USAF TPS team proves how a 'dummy' can save money

Published April 2, 2014
By Jet Fabara
412th Test Wing Public Affairs

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- In an effort to be financially-conscious and proactive amid the fiscal challenges currently facing the Air Force, the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School, at the request of the 418th Flight Test Squadron, is working through the implementation of the school's Test Management Project to come up with a more cost-effective way of conducting dummy drop parachute testing for the Air Force.

Test Management Projects give students hands-on experience and oversight of a real-test program during the year-long course.

"The C-12C is much less expensive to operate compared to the C-130s and C-17s that this type of testing is usually conducted with," said Capt. Phillip Hartnett, USAF flight test engineer and USAF TPS Class 13B project lead. "The test aircraft was a C-12C modified with the Dummy Unloading Mechanical Platform to facilitate the dummy drops. This is the first time static line dummy drops have been conducted from a C-12C and this will provide the basis for conducting further static line testing using the C-12C. The end result will be significant cost savings for conducting this type of parachute testing."

According to Hartnett, the team's main objective for this test was to evaluate the C-12C DUMP system for static line dummy drops.

"[The configuration in the C-12C] allowed three dummies weighing between 185 and 350 pounds to be secured. Three 412th Operation Support Squadron test parachutists would slide a dummy onto a lift platform," Hartnett said. "When ready to deploy the dummy, the parachutists would lift the inboard side of the lift platform which caused the dummy to slide out of the aft door. We cleared the C-12C static line dummy drop envelope from 1,500 feet [Above Ground Level] to 10,000 [Mean Sea Level] at airspeeds from 90 knots to 195 knots."

Prior to the drops, the team noted that they had to undergo pre-test coordination before flying.

"Since there was only a single flight test phase for this TMP, there were pre-test events like a Test Plan Working Group, a Technical Review Board and a Safety Review Board that had to be accomplished leading to the execution of the flight test," said Hartnett.

"Even though the C-12C is already used to conduct live free-fall jumps, this will potentially be used in the future to conduct actual parachute testing," he added. "Dummies are used to mitigate risk to ensure the parachute deploys as expected prior to live jump testing occurs."

During the planning and execution of this test, Hartnett mentioned there were approximately 35 people who were contributing members and several different base organizations that were involved that included personnel from the 412th Test Wing, TPS, the 412th Range Squadron, 412th OSS, 412 TW Test Safety, 733rd Test Squadron, 418 FLTS, 412th Test and Engineering Group, and L3 C-12C Maintenance.

"Since this was the first time this sort of testing has taken place, the safety process proved to be a challenge," said Hartnett. "Luckily, we had a very hard-working, cohesive team and our Logistics Lead Capt. Chris Nations and Safety Lead Capt. Joshua Duckett did excellent jobs ensuring the ground work was complete for a successful test. We received tremendous support from all parties and would like to thank everyone involved."

Dummy drop flight testing lasted from March 4 to 14, 2014.

The student test team from USAF TPS Class 13B was comprised of Maj. Jameel Janjua, Royal Canadian Air Force test pilot; Flight Lt. Marija Jovanovich, Royal Australian Air Force test pilot; Capt. Christopher Nations, USAF test pilot; Capt. Joshua Duckett, USAF flight test engineer; and Capt. Phillip Hartnett, USAF flight test engineer.