[Jet Engine]
[Sonic Boom]
[Jet Flying]
[Music]
>>My name is Matthew Berry. I'm Lead Operations Engineer on DC8. I went to school, got my
Double-E degree, a Bachelor in Science, at New Mexico State University.
The DC-8 is part of the airborne science program. The importance of airborne science is it gives experimenters
a tool to where they can real time make upgrades to their equipment, a place to test it out
and see if that's what they really want to do in the satellite in orbit.
[Music]
It's like a test bed for new equipment, you get a lot of different experiments, each campaign has
its own unique item that it's searching for- C02 and O2 emissions within the atmosphere,
biofuel emissions testing,
[Music]
some weather type stuff like lightning strikes, we'll go into
hurricanes. We get to go everywhere, Houston, you go to Kansas, you go to Maine, and then
you get to go to Chile, maybe Germany, it's not really limited. Wherever the science wants
to go.
>>The experiments that are on, we have the ATM which is the Airborne Topographic
Mapper, ATM Topographic Mapper Sigma.
>>As an OE, you're basically a big coordinator,
you gotta coordinate with all the science teams, the upper management levels, you have
to coordinate between the mechanics, you have to coordinate between the avionics techs,
you have to coordinate between all the back shops for fabrication.
>>...small parts that we can do in house...
[Music]
>>...what housekeeping you working on right now?
>>You're also the technical representative
for your ground crews. You gotta be able to talk to all the different shops and know what
they need and what information you gotta get to them so you can help solve all the problems.
>>Just need some seats in here and we'll be good.
Hey Terrance- did you guys already do the connector for the iridium?
>>Yeah, here's the antenna cables are right there, here power
beneath it. So, it's already here.
>>Yeah, so we'll probably have to take that off.
>>I like getting my hands dirty. I like being there with the crew, that's the best part.
[Music]
We deal with a lot of outside experimenters and everything, so there are physical people going on our
aircraft that are brining non-aircraft airworthy instruments on.
[Music]
We'll make sure that all their components, they have a correct layout on all the racks that are on the aircraft, to
make sure that it's structurally sound and can withstand all the loads. On the DC-8 for one
example there's lasers. And there's a lot of rules that you gotta follow with lasers.
for safe eye distance that
somebody could look at it with some binoculars or a camera lens. Each laser has to go through
a process, get evaluated, and we get that distance. Along with that you have to coordinate
it with the FAA.
[Music]
>>Morning, Karen
>>So a typical non-flight day, you're kinda just making
sure you have all your paperwork in order, so
making sure the aircraft maintenance items are
care of, working with the ground crew, see what issues have come up and how we're gonna
work to address them. Our favorite thing as Ops Engineers now is working in NAMIS and
keeping that up to date with all the maintenance items and making sure that everything stays
on track. And if I'm working something in the backshop, I'm kinda coordinating with
them for getting the parts fabricated and making sure they have all the materials. I
do a lot of preplanning for upcoming missions. A flight day for me gets really busy. If I'm
not flying, I'm kinda there early, right when the crew gets there, and just start
prepping it, doing the preflight items, you're finalizing all the weight and balance numbers,
just running around making sure everything is good to go there and the paperwork is signed
off appropriately. And then usually on a day that I fly, I'm usually just getting myself
ready with whatever the flight plan is and what the experimenters are wanting to do that day.
>>So science we've got Stuart Wu? Here. Mike Rodriguez? Here. We got Sven? You go
>>You go to the pre-flight briefing, you give the briefing to the scientists and everything,
as a Mission Director, so their safety brief and everything, you just kinda reiterate,
get a feel for what they're trying to do and what their main goals are for that mission.
[Music]
[Jet Engine]
>>You sit on the aircraft and control the mission and interface with all the pilots and the
scientists at the same time.
>>All right everybody we're getting ready for the taxi, so make
sure you got all your seat belts on and belted and ready for taxi and take off.
[DC-8 taking off]
[Music]
[Radio Chatter]
>>Tonight's mission has us flying out to go over the Indianapolis area, and they'll be taking the laser
measurements for CO2 and O2.
Today my role is mission director, and what you do is, for this campaign we're
monitoring the TCAS system up there because we have lasers onboard so we have to watch
out for planes underneath. Normally your'e communicating with the scientists on what
changes they need to do, so if we're, like for this mission, kinda worried about clouds
and stuff like that, if we're close to a cloud area, the scientists will kinda redirect us
and say "Hey, let's move over a little bit to the East or the West or North/South". A
lot of it is just doing the coordination and re-coordination of flight routes and making
sure that the scientists are following the rules that we set up and that they're getting
all the data that they need.
[Music]
>>You don't realize how fun it is to be flying 500 feet off the
ground until you're doing it. And especially in this big tanker, a DC-8, because you know,
you kinda see all the smaller aircraft and you think this big DC-8, that kinda scares
everybody in the neighborhood.
[Music]
>> Ok, mission, O2 is off.
>>All right, thank you. Ready to close your shutter, right?
>>Yes, go ahead and close the CO2 shutter.
>>Thank you.
[Radio Chatter- Approach & Landing]
>>All right, everybody, the seatbelt sign is now officially on, we'll be landing here shortly.
[DC-8 Landing]
[Music]
>>CO2 sounder, how was your flight?
>> I had a good flight, thanks.
>>LAS, how was your flight?
>>After it lands, you kinda come back just to see if there's any aircrew discrepancies, go through
the post flight debrief, and just see what they bring up so you work any issues if there
are any issues, and help make the decision whether it's gonna be a go, no-go for the next day.
[Music]
>>I truly love my job, like it's never a dull moment, it's always gonna be something
different every day, I really love what I do.
[Music]