By Army Sgt. Matthew Acosta
22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment
FORWARD OPERATING BASE SPEICHER, Tikrit, Iraq- One of the quickest ways of travel across the Iraqi desert is by helicopter flight, but prolonged exposure to the dust and sand, can lead to premature wear of vital helicopter components causing unsafe operating conditions and in-flight malfunctions.
Preservation of these vital components calls for frequent inspections and servicing by maintenance crews who work 12-hour shifts in a 24-hour operation.
"For every operational hour of flight time, there are many hours of maintenance performed by the maintenance crews," said California National Guardsman Staff Sgt. John Ornalas, UH-60 airframe technician, Company C, 1st Battalion, 140th Aviation, Task Force Liberty. "Because the helicopters go up so often, we have to run a round-the-clock maintenance shop."
The battalion is from Los Alamitas, California.
The birds fly every day and sometimes the missions can be as long as eight hours. Over time, the gritty dust can accumulate and wear down parts while high temperatures dry out seals and bushings, Ornalas said.
There are several routine preventative measures the Soldiers perform to maintain the aircraft on a constant basis. After a mission, the flight crew is responsible for inspecting the aircraft, cleaning and checking various areas.
Ornalas said the flight crew performs a detailed check after every 10-flight hours. The aircraft are then completely inspected and lubricated after every 120 hours. The avionics systems are checked after every 350 hours and at every 700-hour phasing, the aircraft is almost entirely disassembled and inspected, to include the flight controls, rotor assemblies, engines, and airframe.
"If we discover a part or system that's needs servicing, it'll immediately be fixed, even if it's not scheduled for service at that time," Ornalas said. "The idea is to remain mission capable at all times.
"So far, the birds have each flown an average of 300 hours last month, many times the normal usage back in the states where the birds usually see an average of 200-300 hours a year."
Ornalas explained that typically the Blackhawks in California were used for pilot training, mock air-assault missions, and disaster relief, but now they are used so much, the workload sometimes overloads the National Guard technicians.
To share the workload of the maintenance, the Army contracted private UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter maintenance crews who work side-by-side with the Soldiers.
"Many of the workers here are technicians that work on these types of birds back home in California," said Sgt. Samuel Friedman, UH-60 technician. "This makes it easier to work here being used to the same type of work as at home. The civilians that works beside us are also a great help.
A lot of them are former military and so they already know how things are run around here; it makes for easier workdays."
Ornalas said that even with the help of the civilian technicians, the Soldiers work long, hard 12-hour shifts on the aircraft with one day off for every nine days of work.
"These guys are a really good crew, they work like crazy, and when we get behind, we pick up the pace," he said. "In fact, if they have all the necessary parts, with the combined support of the propeller, rotor and engine shop, the sheet metal and hydraulics shop and the avionics and electrical shop, the Soldiers can completely phase an aircraft in six weeks."
"We can do most of the same repairs here as we are capable of back in the rear in California, it just takes a bit longer," he added.
"Either way, our birds are always being maintained, because the most important thing in this business is that our guys come home safely in our birds."
| Date Taken: | 05.02.2005 |
| Date Posted: | 05.02.2005 07:30 |
| Story ID: | 1721 |
| Location: | TIKRIT, IQ |
| Web Views: | 191 |
| Downloads: | 10 |
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