Hello! I'm Tim Lambert, and I'm a pilot in the United States Air Force. I am currently assigned as a co-pilot on the C-130 Hercules aircraft at Moody Air Force Base (AFB). That means I fly in the right seat of the cockpit, I handle all the talking on the radios, and I back up the pilot for flying, mission planning, and briefings. The C-130 is a cargo, or "heavy" aircraft, and it is flown with a crew consisting of the pilot, co-pilot, navigator, flight engineer, and loadmaster.

I grew up in a military family. My dad retired as a Lieutenant Colonel in the Air Force. From the 6th grade on, we lived in San Antonio, Texas. I had actually planned on going to college and becoming an accountant when I was growing up. I thought of the Air Force as a backup career if I couldn't get a good job as an accountant. When I started looking at colleges, however, I started getting mailings for the Air Force Academy. High school was pretty easy for me; I didn't have to work hard at it. I did well in classes I liked, and passed in the classes I didn't like. I was also very active in athletics - I played football and basketball in high school, and I dreamed sometimes of playing in the pros. You could say I am a very competitive person. That's what I liked about the Air Force Academy. They were looking for people who were athletic and had good grades, and they had a very competitive atmosphere. So I applied and was accepted!

At the Academy, I majored in operations research. It's a mixture of mathematics, computers, and economics (remember, I once wanted to be an accountant!). You use problem-solving skills to find the best solutions to different war time possibilities. You study the mission, evaluate the resources available, estimate the casualty rates, predict the break or fly ratios for the equipment, and determine the best use of your units, people, and resources. It's a tough but challenging major. While I was at the Academy, I was evaluated and declared pilot qualified. I'm always open to new opportunities, so I tried it. I LIKE FLYING! No more accountant jobs for me. Whatever I do in the future, it will involve flying!

I was assigned to Reese AFB in Texas for pilot training. Unfortunately, when I finished pilot training, the Air Force didn't have enough cockpits for all the pilots it was training. So some of us in the early 1990's were given "banked" assignments, meaning that we found other jobs in the Air Force while we waited for a flying assignment. I became a maintenance officer for 3 years at Travis AFB in California. While I didn't use the skills I learned in college (although I did use a lot of the geometry and trigonometry that I learned in high school), I did find it rewarding to be working with people. I was directly responsible for all the people in my shop, or group. My main job was as a supervisor for the enlisted personnel in the shop. I would oversee their work, make sure they had the equipment and resources to do their work, and ensure that they got adequate breaks and rest times. I enjoyed improving my people skills. It was very rewarding to see the benefits of my work reflected in the performance of my shop personnel.

At Travis AFB, I was responsible for several shops for the C-5 and C-141 cargo airplanes. The fabrication shop was responsible for all the metal technology in the airplanes, both creating them in the sheet metal shop and testing them in the NDI lab, or Non-Destructive Inspection lab. In the survival shop we were responsible for some of the life support equipment on board the planes, the flight suits the crews wore, repairing the seats, and preparing the parachutes for the aircrews. The C-5 airplane has a lot of wooden parts in it, and in the wood shop, we would manufacture and repair the wood and fiberglass parts for the plane. I was also assigned to the inspection dock, where my people would take each plane apart, inspect all the parts, and put each one back together again.

Finally, 2 and a half years ago, I got my flying assignment for the C-130 airplane. I went for C-130 training to Little Rock AFB in Arkansas and then was assigned to the 52nd Airlift Squadron at Moody AFB. I have flown as a co-pilot here for about 2 years, and I will soon be transferring to Dyess AFB in Texas for my next assignment. I expect to be upgraded to pilot and aircraft commander of the C-130 soon after my transfer.

There are 2 different types of missions that we fly in the C-130. One is a "pro-line", or pilot proficiency flight, where we practice takeoffs, landings, and other pilot skills. The second type of mission is a "tac-line", or tactical flight. We usually fly those in formation with other C-130's. If we're flying a pro-line mission, I have to be at the squadron 2 hours and 15 minutes before takeoff. We have a short crew brief, then the pilot, navigator, and I go to base ops (base operations) to do the flight planning, which takes about an hour. We check the weather, submit the flight plan, and check the NOTAM's (NOTices to AirMen), which are advisories regarding the conditions at the airfields we may be using during our mission. The enlisted crew (the flight engineer and the loadmaster) have been out at the airplane, pre-flighting the plane. We join them at the plane and complete the checklists to get ready for takeoff. For a tac-line mission, I have a "show" time, or report time, of 5 hours prior to takeoff. We will do about an hour and a half mission planning, then have a formation brief for all the aircrews in all the planes in the formation. We break into individual crews after that, with the officers doing some final route studies and the enlisted members pre-flighting the plane. Then we head out to the plane to do checklists and prepare to fly. Most of our tac-lines are low-level flights where we drop pallets or parachutists to various drop zones. These pallets can be loaded with supplies or equipment. A lot of our drops are in support of the Army.

I like flying. At the Academy, I flew gliders and the T-41, a training plane similar to the Cessna 152. At undergraduate pilot training (UPT), I flew the T-37, T-38, and T-1 trainers. Now I'm flying the C-130. If I could do it all over again, flying would still be my top career choice!

Questions for Tim:

What is your educational background?
High School Diploma
BS, Operations Research, USAF Academy