Members of the Connecticut Air National Guard’s 103rd Airlift Wing at Bradley ANG Base in East Granby recently spent a day with a C-27J transport. L-3 and Alenia, the C-27J industry team, sponsored the visit to Bradley, one of the Air Guard sites selected to operate the new tactical airlifter. The wing currently flies C-21s; its first C-27 is scheduled to arrive in the latter part of 2013. “It was awesome. I’ve never seen a cockpit that nice in my life. Everything is glass, everything is automated, it flies real smooth,” said Maj. Josh Panis, one of the wing’s pilots, in describing his experience aboard the aircraft. The Oct. 22 visit to Bradley followed a similar familiarization day eight days earlier at Fargo, N.D., home of the 119th Wing. The North Dakota unit is slated to begin C-27 operations in early 2013. (Bradley report by TSgt. Joshua Mead)
Members of the Air Force Reserve’s 920th Rescue Wing helped save 11 airplane crash survivors off the coast of Florida on May 12. The Reserve Airmen were flying an HC-130J Combat King II and an HH-60W Jolly Green II on a routine training flight when a Coast Guard call diverted…