Instructor pilot earns safety award

Published Jan. 22, 2007
By TSgt M. Davis
Public Affairs

Vance Air Force Base, Okla. -- Quick thinking and good emergency training earned a 25th Flying Training Squadron instructor a wing safety award recently.
Maj Jeff Bakken, 25th FTS assistant director of operations, received the 71st Flying Training Wing Flying Safety Award for safely landing a T-38C aircraft that experienced instrument malfunctions on a night training flight in August.
The evening began as a routine training flight. Major Bakken and his student pilot, 2nd Lt David Sproehnle, were about 30 minutes into their evening flight and descending around St. Louis, when the aircraft's navigational controls stopped working.
The plane's Embedded Global Positioning System instruments failed, which rendered the primary controls useless, the major said.
Normally, this wouldn't have been a problem if it happened during the daytime, but it was at night with overcast skies. With the plane's primary attitude gone, the pilots had no way of knowing if the plane was flying levelly, he said.
"It was very cloudy in St. Louis, and I didn't want to land the aircraft in bad weather," Major Bakken explained. "We had to land in a place with better weather within the fuel constraints of the aircraft."
Their alternate plan meant flying to Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., about 160 miles away.
"My first instinct was not to panic," said Lieutenant Sproehnle. "During our pre-flight briefing, we were told what to do in case of an emergency, so we kept our heads and stuck to that plan."
The major and lieutenant kept in close contact with the Kansas City Center and Whiteman AFB aircraft control tower to help them navigate the aircraft to the runway.
"I couldn't see the runway, so the Whiteman tower folks turned the runway lights on full blast," said the instructor pilot from Issaquah, Wash. "They did a great job of getting us on the ground safely."
This was definitely a learning experience for Lieutenant Sproehnle, a fledgling pilot from Independence, Ky.
"I've learned to know what to do in case of an emergency and take corrective action, but most importantly to plan before you take off," the lieutenant said. "Major Bakken did a great job. He used all of the resources available and asked me for any inputs during the incident."
The major uses his experience to help teach his students in future classes.
"This isn't something that happens too often, so it's a good learning tool," Major Bakken said. "We receive a lot of good emergency training. So when something unexpected happens, we have our training to fall back on."
Lt Col Robert Weiland, 25th FTS director of operations, was not surprised by the major's quick action during the experience.
"He lost 90 percent of their navigational capabilities at night, in bad weather, with a student pilot in the front seat, but he handled it well and made all the right decisions," the lieutenant colonel said. "That's why we practice emergency training situations until it becomes ingrained in us."