Civilians integral in Air Force mission

  • Published
  • By Senior Master Sgt. Cisco Johnstone
  • 56th Equipment Maintenance Squadron
LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. - --  A team of civilians has been performing essential repairs on grounded F-16 Fighting Falcons here and has worked closely with 56th Maintenance Group flightline and backshop maintainers since Aug. 25.

The depot field team from the 309th Maintenance Wing at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, has occupied Phase Dock 5 at Luke Air Force Base repairing cracks on aircraft bulkheads to ensure the training mission here continues unabated.

In November 2007, after finding cracks originating in a major structural component of the F-16 -- the 341.8 bulkhead -- the Air Force directed a one-time inspection of all these parts. The cracks affecting the bulkheads have varied in severity; resulting in recurring inspections on some jets, while others have been grounded. To date, F-16 block 42s in the 756th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron have been affected. This has limited aircraft availability, thus reducing the number of student pilots that can be trained.

Structural engineers at the Hill AFB depot designed a repair to allow the aircraft to continue operations until the planes are able to return to the depot for a complete bulkhead replacement. The process involves prepping the aircraft, stop-drilling the cracks and installing "beef-up" plates. Once the repairs are complete, the aircraft are built back up by an eight-member team
of crew chiefs from the 756th AMXS and allowed to fly until the bulkheads can be changed.

Curtis Hunt, Hill AFB depot field team lead, said the cooperation and synergy working with the Luke personnel has been extraordinary.

"The folks in the aircraft maintenance unit, maintenance flight and fabrication flight have been extremely responsive to our needs and have made this one of our best trips," Mr. Hunt said. "The first aircraft took about two and a half weeks to complete, but now we are knocking them out in
about seven or eight days. We couldn't do this without the exceptional support of the 56th Fighter Wing, our customer."

According to Lt. Meghan Bailey, 56th Equipment Maintenance Squadron Fabrication Flight commander, the depot team's assistance has been critical in returning 13 aircraft to fully mission-capable status.

"The work the depot field team is doing here is outstanding," said Lieutenant Bailey. "They came down to Luke and are performing a very lengthy and complex repair. With 20 aircraft still requiring the repair, they will be here until at least spring."

It hasn't been an easy feat, and before any repairs could be done, the team had to overcome a number of obstacles including constraints on time, facilities, support equipment and material resources, said Mr. Hunt. However, that didn't slow the efforts of the six-member team consisting of a supervisor and a mix of aircraft, structural and electrical personnel.

Ryan Schulfer, the work lead with the depot field team from Hill said working on the project has been a lot of hard work, but worth it.

"The support from the 56th MXG has been really outstanding and shows we're doing something important," he said. "We're trying to get these airplanes out as quickly as possible. We've all pulled together as a team to get it done. It has been a great experience."