Article Display

Hot-pits: innovation at its finest

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class BrieAnna Stilman
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
During the coldest and hottest months of the year, the 20th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron’s Airmen continue to step out onto the flight line to perform ground refueling, also known as hot-pits, in order to get F-16CM Fighting Falcons back in the air as fast as possible.

Hot-pits is a process that places refueling trucks onto the flight line and creates a gas station for pilots to pull into and refuel their jets without having to turn off their engine.

Hot-pits were created to be a rapid refueling process that is practiced in order to prepare Airmen for deployed locations when jets really need to be in the air, said Tech Sgt. Henry Titmus, 20th AMXS dedicated crew chief.

Even though a rapid refueling process was already in place, the 20th AMXS designed an even more innovative way to refuel the F-16s.
The old process consisted of multiple teams, each crew would take on a single jet at a time to cursor and refuel it themselves which took approximately 30 minutes.

The new process separates the cursoring portion into its own station creating more of an assembly line which gets the jets back in the air quicker.

Cursoring occurs when the jet becomes grounded before refueling. The jets pull into parking spots and are looked over to ensure nothing major is wrong with the aircraft while the engine is still running.

This takes about five minutes while the refueling process takes approximately 15 minutes, which means the aircraft can land, refuel and be back up in the air in less than 30 minutes.

The idea is to get more jets refueled in less time and get jets that need fuel the most in first instead of the F-16 that touches the ground first, said Staff Sgt. David Mates, 20th AMXS tactical aircraft maintenance.

This innovative process is important because more jets can be refueled quicker ultimately leading to more flying hours and training for both maintainers and pilots.

The 20th AMXS continues to embrace Team Shaw’s priorities by always being ready for the next fight, continuing to innovate and balancing today’s readiness with tomorrow’s modernization.