Klamath Falls, Ore. – F-15 pilots at Kingsley Field will continue night flight training next week – but that doesn’t mean the base shuts down during the day.
“During the night flying week, the base is not quiet during the day.” Explains Master Sergeant Jennifer Shirar of the Oregon Air National Guard.
A lot of preparation goes into the hour and a half night flights.
“At a minimum, there’s an hour long briefing that takes place before hand.” Says U.S. Air Force Captain Patrick Odell. “And then it’s a hour or so of running a pre-flight with an aircraft to get it ready to fly at night.”
Shirar adds that classroom and simulator training continues during the day. “We have all the support sides still operating, doing the basic support function, and then maintenance and ops still have a job to do during the day.”
“On the maintenance side, we’re prepping the aircraft for flight.” Notes Master Sergeant Bryan Johnson of the Oregon Air National Guard. “We’re doing pre-flights, refuels, fixing anything that breaks.”
Captain Odell points out that the job isn’t over after the fighters land. “We’ll debrief for an hour to two hours depending on how the sortie went.”
Night flight training will resume Monday, and will continue through Wednesday of next week.
The majority of the night flight training takes place in military airspace over eastern Lake county.
The f-15’s return to Kingsley Field by 10 p.m.
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