Capt. Tim Thackaberry, 16th Airlift Squadron pilot, goes over a mission plan July 19, 2018, prior to flying a sortie to test C-17 Pilot-Directed Airdrop capability. During standard airdrop operations, if the aircraft computers are not functioning properly, the aircrew decides if they are going to take another pass and try to reboot the system or return without completing the airdrop. However, with PDA, if the system were not working, the right additional crewmember would replace the functions of the computer and assist the pilots in getting over the drop zone and successfully dropping the cargo.