Fairchild maintainers accomplish mission from 3 locations

Published Feb. 18, 2011
By Senior Airman Natasha E. Stannard
92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs

FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. -- Editor's note: This is the last in a three-part series about Fairchild maintenance Airmen working around-the-clock operations from three different locations to keep KC-135 Stratotankers mission ready. While Fairchild reconstructs its runway, tankers will fly from two separate locations -- Spokane International Airport and Grant County International Airport in Moses Lake, Wash. While the aircraft are no longer at Fairchild, maintenance still continues on base as well as these two locations.

While Fairchild's runway is closed and being reconstructed, the 92nd Maintenance Squadron and 141st Maintenance Squadron are repairing KC-135 Stratotanker parts at Fairchild without the aircraft there.

Aircraft are being flown out of Grant County International Airport and Spokane International Airport during the closure to continue supporting the refueling mission and maintainers are working alongside to perform scheduled flightline maintenance. However, when unforeseen maintenance comes up, the broken parts can't always be fixed at these new locations because they can't support the same equipment as the base, so maintainers bring the parts to Fairchild and repair them there.

"Structural maintenance uses large equipment to bend metal," said Chief Master Sgt. William Cole, 92nd Maintenance Squadron chief. "This equipment is too large to move, so it's easier to ship aircraft components rather than the equipment. The accessories flight transports engine batteries because it would be less cost efficient to keep them at Grant County because we would need to set up a shop. They also have different power sources which we would have to change."

Recently, the aerospace ground equipment flight delivered an engine ring cowl from Moses Lake to Fairchild because it needed to be re-fabricated with metal bending equipment by the aircraft structural maintenance flight.

Tools that can be supported by the other locations are also driven out, as needed. Grant County International can house more tools like wrenches and tire jacks because it has a hangar to keep them in.

"We did a lot of coordination with supply to pre-position tools for the aircraft before we even left for Grant County," Chief Cole said. "We had everything ready ahead of time by setting up transportation to get the equipment for scheduled maintenance to Spokane International and Grant County."

Spokane International doesn't have its own hangar, so maintenance Airmen prepare tool boxes for scheduled work, which they bring back and forth from Fairchild daily, but if unforeseen maintenance comes up they deliver additional tools.

"If unscheduled maintenance comes up, we still have to get the mission done, so we need to be five steps ahead of everything to make that happen," said Chief Cole. "This is a good lesson in being resourceful. Airmen are making things happen in deployment-like situations, which is giving them a great deal of experience."

"It can be challenging because the tools we need aren't always on- hand, but we try to fully prepare for problems we hope don't come up," said Airman 1st Class Myles Krischel, 92nd Maintenance Squadron maintainer.

Airmen are also working in areas they didn't encounter as often when flying operations were consolidated to one location.

"The Maintenance Squadron's mission is to rebuild parts, but now we're assisting launches, recoveries, pre-flight and post flight inspections," Chief Cole said." Before this move, we didn't do that as often. Now, we're helping with launch support every day."

"Our workload at Fairchild has slowed down a bit because the aircraft aren't here, but we're traveling from Fairchild to Spokane International to take care of launches and recoveries," said Airman 1st Class Tate Andrews, 92nd Maintenance Squadron aircraft structural maintainer. "We're there to cover launches in case problems arise that way we're there to fix them."

When aircraft were at Fairchild, maintenance Airmen didn't have to leave their regular workstations. If something came up they were already on location. If something were to come up now, like a screw coming loose during a launch at Spokane International and maintenance Airmen weren't already there it would cost a lot of time to gather tools, drive and repair it, so Airmen are on location during takeoffs and landings to avoid this problem.

"We're not just back shops," Chief Cole said. "Our Airmen are working out on the line, being flexible, thinking ahead and working out of their comfort zones to make the mission happen."

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