Washington, D.C., Nov. 9, 2017. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Rusty Frank)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As Goldfein explained to lawmakers, there are three parts identified by the service as particularly problematic that will be replaced on every T-6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019re finding issues with some of the parts,\u201d Pawlikowski said. \u201cWe\u2019re finding moisture in the condensers that shouldn\u2019t be there. We\u2019re finding valves that are sticking. All of those things are things that we\u2019re fixing, and we\u2019re looking at what\u2019s the right cycle, the number of hours before we replace the different components in them. We have a cycle, it\u2019s 4,500 hours. Is that the right one?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond making changes to the OBOGS, the service is conducting additional training to educate pilots on how to identify potential physiological problems and what to do in that situation. It\u2019s also considering equipping T-6 aircraft with an automated backup system that would provide oxygen through the old-school method of onboard oxygen bottles, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In April at Edwards Air Force Base in California, the Air Force will run a series of tests with two T-6 aircraft: One that had caused physiological episodes, and one that had not. Those aircraft will be rigged with instrumentation that will allow the service to gather data about what is happening in the aircraft and what factors could be causing the issues, Pawlikowski said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy gut says that the aging of the aircraft has caused something to change in the inlet air that goes into the OBOGs that we haven\u2019t adjusted, or there\u2019s something that we have changed in the guts of the OBOGS over the years that maybe a change could fix,\u201d she said. \u201cBut that\u2019s the engineer in me.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the AETC side, the 19th Air Force held a conference to find innovative ideas for making up some of those 14,000 lost sorties, Gentile said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a follow-up email, Gentile said those ideas include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2666 Creating a \u201ccollaborative classroom construct,\u201d similar to the methods used by online universities, that combines self-study, instructional videos and instructor-led discussions, tailored to each officer\u2019s individual learning needs and style.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2666 Focusing more training on the skills needed in the operational Air Force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2666 Providing students with additional simulator training before their first flight, and expecting them to complete more tasks in the aircraft sooner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2666 Giving students more responsibility for their own training, \u201cwhich will better prepare them for the expectations in their operational squadrons.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe command is optimistic that the OBOGS challenge may provide an opportunity to help transform our pipeline forward, overcome a portion of the lost sorties, and inform us on what the future of pilot training might look like,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New challenges for pilot production<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To fix the pilot shortfall, the Air Force is concentrating on trying to produce more pilots and improve pilot retention, Goldfein said. He expects the service to be on steadier ground by 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Air Force is gradually ramping up its pilot production, Goldfein said, and will be able to graduate 1,400 pilots per year by 2020. He said the T-6 grounding is largely responsible for the Air Force falling short of that this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same congressional hearing, Secretary Heather Wilson said the Air Force doesn\u2019t have a shortage of people who want to become Air Force pilots, but squadrons can only absorb and train so many young pilots after they\u2019ve finished their initial training. The fact that the service now has only 56 fighter squadrons is one factor limiting pilot production..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf a fighter squadron has half of its people who are brand new pilots, it\u2019s hard to season them,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n\n\n\t