Australian pilot soars with the 96th

August 1, 1997
Originally published by Fairchild Connection (Fairchild AFB, WA)

Dennis Guay, imported from down under, is having the time of his life.

Guay, a flight lieutenant with the Royal Australian Air Force, is serving a 2 1/2-year exchange tour. He is training with the 96th Air Refueling Squadron, and he is on track to become a squadron leader--which equates to a major here.

"I've been getting a good idea of how the (United States) Air Force works," Guay said. "It's a one-on-one exchange system, and I could tell right away that the Americans have so much more flying experience than we have.

The exchange, according to Guay, has been ongoing for 10 years. It was started, in part to allow the Australians to gain tanker experience. "While I'm here, the other guy is seeing how we do things," Guay said. "Flying is a lot different over there."

Guay has been with the 96th ARS since June 1995 and his exchange ends in January. "It's been a very good assignment, one of the best we can offer," he said on his selection to train here. Guay said he was picked by his squadron commander along with six others for selection. "It was very competitive," he said.

"The thing that set me apart was that I was seen as the pilot with the most advantages to bring back all I could to Australia," he said. His Boeing 707 flying experience also gave him the edge. Guay also made it through the Combat Flying Instructor Course. "I wanted to learn all I could and bring it back with me."

Guay said that in addition to the everyday flying operations, pilot training experience and air refueling procedures, the challenges here are a 180-degree turn from what he's used to. "Flying is completely different here," he said.

"I'm used to flying the 707s back in Australia," Guay said. The main difference here is that there isn't a flight engineer assigned to the KC-135's, but one was assigned to his aircraft back in Australia. Flight engineers have the duty of monitoring subsystems of the aircraft, such as fuel, electrical items and pressure systems. "Our responsibility was to just fly," he said.

"Here, it's my responsibility to do it all, so my workload is higher in addition to flying," Guay said. "But we also did our own navigation on the 707. The KC-135 is not only designed to be flown without flight engineers, it is a really good simplified system. The 707 is actually a more complex system because it is designed for passengers."

Guay notes another discrepancy between U.S. and Australia flying--air traffic control systems, which are by far more complicated stateside.

"The system in the U.S. is really good, with the whole country covered by radar. It's a lot more complex. Most of Australia isn't even covered by radar--in fact, very little. A lot of times over there, we do a procedure check when we fly, but we don't use radar. We have radar on the coasts, but further inland, there is nothing.

"Keep in mind that Australia's roughly the same size as the U.S. with a hundredth of the air traffic," he added.

Capt. Philip Clinton, squadron co-pilot, thinks Guay has picked up things well. "He is a very experienced pilot, he has a lot of flying hours. He's a very good person to fly with because his skills are exceptional. I think he's done an exceptional job."

Guay was born and raised in Canada north of Edmonton, Alberta. He has lived in Australia for 15 years. "I did some flying up there, but mostly charter flying, or what they call bush flying," he said. "I was a bush flying instructor for a while."

Only one answer summed up his decision to head halfway around the world and relocate.

"Ever heard of a Canadian winter?" he said.

"I heard about a year-long program to encourage people to relocate. We had just went through a bitter winter up there in Canada and I'd gotten a letter from a buddy in Perth, Australia. It read 'I haven't seen a cloud in four months and it's at least 85 degrees every day'. I was on a plane two weeks later."

Guay decided to extend one more year on the job, at which time he also joined the RAAF. "They tend to look for pilots who have experience, rather than train them from scratch," he said. "Long TDYs with us are very unusual. To go away for more than two weeks is very rare." He added that while the Australians usually restrict their operations to the South Pacific, they operate many times out of foreign airfields.

Guay is stationed in RAAF Richmond, 30 miles west of Sydney. "We're responsible for all the country's air control and fixed wings," he said, meaning standard aircraft.

He passed the 18-month long pilot's course upon entry into the RAAF and moved up the ranks from officer cadet to pilot officer (same as second lieutenant), flying officer (first lieutenant), and finally flight lieutenant. His flying experience includes C-130s, Macchi jets and 707s. Upon his return, he hopes to become an instructor for 707s.

"Back in the pilot's course, over half of us dropped out," he said. "A lot of times, I'd see my buddies one day and they'd be gone the next."

In 1992, Guay took part in a peacekeeping flying mission to Cambodia. "We didn't know what to expect," he said. "We weren't exactly in our neck of the woods. But C-130s are a real fun plane to fly. When I was flying those we did a lot of night flying." According to Guay, he picked up about 3,700 flying hours on the C-130 on the way to over 5,000 total flight hours.

Since arriving with the 96th ARS, he has gone TDY to Jordan in early 1996, to Incirlik AB, Turkey for a 10-week slate, and express runs to Japan and England. At Incirlik, he was part of the Operation Provide Comfort.

Guay noted that the entire air force in Australia has only four tanker aircraft while the U.S. has 600-plus. He also added that his military's salute is the opposite. "It's the back of the hand down here. Over there is the front of the hand up. The first time I tried it over here, they fell down laughing.

"My family loves it over here," said Guay, who is married with two children. "At first they had trouble adjusting in school, but now they've got strong American accents. It's going to be hard to go back. It's going to be sad to have to go home, because we feel like this is our home."

Since his arrival, the 96th ARS has treated him well, Guay said.

"I'd like to give a kudo to this squadron," he said. "They've really been good to me. They've looked after me. I'd recommend it for anybody in my air force to come here. It's been an enjoyable experience, and they've treated me like an equal. They haven't held me back from anything. I think they see my situation as unique. It hasn't caused any problems yet."

Maj. Marcus Carter, operations officer for 96th, agreed.

"His whole family gets involved in squadron events that we have. He's just another guy in the squadron. I don't think anybody looks at him differently," Carter said.

"They've gone out of their way in training to give me a lot of experience with things I may not have picked up had they not pushed it," Guay said. "These guys are good to work with, and a very professional group of people."