Phase 2 says goodbye Wicked, hello Dogface

  • Published
  • By Capt. Tony Wickman
  • Public Affairs
Vance Air Force Base, Okla. --  After nearly six months of flying at Perry (Okla.) Municipal Airport, Vance Joint Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training is moving its Phase 2 training back to an old familiar site.
On Oct. 12, the 71st Flying Training wing accepted Kegelman Auxiliary Air Field from the contractor renovating the runway and began flight operations Monday.
"From the aviators to the RAPCON guys to the support folks, we are happy Kegelman is back up," said Maj. David Bullock, 71st Operations Group standardization and evaluation. "Kegelman is resuming normal operations. We have instructor pilots who have never been to Kegelman and all the students in training right now have never been there, but for those who have been here eight to 10 months this is old hat."
According to the major, there were more than 16,500 T-6 and T-37 operations at Perry, given the distinct radio call sign "Wicked" in honor of it being the home to Ditch Witch and playing off the Wizard of Oz, between April 27 and Oct. 12.
The use of Perry's airport could not be understated in how valuable it was for Vance to continue its pilot training mission, said Major Bullock.
"It allowed us to continue training our Phase 2 JSUPT syllabus students at a commiserate level with Kegelman not being open," said Major Bullock. "If you take away an auxiliary field from Phase 2 training, you end up trying to stuff all that training in the Eastside pattern back here. It would become over saturated and people wouldn't get the level of training they needed.
"They would still get events, but they wouldn't get nearly as many events, like straight-ins or emergency landing patterns--the things that we traditionally do at auxiliary fields," said the major "It would be a quantity training issue...they would still get the same training but the number of events and attempts at the runway would have gone down."
As for what impact Vance flight operations had on the Perry airport, Major Bullock said there weren't any reported negatives.
"There was zero impact to any civilians using the airport," he said. "We worked with the City of Perry and did an education piece to ensure everyone knew what we would be doing. If there was civilian traffic needing access to the airport, we would climb 500 feet above our normal pattern altitude and allow them to come and do what they needed to do and then resumed our training."
Overall, takeoffs equaled landings and there were no hazardous air traffic reports or grievances filed against any Vance flights, said the major.
According to Major Bullock, the support the base received from the city and the airport was phenomenal.
For Ty Engel, Perry airport manager, operations were fantastic during the transition period and everyone from the city was enthused with the Air Force being there.
"It was a fantastic relationship and the City of Perry would welcome the Air Force back any time," said Mr. Engel. "I think if you need the field, it is here for your use. I think it was a great training area and the experience was fantastic."
The airport also gained from the experience, said Mr. Engel.
"Your operations here will hopefully help us get more grant money for our airport," he said. "Besides, it was a good break from the normal here. It was nice to have you guys here. We had quite a few people when you first started to come and see what was going, but as time went on it slowed down."
The reason Kegelman, given the radio call sign "Dogface," was down was because of structural repair to the runway.
Over the years, Kegelman was on every commander's list to be refurbished, but it continued to be on the bottom of the rack and stack list. Due to the deterioration, however, it became a top item to get funded last year.
According to Stan Willoughby, Computer Sciences Corporation chief engineer, this is the first major renovation of Kegelman since it was turned from a dirt strip into a concrete runway.
"It was what we call a sustainment, restoration and modernization project that cost us about $7.1 million," said Mr. Willoughby. "It provides an airstrip that will be maintenance free for awhile and should last 20-25 years. Until we did this repair, the training was periodically interrupted for repairs because of the deteriorating concrete."
Besides being completed ahead of schedule, the new runway represents a significant cost savings to the American taxpayer.
"This is an asphalt overlay and used a process called rubblization," said Mr. Willoughby. "We are the first base in the command to use this technology and it was encouraged by the command. It would have cost between $21 and $22 million for a complete rebuild made out of concrete that would have lasted about 50 years. This cost us about $7 million and is good for about 25 years."
Rubblization is a construction technique that breaks deteriorated Portland cement concrete pavement into pieces used as the base for a smooth, safe, quiet, durable pavement constructed of hot mix asphalt. Instead of becoming waste, the rubbilized roadbed is left in place to be a part of the new structure so it does not have to be trucked off to a landfill, another cost savings.
As for going back to Perry, Major Bullock said there are no current plans but that could change.
"In the current structure, we probably are not going back to Perry," said the major. "There is an initiative for transformation for JSUPT, however, so never say never."