New MQ-1 Predator Takes Flight
Thursday, 19 February 2009
JOINT BASE BALAD — The 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing received a new MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial aircraft and immediately put it into action, Feb. 13. “As far as getting a new aircraft, it’s not very often in the Predator community you are launching a brand-new plane that’s never been flown operationally before,” said Lt. Col. Debra Lee, 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance and Attack Squadron commander. “The one we received today only had four hours on it, which includes testing time back in the United States.”
After arriving here disassembled and packed in a crate, the remotely piloted plane used for reconnaissance and strike missions [if needed] was reassembled within two days and up and flying its perfect first trip into blue Iraqi skies on “Friday the Thirteenth.”
“Normally on a daily basis, we are launching aircraft with at least hundreds, if not thousands of hours on them,” added the squadron commander, deployed from Creech Air Force Base, Nev. “It is great to get a new aircraft.”
The commander and pilot went on to point out that her squadron can’t accomplish its mission without the maintainers who put it together, and the squadron can’t fly missions without the work of other aviators - both in Iraq and back in the U.S.
“The maintenance team we have here is very professional,” Lee said, who’s from Carroll, Iowa. “They get our aircraft crated up and then unpacked over here in a very short time and are working around the clock.”
At 5 p.m. local, the plane went through a series of checks and the engine started. After another series of power and brake checks, maintainers pulled away the chocks (pieces of heavy wood holding the tires in place) and, a few seconds later, the Predator carefully taxied out to the runway - which is also used by fighter, cargo and civilian aircraft.
Twenty minutes before sundown, the MQ-1 aircraft launched from the desert base without a hitch, rising high into the light blue sky to help provide overwatch and security for U.S. and Coalition forces and Iraqis alike. Back in the control booth, Lee and sensor operator Senior Airman Charlie Cui were busy talking to controllers and each other while working a multitude of buttons, controls and radios.
“This first day we’ll fly it just a couple of hours,” said Lee. “After this first sortie is over, it will be full-up and ready like the rest of our aircraft and it will be able to do everything we need it to with longer missions.”
Day in and day out, the Predator mission continues at Balad.
Also deployed here from Creech AFB, Cui said he is proud of his work alongside the pilots.
“What is nice and unique out here is that we work with security forces locally to help with security for both our base and the Iraqis. We set the Predator up to launch its first flight in Iraq.
“It is a lifetime opportunity; you are responsible for a lot of people on the ground helping them as their eye in the sky,” continued Cui, smiling as he watched the plane’s sensors on his monitor. “I have a great chance to help people down below the plane, especially security forces. Overall, it’s a pretty cool mission.”
(By Maj. Stan Paregien, 332nd Air Expeditionary Wing)
