25 percent increase in AAF C-208 capacity

Published Nov. 12, 2013
By Capt. Anastasia Wasem
NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan

KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan -- Through creative thinking and happenstance, Afghan Air Force advisors with NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan discovered a way to increase passenger load by 25 percent on one AAF airframe.

Advisors with the 738th Air Expeditionary Advisory Group at Kandahar Airfield, part of NATC-A, have increased the passenger seating on the Cessna 208 from eight to 10.

"Being able to add two more passengers may not seem like a big deal, but if you look at the number of sorties saved over say a year, it's significant," stated Capt. Matt McCormack, 441st Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron advisor pilot stationed at RAF Mildenhall, England and from Dundee, Ore. "When there is a request to go into a dangerous location, being able to launch only one sortie that can carry the required passengers means you expose yourself less."

The idea to increase the load was originally thought of because of the need to load three casualty evacuation litter patients. The C-208 had previously been used to carry only two litter patients, but when McCormack and Maj. Kurt Fife, 441 AEAS director of operations, looked at the plane, they discovered that the seats were easily moveable.

"We discovered a 10-seat configuration possibility instead of the normal eight," said McCormack. "This same configuration, which means the seats are closer together, also allows for three litter patients and a medic when the excess seats are removed for a CASEVAC mission."

Although the possibility for the extra load had been discovered, gaining approval and calculating proper weights and balances proved much more challenging. It took several months to gain approval from the Air Force Program Management Office to increase the seating capacity.

Once the approval was gained, calculating the weight and balance issue became the priority.

The standard ramp load for the C-208 is 1,400 pounds of fuel, according to McCormack. This is for a passenger load of two pilots and eight passengers plus cargo. With the addition of two more passengers however, the fuel load needed to be reduced between 1,200 to 1,300 pounds.

"This doesn't affect our mission at all," said McCormack. "We can still fly to any airport in Afghanistan with only 1,200 pounds of fuel."

Once the operations piece of the puzzle was figured out, the maintenance piece had to be worked as well.

"We had to redirect how we did daily things," said Master Sgt. Bill Warren, 442 AEAS C-208 expeditor advisor stationed at Pease Air National Guard Base, N.H. and from Tucson, Ariz. "Before we started using this configuration, maintenance would gas the planes to 1,400 pounds the night before and now we wait until morning. This allows us to see what type of mission is being flown in order to configure the aircraft properly as well as fuel it correctly since you cannot de-fuel this plane."

In addition to ironing out operations and maintenance issues, the advisors at the 738 AEAG also created a computer program in order to easily identify weight and balance issues.

"The program saves roughly 30 minutes to one hour for pre-flight planning," said Capt. Ben Moore, 441 AEAS advisor pilot stationed at Columbus Air Force Base, Miss. and from Bellingham, Wash. "Everything used to have to be calculated by hand. Now you can just click on the configuration you want to use for the mission, type in the weight of the passengers and it will tell you whether you have the proper center of gravity."

Moore, who created the new program, said it takes into account the specific weight of each individual C-208 at the Kandahar Air Wing, the specific center of gravity for each aircraft, every seat, the pilots and passenger's weight, fuel, destination and how much fuel is expected to be burned. The program will even account for the differences in each leg of a trip.

And reaching yet another milestone, the AAF completed their first 12-person flight November 12 piloted by the first KAW C-208 aircraft commander. The first all-AAF piloted C-208 took off from Kandahar Airfield and landed at Kabul International Airport carrying 10 passengers due to the new configuration capabilities. This was the first flight from the KAW to be flown without a coalition pilot.