BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. -- Members of the 307th Bomb Wing traveled to exchange training ideas with Airbus instructors at their facility in Grand Prairie, Texas, Sept. 8, 2021.
Airbus is an international helicopter company that provides training on its products to maintenance teams and aircrew. The 307th Bomb Wing, as part of its mission, is responsible for all initial and requalification training for all potential B-52 Stratofortress aircrew in the Air Force.
The collaboration was the brainchild of Master Sgt. Ed Wytaske, 307th Operations Support Squadron first sergeant. When he isn’t working as a traditional reservist, Wytaske works full time for Airbus as an avionics technical instructor.
“I saw it as an excellent opportunity to exchange ideas on training techniques between the two schoolhouses,” he said.
During the idea exchange, B-52 instructors and wing leadership from the 307th OSS, the 307th Operations Group, and the 93rd bomb squadron were able to ask Airbus aviation, pilot, and maintenance instructors about their best practices. They also saw demonstrations with software, tools, and simulators used at the company’s training site.
Col. David Anderson, 307th OG commander, said the idea exchange offered the B-52 instructors a unique perspective.
“Our instructors were able to share best practices and virtual reality training ideas with leaders in the aviation industry,” he said. “That insight can help give us some idea of where we are in our training and ways to move forward in the future.”
Both Anderson and Wytaske affirmed that this first collaboration between the two entities was productive and spoke of the possibility for future idea exchanges.