{"id":307620,"date":"2019-09-09T06:06:41","date_gmt":"2019-09-08T20:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=307620"},"modified":"2019-09-09T06:06:41","modified_gmt":"2019-09-08T20:06:41","slug":"team-travis-sergeant-earns-rpa-pilot-wings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/team-travis-sergeant-earns-rpa-pilot-wings\/","title":{"rendered":"Team Travis sergeant earns RPA pilot wings"},"content":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: Surnames were withheld to comply with Air Force guidelines on the disclosure of identifying information for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance personnel.<\/em><\/p>\n

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.\u2014When a Team Travis noncommissioned officer showed up five months into a six-month course at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, to become an Enlisted Remotely Piloted Aircraft pilot, there was confusion.<\/p>\n

First, Tech. Sgt. Ron, 860th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron flight line expediter, was incorrectly sorted into the wrong course, a mistake which became clear when a staff member asked why he wanted to be a sensor operator.<\/p>\n

Once he did get to the correct class, further confusion came from his fellow classmates, who were surprised to see Ron join their ranks so late. He was able to skip much of the course because he already had his private pilot\u2019s license and instrument rating.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was kind of weird showing up at Randolph in June and these guys have been together for the past five months, from the very beginning,\u201d he said. \u201cSo I show up in the last month, like, \u2018Who\u2019s this guy?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

To answer that, it\u2019s important to wind the clock back.<\/p>\n

Years before earning his RPA pilot wings in July, Ron was raised on Saipan, the largest of the Northern Mariana Islands in the Pacific Ocean. It\u2019s less than 50 square miles.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a dot on a map,\u201d Ron said. \u201cYou can\u2019t even see it on a map. You have to look hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ron joined the Air Force in July 2009 and arrived at Travis AFB in 2010. His time fixing C-17 Globemaster IIIs as a maintainer sparked an interest in aviation, so he began taking flying lessons at the base\u2019s aero club in nearby Rio Vista.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up at that aero club, from zero hours to where I\u2019m at right now, they taught me how to fly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Although he began the RPA course with the lessons learned through the aero club, Ron said he feels pressure to succeed so that the opportunity remains open for other enlisted Airmen to follow in his footsteps.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Ron, 860th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron flight line expediter, mans the controls of a Socata Trinidad TB-20 July 27, 2019, during a flight over the San Francisco Bay Area. Ron has accumulated more than 250 flying hours and completed Air Force remote pilot aircraft training.
(U.S. AIR FORCE\/TECH. SGT. JAMES HODGMAN)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cIf I messed up, it would mess it up for future guys coming up,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat matters is aptitude, intellect and work ethic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ron said the job brings a different sort of pressure than his role in maintenance. While the former was more overtly physically demanding, his new role will ask a lot psychologically.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople say it\u2019s like a video game. It\u2019s not like a video game,\u201d he said. \u201cImagine you\u2019re flying a plane with the normal stuff you have to do. You\u2019re already multi-tasking when you\u2019re flying, right? You\u2019ve got the controls, you\u2019re on the radio. So imagine all of that plus having a laptop on your lap, and you\u2019re typing away, and you\u2019re talking on your cell phone and you have an iPad.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a big change from maintenance, where Ron went on five deployments. He\u2019s \u201csomewhat of a legend\u201d in the 860th AMXS, according to Master Sgt. Rick Plecenik, the squadron\u2019s lead production superintendent.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been an absolute, complete rock star, one of the best airmen I\u2019ve ever had the privilege to work with,\u201d Plecenik said. \u201cAt the end of the day, I don\u2019t want to lose him out of my office and squadron. I don\u2019t want to lose that level of expertise in maintenance. But, if the Air Force has this opportunity and it\u2019s what he wants to do, he\u2019s earned it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a long journey for Ron, from his youth on Saipan all the way to joining an emerging career field as an enlisted RPA pilot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to work at a hotel doing a Polynesian dinner show, playing the ukulele and drumming for tourists, so from that to RPA pilot is crazy,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Editor\u2019s Note: Surnames were withheld to comply with Air Force guidelines on the disclosure of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":307621,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[23582,23572,6437,6523],"class_list":["post-307620","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","tag-air-force-tech","tag-aircraft-maintenance-squadron","tag-master-sgt","tag-rpa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307620","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=307620"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/307620\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/307621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=307620"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=307620"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=307620"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}