By Senior ANN Correspondent Kevin O'Brien
Jeff Riechmann (Rick-mann) has been involved in airport safety
for all his adult life. As a young airman, he was a crash-crew
fireman at Edwards Air Force Base; after his honorable discharge,
he went to work for Kern County as a firefighter, while staying
active in the Air Force Reserve. Retired now from the military, he
still is a firefighter for the county -- but he's a very special
firefighter, with responsibility for all of the county's aviation
programs.
"Basically, if it's got wings, I deal with it," Jeff says. He's
a big, tall guy, who speaks softly but clearly and without
hesitation or uncertainty. It's eequally easy to imagine him at the
scene of a fire -- or at the lectern in a classroom.
Jeff had a hearing problem which forced the county to take him
off regular firefighting duties. Fortunately for the county, at
that very moment they were looking for someone to handle
aviation-related fire training and compliance issues. The right man
fell into the right job.
Preparing for SpaceShipOne
Many of Kern County's firefighters -- not just the ones that
respond to Mojave Spaceport, as the field the aviation world knows
as Mojave is formally known -- have had special training for
SpaceShipOne.
"Most of it is classroom training in this case, not hands-on,"
Jeff told me.
For the SpaceShipOne flights themselves, Jeff said, "we're
bringing in additional crews. Their responsibility is to the
public. We're primarily here to take care of the people that are
watching this. However, because of the training we've put 'em
through -- special, specific SpaceShipOne training -- they're
capable to go out and support the airport crew, if it's needed.
The firefighters have been trained on the HAZMAT aspects of any
SpaceShipOne mishap, as well as on rescue aspects.
"They have rescue training -- we have a video where we show 'em
how to get into SpaceShipOne -- and everything that they need to
know. We bring our helicopter out, helicopter 408... if there
should be an event with SpaceShipOne off the airport, one of our
engine crews is ready to get on the helicopter and fly out and do
whatever is needed to resolve that situation, off the airport."
"That's all done through the training that we've put together."
The crews at Mojave, Boron, Rosemond have been put through
SpaceShipOne training, "so they can augment any of the other crews.
We put 'em through a pretty good training program."
The SpaceShipOne specific training is mostly classroom training.
"Obviously we don't get a lot of hands-on with something as unique
and secretive as this," Jeff told Aero-News.
Is the problem maintaining secrecy? Jeff shook his head.
"Our guys are pretty good about keeping quiet, but the problem
is getting to the aircraft. You know, they're doing work, they're
doing maintenance, and we can't really get in their way. And we
understand and appreciate that."
So a video of the SpaceShipOne access procedures is used as a
next-best-alternative because Mojave Aerospace Ventures and Scaled
Composites can't make the single spacecraft available to all 500
county firefighters.
Do the people working on the SpaceShip -- and the guys who are
going to be in it -- appreciate what the firefighters are
doing?
"I'll tell you, Scaled Composites has rolled out the red carpet
for us. Anything we've asked for, they've bent over backwards to
help us. They've just been super. Super people."
Helicopter 408
Helicopter 408 is an integral part of Kern County's emergency
services. Like Jeff Riechmann, it's retired military: a UH-1H which
has been upgraded to SuperHuey status. "It has a beefier engine,
beefier driveline."
Other Responsibilities
Apart from SpaceShipOne-specific fire and rescue training, then,
what does Jeff Riechmann do?
"Basicially, aviation-oriented training. I'm teaching all the
firefighters in the stations things like, how do you get into a 747
passenger plane? How do you deal with an ejection seat on a
fighter?
How do you drive around the airport without running into an
airplane? We teach them how to plan... what to do after the plane
crashes... all this kind of stuff. Like I said, we're trying to put
all 500 people through that training."
"The hands-on training involves... well, at Mojave we use their
CV-990 for training. At the other remote stations, that don't
really have an airport, we use our fire department helicopter, or
we use an air ambulance. At Meadows Field we have a T-38 that we
use."
"Part of the training [required] is that they have to get
hands-on training. And we really push for that, because, you just
can't sit in class and see how a door handle works."
The old service thing: "if I see, I forget, if I do, I
remember?"
"That's it exactly. So it's pretty intense training. It's good
training."
"Now, in addition to training our firemen, I keep track of the
helicopter. And I keep track of all their training, everything they
do, including flight safety training for the crew. We also have an
AeroCommander, so I also track their flight safety training."
"So the idea is, if there's ever a problem, if the FAA says what
kind of training have these guys done, I've got it all down, and I
can show them."
Naturally, there is an FAA regulation that covers firefighter
training. Right, Jeff?
"Right. Part 139.319
governs the minimum standards for firefighters responding to an
alarm at a certificated airport. For us it just applies to
Bakersfield and Inyokern. But, what we've done is, we're trying to
bring every firefighter in the Kern County Fire Department up to
that level. We're talking about 500 firefighters."
Is this common?
"That's really unique in the United States."
The Kern County fire department has two airports, Bakersfield
and Inyokern (Mojave) where they back up the airport firefighters.
But they have fire stations scattered all over the sprawling
county, and training all firefighters in aircraft-related fire and
rescue tasks enhances personnel flexibility.
"The guys like it," Riechmann told us. I promised the guys in
the field that I would make this, if they put me in charge of this
-- which is really unique cause I'm at the bottom of the totem pole
-- that I would try to make it fun and interesting. And so this is
where I bring aircraft in and we try and do different things. In
December, we're looking at working with one of the companies on
Mojave that scraps airplanes. We asked a question, 'Can't we scrap
an airplane for ya?'
And so we're looking at bringing our crews out to get some practice
using their rescue tools."
Te Kern County firemen travel to Edwards Air Force Base for live
fire training on the USAF's airplane mockups, and in return we
provide them with some of their emergency medical training. We're
getting involved with them on some Space Shuttle issues."
Once a month, Riechmann and the Edwards firefighters meet for
contingency planning. The Edwards and Kern County firefighters get
along well. It's hardly surpriaing: four firefighters on duty at
Mojave Sept, 29, on the X-1 flight of SpaceShipOne, had worked the
Space Shuttle during landings at Edwards also.
Exercises Prove The System Works
Every three years the FAA requires a full-dress rehearsal or
exercise of the emergency response system. Riechmann has been
invited to Santa Barbara to be an evaluator for their next one --
coming next Wednesday.
These drills are not a trivial thing to organize. "You have to
have all the ambulance companies, a lot of times they'll set
something on fire, a lot of times they'll have a schoolbous wit a
bunch of kids dressed up with simulated injuries," he told
Aero-News. "A lot of times they'll go so far as to transport the
'casualties' to he hospital, just as part of the drill."
Let's Give the Last Word to Jeff
"What I tell the guys when I do the training is that when you
work ARF (Aircraft Rescue Firefighting) is that most of your calls
are nothing. But when you get a call, you're usually on CNN."