March gets 9th C-17

  • Published
  • By Will Alexander
  • 452nd Air Mobility Wing, Public Affairs
MARCH AIR RESERVE BASE, CALIF. --  The 452 AMW received its ninth C-17 Globemaster III aircraft compliments of the 437 AW out of Charleston AFB, S.C, who acquired the plane in 1998. 

Boeing built about 16 of the cargo aircraft last year, which were purchased and delivered to active duty fleets to replace their older planes.

"That freed up a certain number of jets to go to AFRC and to the Air National Guard as backup aircraft," said Lt. Col. Tim Harris, 452 OSS. "We were fortunate enough to get one of those." 

It just so happens that the nickname of the 1997 vintage P-043 aircraft is "Spirit of Los Angeles." She was handed off to March pilots in Charleston with a full tank of fuel - a 50/50 blend of JP-8 and the clean burning Fischer-Tropsch synthetic fuel. 

"It takes around 17,000 gallons of gas at about five dollars a gallon, so that's a savings for us of around $85,000," said delivery official Lt. Col. Keith Guillotte, who piloted the plane from Charleston with Capt. Seth Ewalt. "We were the first C-17 to fly operationally - not under test status - the entire way home with the new Fischer-Tropsch fuel." 

Lt. Col. Guillotte said commanders here started the push for a ninth C-17 about a year ago, mainly to be a backup aircraft while the other eight goes through the Global Reach Improvement Program (GRIP). 

During GRIP, a minimum of two planes at a time will undergo a month of major overhauls to get the latest software and hardware, which will upgrade the present fleet of Block 16s to Block 17. 

That means the wing will be down to six planes at any given time to fly its normal 8,000-hour program, with no added crew. 

"We knew we were going to get a backup aircraft, which is wonderful, but we needed it sooner rather than later," said Lt. Col. Harris. 

Once the current fleet of eight C-17s is upgraded, the "Spirit of Los Angeles" - which is an older Block 13 aircraft - will also be upgraded to Block 17. Until then, the 452's newest, yet oldest, aircraft will be what Lt. Col. Guillotte calls "the ugly kid that stands out in the room." 

"It kind of affords the other aircraft a little break every so often," he said. "Hopefully, it will decrease the amount of flying time that's put on each jet individually. It's the extra jet that we can count on to kind of keep things moving." 

The eight aircraft will go through GRIP any day now, according to Lt. Col. Guillotte. The older C-17 will go through GRIP this summer and is expected to take about six months to complete. 

Assisting with the aircraft's delivery from Charleston was Chief Master Sgt. Jim McGowan, Senior Master Sgt. Bill Lamela, Senior Master Sgt. Bruce Becker, and Staff Sgt. Matthew Hamilton.