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New Cargo Jets To Train Over Inland Northwest

By Jim Camden jimc@spokesman.com(509) 879-7461

Inland Northwest residents may get a close look at the nation’s newest military cargo plane if the Air Force gets its way. A few will get a very close look.

New C-17 jumbo jets will be flying as low as 300 feet off the ground over parts of Eastern Washington and North Idaho by the turn of the century.

Crews from McChord Air Force Base near Tacoma will trade their current cargo plane, the C-141 Starlifter, for the much larger C-17 Globemaster, starting in 1999, a base spokesman said. The crews will need to spend more time flying in Inland Northwest training routes.

“Three hundred feet is the lowest they fly over specialized areas,” said David Smith. “From that up to several thousand feet.”

The new jet flies a little bit faster, cruising at about 300 mph rather than 250 mph for current training flights. It is much bigger, carrying about 2-1/2 times more cargo - as many as 154 people, or three helicopters.

Although the new planes are quieter than the 1960s-era Starlifters, they could be flying twice as many training missions by the year 2005. That’s when McChord will have all of its 48 new planes.

Smith said he didn’t have a good estimate on the number of missions that would be.

All crews for the new jets must train for air drop maneuvers, the practice of pushing things with parachutes out the side or back of the plane. That means more flights along 10 Inland Northwest routes included in an area that stretches from Moses Lake down to Umatilla, Ore., over to Lewiston, up to Coeur d’Alene and north of Spokane, and back over to Moses Lake.

McChord will have to inform the Federal Aviation Administration of those flights, so local pilots can check when the big jets will be in the routes.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: MEETINGS Air Force officials have scheduled four meetings this month to discuss changes on their routes. The first will be held Oct. 15 at Cheney High School. Other meetings are scheduled for Oct. 16 at Lewis and Clark State College in Lewiston; Oct. 17 at Chief Moses Junior High in Moses Lake, and Oct. 18 at Franklin County PUD in Pasco. All four meetings start at 7 p.m.

This sidebar appeared with the story: MEETINGS Air Force officials have scheduled four meetings this month to discuss changes on their routes. The first will be held Oct. 15 at Cheney High School. Other meetings are scheduled for Oct. 16 at Lewis and Clark State College in Lewiston; Oct. 17 at Chief Moses Junior High in Moses Lake, and Oct. 18 at Franklin County PUD in Pasco. All four meetings start at 7 p.m.