POPE AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. -- Using personal ingenuity and skills developed through his civilian job, Capt. Christopher Triplett is now saving the Air Force thousands of dollars.
The 95th Airlift Squadron pilot with web consulting experience developed an Internet version of the aircrew training period (TP) program, allowing Airmen to log their TPs from any government computer via the web. The TP program previously resided on a single computer in the squadron's headquarters at Pope Air Force Base, N.C.
"With the squadron moving to Pope last year it became a priority to find a solution since many of our reservists flying C-130 training missions in the Milwaukee-area would not have access to the TP computer located at Pope," said Captain Triplett. "Since Reserve aircrew members are in positions that require constant training to stay proficient, we are given a specific amount of TPs a year so we can get paid to maintain our currency. But that doesn't help if we can't access the TP program."
Captain Triplett's web-based innovation solves that problem.
"The simple advantage of AFTPweb is that each aircrew member's TP data resides on a web-based database that is accessible from any federal government computer," he explained. "This means centralized reporting for the ARMS folks at Pope. In addition, I added some features that make it easier for squadron schedulers and supervisors to keep track of individual member accomplishments."
The Reservist said some of the functionality was available in the old program, but the 95th AS scheduler would have to physically go to the single computer to print the reports. Under the new TP program, they can access all the documentation from their work desk or through the web.
Aircrew training periods fall into two categories: aircrew flying TP (AFTP) and aircrew ground TP (AGTP). Reservists enter their TP times and event summary into the computer program. ARMS then generates a finance report listing all of the accomplished TPs from the day prior, and submit to finance for payment.
Captain Triplett said it took about three months to design, develop and implement AFTPweb.
After he finished the project prototype, Chief Master Sgt. Linda Dilley, 95th AS ARMS superintendent, flew with him to AFRC headquarters to give a presentation to A6 seeking approval for the program.
"It turns out they were just about to start developing a web-based PT program that would be incorporated into other programs, and they were thrilled this portion of development was already done. They quickly gave us approval to use the program, and they plan to incorporate my design into the new web-based version of the UTAPS (Unit Training Assembly Participation System) finance application."
Since AFTPweb was locally developed and there is no centralized support available yet, only 440th aircrew members are allowed to use it. Once the developers at Robins AFB, Ga., incorporate the computer code into the UTAPS, it will be available AFRC-wide.
"Eventually the old TP finance report will become obsolete," said Captain Triplett. "Once AFRC goes to our program, it will become a completely paperless process."
440th senior leadership applauds Captain Triplett's innovation. "Chris Triplett and the 95th have set the benchmark," said Col. Merle D. Hart, 440th Airlift Wing commander.
"AFTPweb saves a tremendous amount of time and money. Chris developed the program at the lowest level with first hand operational knowledge of application requirements, and then handed AFRC a completely functional and tested program."
Normally a team of developers would spend countless hours researching project requirements, going through the lengthy pre-approval process, and months of beta testing before the first application would be available for release. At this time, AFTP is approved for 440th Airlift Wing use only. Captain Triplett will be working with AFRC web developers as an operational liaison as the TP gets encompassed into UTAPS.
USAF. (U.S. Air Force Graphic by Rosario "Charo" Gutierrez)