JOHNSTOWN, Pa. - Pennsylvania Air National Guardsmen with the 258th Air Traffic Control Squadron’s Deployable Instrument Landing System Team completed a two-week annual training exercise June 16.
The exercise focused on the squadron’s newest equipment, the AN/TRN-50 Deployable Instrument Landing System. The equipment can be packaged in shipping containers, rapidly mobilized by air, then quickly set up by the D-ILS team.
The AN/TRN-50 essentially creates a landing site with precision aircraft approach capabilities, allowing aircraft to land near mountains, bodies of water, obstructions and during inclement weather with low to zero visibility.
The AN/TRN-50 comprises an array of antennas, masts, electronics, and power generators, all assembled and erected by four Air National Guardsmen — three radar, airfield and weather systems maintainers and one electrical power production specialist.
“This was just the first step, but it was a big one for the D-ILS team,” said Tech. Sgt. Shane Miller, the team lead for the training.
The Guardsmen also partnered with the FAA and the Altoona-Blair County Airport to train on the airport’s instrument landing system, which is similar to the AN/TRN-50.
“It’s one thing to work on a piece of equipment at the Squadron,“ Miller said. “It’s something entirely different, however, to see how it works and to know that you are responsible for the lives in those planes using your equipment.”
During the training, members of the 258th learned tower climbing and rescue skills necessary to build large antenna masts. The training occurred at the 258th’s radar tower at the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport.
Staff Sgt Justin Radcliffe, a recent graduate of the Air Force’s Tower Climbing and Rescue Trainer Course, instructed members how to climb and rescue people from non-standard, lattice towers. Students also performed a pick-off, rappeling to the ground with a victim attached to their body harness.
“Without exercises like these, there is a real possibility that these young troops’ first airfield experience with the AN/TRN-50 could be during a deployment,” Miller said.
Guard members completed over 60 maintenance tasks, using sophisticated test equipment such as oscilloscopes and spectrum analyzers. In addition to the tower climbing, they logged over 600 hours of hands-on maintenance and training.
The 258th ATCS provided air traffic services stateside and overseas to civil, military and even presidential aircraft while maintaining mobile readiness to deploy with less than a week’s notice.