C-5 flight engineer training finishes transition to Lackland AFB

Published April 10, 2007
By Senior Airman Aldric Borders
97th AMW Public Affairs

ALTUS AFB, Okla. -- After more than 38 years of training flight engineers for the Air Force's largest airframe, Altus Air Force Base said goodbye April 6, as it graduated its last C-5 flight engineer class, passing the training torch to the 356th Airlift Squadron and 733rd Training Squadron at Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.

According to Bob Starchman, FlightSafety Service Corporation training manager who is in charge of all C-5 classroom and simulator training, the 56th Airlift Squadron produced more than 800 C-5 pilots, loadmasters and flight engineers every year for the past two decades.

The move from Altus AFB to Lackland AFB has been in the making for several years, but much of the physical relocation of C-5 flight engineer training for FlightSafety Corporation began in January, said Mr. Starchman.

Now that C-5 flight engineer instruction is underway at Lackland AFB, Mr. Starchman expects the training pace and output to be at the previous Altus AFB levels by April 16.