Officials at Altus Air Force Base, OK, performed a load validation on a C-17 Globemaster III for the MH-60S Knight Hawk helicopter recently with the help of Navy specialists. This is the seventh helicopter model validated on a C-17. Airmen from Altus' 58th Airlift Squadron along with 21 people from the Navy loaded the Navy helicopter onto a C-17 for the first time. The Knight Hawk is a cousin of the Air Force's HH-60G Pave Hawk.

Before any specialized load can fly in an aircraft, it needs to be validated, said Senior Master Sgt. Michael Lambrecht, 97th Operations Group C-17 standardization and evaluation loadmaster.

A load validation includes writing the loading procedures that will be incorporated in the loading manual. Once the procedures are published in loadmaster's manual, any loadmaster worldwide is authorized to transport the load.

The data and procedures have to be compatible with the other service's procedures before a load can fly, said Richard Morales, a Navy technical publications quality assurance specialist from Naval Air Station North Island, Calif.

"In order for the helicopter to be deployed rapidly worldwide, the Navy has to know how the Air Force needs it packaged for pickup," said Jerry Bruce from Aircraft Test and Evaluation Squadron 21 at Naval Air Station Paxtuxent River, Md. "(In this case) we were concerned that the helicopter's rear rotor blades would have to be scissored in order to fit into the C-17."

Scissoring the blades, or folding them together, takes time and requires several preoperational checks. "We've been totally impressed with the automation of the C-17," Mr. Bruce said. "We were pleasantly surprised with its vast cargo space."

"Load validations are very rare to perform, especially at a training base," Sergeant Lambrecht said. "Usually, Air Mobility Command bases conduct these validations, but with the (operations) tempo at Charleston (Air Force Base, S.C.) and McChord (AFB, Wash.), they have been unable to do this for the past two years."

Sergeant Lambrect said officials from Air Mobility Command’s test and evaluation branch asked him if Altus could support the validation.

"After receiving approval from (Air Education and Training Command) and 19th Air Force (officials), we accepted," he said. "We were very fortunate to have this opportunity, and it was a good experience for our instructor loadmasters and our loadmaster students we brought out to the flightline to witness the validation." [ANN Thanks Airman 1st Class Ed Bodigheimer, 97th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs]

FMI: www.af.mil