Photo By Lance Cpl. Jenna Loofe | Corporal Kevin Adams, a phase crew helicopter mechanic with Marine Medium Helicopter...... read more read more
Subscribe
CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. - Every 150 flight hours, Marine Aircraft Group 39 CH-46E Sea Knight helicopters need to go through extensive maintenance in order to maintain their mission capability.
Phase crew, which is comprised of hand-picked Marines who have shown mechanical aptitude, strong work ethic and the desire to learn, is tasked with performing this maintenance to keep the helicopters in the air while maintaining the safety of the pilots.
“Phase crew’s job directly affects the readiness of the unit,” said Staff Sgt. Jamal Harris, an aircraft mechanic. “The number of aircraft ready to deploy at any time is directly based off of how fast and proficient they are with maintenance and inspections.”
Helicopter inspections are laid out in a series of cards, or checklists, which call for a number of maintenance procedures. These range from checking flight controls, engines, transmissions or bodywork, and include looking for serious damage, such as cracks in the framework, explained Staff Sgt. Joshua Gagne, the phase crew staff noncommissioned officer.
“From start to finish, working eight hours a day, it takes about a week and a half to complete each phase,” said Gagne. “If we were to do all four phases, it would take us more than a month.”
Phase is an advanced hands-on experience for anyone trying to stay in the aviation community, said Lance Cpl. Reilly Cocklin, an aircraft mechanic. It’s more than mechanics learning to maintain the helicopters efficiently; it’s also maintaining the mission capability of that aircraft because they can only sustain flight for so long before requiring a major overhaul.
“I learned maintenance procedures I’ve never done, pulling flight controls, smoke shields and really major jobs you won’t do in the flight line shop unless there’s something really wrong with the helicopter,” said Cpl. Kevin Adams, an aircraft mechanic. “Phase shows you how to be proficient at your job and how to take ownership of the jobs you do, because people fly on these aircraft and you’ve got to make sure they’re ready.”
Phase crew Marines are specifically trained work together to make sure the helicopters are safe and ready to fly.
“We have qualified individuals from each MOS within the unit, so each individual has an opportunity to look at their specific components,” said Gagne. “Once the qualified individual says yes, that component is good to go, it will pass that specific inspection.”
Sometimes there may only be one Marine who is certified to inspect a certain component, which could lead to an expectation of a bottleneck in the process, said Cocklin. The phase crew Marines avoid that by getting their work loads and working through them efficiently. They don’t try to rush the job, but they finish as fast and as safely as possible to get the helicopters back in the sky.
“Without them we won’t have aircraft ready to fly,” said Harris. “We maintain them but the phase crew conducts the major inspections to ensure that we have safe aircraft out there on the line.”
| Date Taken: | 09.30.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 10.02.2014 18:49 |
| Story ID: | 144123 |
| Location: | CAMP PENDLETON, CALIFORNIA, US |
| Web Views: | 68 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Marines develop new skills through phase crew, by LCpl Jenna Loofe, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
No keywords found.
