Maintenance Airmen fight corrosion in belly of the beast

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Leo Brown
  • 442nd Fighter Wing public affairs
WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. --  It's amazing what an Airman can do with a little time and material.

When Airmen of the 442nd Fuel Cell shop discovered severe corrosion in a fuel cell on aircraft number 237 in late February, the wing's structure shop was faced with manufacturing and installing a floor in the cell, a repair job that had never been done at this wing.

This work is normally done in the A-10 depot at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, but once the Citizen Airmen looked deeper into the problem, they discovered Hill would not be an option.

"Once you open that cavity and determine the fuel cell is bad, then you have a situation of 'is the aircraft flyable?'," said Master Sgt. Brian Bass, an aircraft structural maintenance supervisor with the eight-man structure shop. "It was determined by upper management that the (repair) needed to be worked here."

"We've had similar cases in the past, but not quite to this extent," said Tech. Sgt. Rob Exendine, an aircraft structural mechanic.

These troops and their co-workers, then, have been on a month-long voyage into an unknown realm in the world of repairs. Sergeant Exendine said, however, that the "piece-meal" work, at least as of mid-April, is going well.

First, approval was needed for the work to be done at Whiteman, and that was granted in early April. Second, the 442nd troops needed to get the floor - or at least the material with which to manufacture one.

"It's (Hill's) job to provide us the part, unless we can manufacture it faster," Sergeant Exendine said. "They couldn't (provide the part) and this floor isn't manufactured anywhere, so we're going to manufacture a new piece."

The material for the floor was then ordered and received in early April. But the Airmen faced some very detailed work that required time and patience.

Making the floor is "a complicated trial and error," Sergeant Exendine said. He and his fellow Airmen made six floors and hoped one would fit, he noted. This involved great precision, as the Airmen had "to get every hole within the tolerance (diameter) allowed," he said. "If you're off when you drill a hole, then the part is scrapped."

When the six floors were made, they were taken to the Missouri Air National Guard's 139th Airlift Wing in St. Joseph where the Whiteman troops used a power roller to get a needed roll, or slope, in a side of the floors.

"Our shop isn't manned to be doing depot-level repairs, six- to eight-week repairs,'' Sergeant Bass said. "Those take us away from the flying mission."

He and Sergeant Exendine were quick to point out, though, that time and money are saved by doing the repair here.

"They're short three floors at Hill. If this aircraft went (there), it'd be there for six months," Sergeant Bass said. "There isn't anything we can't do. It's just a means of what it takes to get there."

"(We're) saving the unit a lot of money, instead of having to haul in a team from depot (to do the work)," Sergeant Exendine said. "Time and material - it's about all we need."