Photo By Master Sgt. Timothy Chacon | Airmen and civilians from the 62nd Maintenance Squadron move a replacement C-17...... read more read more
Team McChord Airmen recently performed an uncommon maintenance action to a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft flight control as maintainers from the 62nd Maintenance Squadron at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington changed out a faulty C-17 flap April 6.
The 2,200 pound flap replaced a faulty flap and is the first flap change to ever be completed by maintainers at McChord Field.
“We got the best of the best of our shop here working on it,” said Master Sgt. Andrew Mujica, 62nd MXS maintenance flight repair and reclamation section chief. “This expands the capabilities of the technicians and shows what they are truly capable of.”
The new flap arrived at the base on March 22 and took more than a week to be prepped for the installation.
"It's a big job,” said Staff Sgt. Ryan Hughes, 62nd MXS maintenance flight repair and reclamation lead technician. “With a primary flight control system this is a good experience for our people to get to do something we don't get to do every day.”
Because of the magnitude of the job, the flap change is considered a depot level maintenance action, said Hughes. As a result, this prevents the aircraft from having to be decommissioned for maintenance by Boeing and saves the Air Force time and money by completing it in-house.
“The training received and the money saved by doing this in house is very beneficial,” said Hughes. “Essentially this is just another flight control. It's just bigger than any of the other ones.”
Because this is a rare opportunity for maintainers, the changing of the flap provides Airmen a valuable training opportunity.
“This lets our younger Airmen get an opportunity to showcase their skills and gain experience to take with them through their career,” said Hughes. “Not too many other bases have changed out this flight component.”
To complete the job, maintainers had to work with other flight repair and reclamation shops in California and South Carolina for tools and advice.
“This is a lot bigger job than others and its lot easier to damage something if not properly installed,” said Hughes. “We’ve been communicating with Joint Base Charlston, South Carolina and Travis Air Force Base, California, about this job. This is a lot of trial and error.”
Although a difficult and time consuming task, Team McChord maintainers are up to the challenge, said Hughes.
“Gaining this experience with this system makes us more knowledgeable as a shop,” said Hughes. “It is depot level maintenance and to say that we did it, is awesome.”
| Date Taken: | 04.10.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 05.08.2017 13:59 |
| Story ID: | 232771 |
| Location: | JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, WASHINGTON, US |
| Web Views: | 29 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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