Maine Gov. John Baldacci says the Air National Guard has failed to respond to questions raised about proposed low-level training flights over Western Maine, prompting him, in a Nov. 13 letter to ANG director Lt. Gen. Harry Wyatt III, to register his “opposition to this proposal.” In late August, Baldacci asked the Air Guard to delay a Sept. 2 public hearing on the Condor military operating area plan for at least six to nine months and to address a “series of questions regarding the safety, noise, and environmental impacts.” ANG delayed for 60 days, holding the latest public hearing Nov. 14 in Farmington, Maine. According to Baldacci, Wyatt responded to him only with rationale for “doing no further analysis.” The Air Guard has maintained it needs the additional low-level route to provide adequate training principally for ANG F-15 and F-16 units in Massachusetts and Vermont.
The Air Force is on track to reach its annual goal of graduating 1,500 new pilots that had proved elusive to this point, one year after the service launched a sweeping overhaul of its undergraduate pilot training program, Air Education and Training Command said Sept. 14.
