FWAATS (ng.mil)

Fixed Wing Army National Guard Aviation Training Site

The mission of the Fixed Wing ARNG Aviation Training Site (FWAATS) is to conduct individual aircrew training in modernized fixed wing aircraft operated by the United States Military. Emphasis is on aircraft and instructor qualification courses under the Total Army School System (TASS). Additional aviation standardization and safety training is conducted at the direction of the National Guard Bureau and the U.S. Army’s Operational Support Airlift Agency.

The aviation training facility is the result of detailed planning and vision by leaders in the Army National Guard. The 35,000 square foot building is unique in the Army in that it is the only structure designed specifically for the conduct of fixed wing training. Some of the special hangar features include: vertically opening hangar doors, translucent hangar panels that allow natural light into the maintenance area, and a four-thousand-pound capacity overhead crane that traverses seventy-five percent of the hangar work area.

The administrative section of the building includes office space for cadre members, five automated classrooms, a flight operations area, and a flight planning room that includes automated weather and flight planning capability.

The training site presently operates two C-12 Hurons (Beechcraft King Airs) and one C-26 (Fairchild Metroliner).

The Fixed Wing ARNG Aviation Training Site presently employs thirty people made up of military instructor cadre and support staff, civilian maintenance contractors who perform aircraft maintenance, facility maintenance, and security. The organization may receive additional personnel and resources in the future to accommodate increasing training requirements.

The Army National Guard has trained approximately two hundred aircrew members per year at North Central West Virginia Airport since 1992. FWAATS hosts military aviators from all corners of the globe. Students routinely report that their training experience and stay here in West Virginia was the finest of their military and aviation careers.