Night Flight Training

The 173rd Fighter Wing at Kingsley Field in Klamath Falls is doing night flight training this week.

Lieutenant Colonel Jeffrey Edwards says that his first night flight in an F-15 was 'unbelievable'...

"The sheer power of the airplane - two, you lack some of the daytime cues that you normally see.  So, it's kind of like being in a dark tunnel at night, and going super fast."

Edwards adds that pilots fly several evenings as part of their training.  "When they go through the basic course here they get four rides of night employment starting out from very basic one against other aircraft, way up to two against numerous other aircraft."

A runway resurfacing project has been shifted to daytime hours to allow for the night training.

Lt. Col. Edwards notes that learning to fly with night vision goggles is a key element in fighter training...

"Primarily, because as you've seen in the past, many times initial combat operations happen at night."

The fighter wing plans to wrap up their latest night training element by the end of this week.

Pilots will leave Kingsley Field shortly after sundown, and return about two hours later.  The training takes place primarily in airspace over southeastern Oregon.