Team Vance T-6 transition begins Published Nov. 27, 2006 By Site Activation Task Force 71st FTW Vance Air Force Base, Okla. -- The T-6 transition on Vance Air Force Base hit new milestones this month as training aircraft and simulators began to arrive. The first three simulators arrived Monday and the first two T-6 aircraft are expected as soon as the weather breaks. The aircraft will be used as ground trainers for maintenance personnel. They will not be flown, but are instead used for hands-on learning as part of a two-month training program covering all aspects of the T-6. "The contractor for the program, L3 Comm, will conduct classes in the areas of aircraft fueling, power plant maintenance, life support and crash recovery," said Capt Mitchell Johnson, 71st Flying Training Wing Site Activation Task Force member. "The classes will conclude during the first week of March and Vance (AFB) will begin receiving its first flyable aircraft at that time." Additionally, the new T-6 simulators delivered to the 71st Operations Group, Bldg. 672, will be going through a set-up and testing process over the next few weeks. Lear Siegler, Inc., which now has instructors trained in the T-6, will conduct its own transition for T-37 simulator drivers on the new T-6 training devices. Currently, several pilots from the 8th and 5th Flying Training Squadrons are attending instructor pilot transition training in the T-6 at Randolph AFB, Texas. They will return in February and begin preparing for Phase I student training which will begin in April. These first T-6 student trainees will hit the flight line in May. "Team Vance has spent months preparing for all aspects of the T-6," said Maj Doug Antcliff, T-6 SATAF chief. "I'd like to thank civil engineering, maintenance, RAPCON, physiology and life support, as well as all the other agencies that have helped the transition flow so smoothly." Any questions concerning the T-6 can be directed to the SATAF office at 7336.