14th FTW advances in "King of the Hill"

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Charles Dickens
  • 14th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
COLUMBUS AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  Over the past two months the 14th Flying Training Wing has shown its success in cost conservation. The 14th FTW has won two match-ups in Air Education and Training Command's "King of the Hill" competition.

The wings around AETC have submitted their best ideas for saving money throughout their bases, and this competition helps them prove that their idea is the best with Airmen from across the command to vote on which ideas are best in a bracket-style elimination event.

The 14th FTW's submitted C3 idea is the changes and solutions that were made to decrease airflow and increase energy efficiency in the paint booth. The innovative solutions created for the paint booth saves over $125,000 per year in energy and operations and maintenance, reducing energy consumption by 50 percent and maintenance painting backlog by 75 percent.

The competition began June 10, with the 14th FTW being in the first bracket. During the first round of the competition, the 14th FTW took on the 37th Training Wing's idea of issuing handheld tablets or e-readers to Medical Education and Training Campus students.

After winning the first round, the 14th FTW faced off against the Headquarters of AETC's idea for centralized disbursement.

The 14th FTW's idea won the second round as well and will be up against the 12th Flying Training Wing, Randolph AFB, Texas July 15.

As of the writing of this article, the 14th FTW has the fifth highest participation rating within the competition at 60.31 percent, which is a large rise over the 18.77 percent total participation two weeks ago.

"Throughout the competition, I am personally asking each of you to go to the "King of the Hill" website once a day and vote for the best idea you see on that day," said Col. Jim Sears, 14th Flying Training Wing Commander. "While it is important that we compete well, I am more interested in learning what some of the great ideas are, throughout AETC, that we might be able to use in making us more innovative, efficient and better able to execute our mission to produce pilots, advance Airmen and feed the fight."

To vote during the "King of the Hill" competition, please visit https://www-r.aetc.af.mil/sc/c3/wp/main.asp# and cast your vote! This website must be accessed on a CAC-enabled computer.