Last stop before Chinook flight

Photo By Monica Guthrie | Chief Warrant Officer Steve Kuritko, Company B, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment inspects a Chinook, Jan. 28, at the Combat Aviation Brigade flight line, Baghdad.  

BAGHDAD, IRAQ

01.29.2008

Story by Spc. Monica Guthrie 

3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division

By Pfc. Monica K. Smith
3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division

CAMP STRIKER, Iraq – Chinooks are big, too big to fly during the day because they make a large target for enemy fire. Occasionally though, a Chinook will be seen flying over Baghdad international airport during daylight hours, performing maintenance test flights.

The Army is the only branch of service which requires a separate pilot to fly maintenance test flights. Maintenance test pilots are the final stop in the maintenance process.

"It's like when you drop off your car at a Chevy dealer and after they fix it they drive it around the block to make sure everything works and nothing falls off - that's what we do," said Chief Warrant Officer Stephen Kuritko, maintenance test pilot with Company B, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Aviation Regiment.

After the mechanics have completed their maintenance work on an aircraft the test pilots perform a maintenance check that can be as simple as one flight or last two weeks depending on the extent of the maintenance work, said Kuritko.

"An engine performance check could take you two to four days," Kuritko said. "We check everything by the book. Starting with a ground run, where we crank the engine on the ground, we run the Chinook up and keep progressing all the way up to top speed checking things on our way. That's with scheduled maintenance."

Unscheduled maintenance usually occurs when a problem arises during a mission the night prior. In those instances, maintenance is often concentrated on particular areas and not all checks require a flight. However if the pilots don't know what caused a problem, test pilots will fly the aircraft to try and reproduce the problem in order to repair it.

"Troubleshooting is the hardest part," said Chief Warrant Officer Ron Durham, also a test pilot with Co. B, 2-3rd Avn. Regt. "Diagnosing an intermittent problem, a problem where sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't, is very hard. But it's very fulfilling; it makes me feel good when I discover and work on a problem and then I go out there and fly it and I see that I actually fixed the problem."

There are four Chinook maintenance test pilots, Durham and Kuritko in Co. B, 2-3rd Avn. Regt., Maj. Rogers Stinson, Company B, 603rd Aviation Support Battalion, and Chief Warrant Officer David Campbell of Company D, 2-3rd Avn. Regt. The advantage of having dedicated maintenance test pilots is while other pilots handle missions, test pilots focus on Chinook maintenance, said Kuritko.

"They'll fly a mission at night and the maintenance test pilots come in the morning and see what needs to be worked on," Kuritko said. "It's funny because the other pilots think we can fix everything. They say, 'it's messed up' and walk away from (the aircraft), but we don't have a bag of magic; it takes some work."

That work comes in the form of good test pilots whom Durham calls, "a special breed."

"You have to volunteer to be a test pilot, your company doesn't just select you," Durham said. "You have to use your mind. If the aircraft breaks and the guys fix the aircraft, it's up to us to make sure everything is functioning properly, that it's air worthy."

Although test pilots are the final stop in the maintenance process, Kuritko says the pilots who fly missions have the real final say.

"When you give it to the line pilots and they fly it down range, did they accept it or not?" Kuritko said. "You have to ask, 'Are they happy with it?' If they're happy, we're good."

• Date Taken: 01.29.2008
• Date Posted: 01.29.2008 12:17
• Story ID: 15889
• Location: BAGHDAD, IQ