Reservist sets 'bench' mark for AF A-10 canopy repairs

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Tom Talbert and Master Sgt. Bill Huntington
  • 442nd Fighter Wing Public Affairs
WHITEMAN AIR FORCE BASE, Mo. --  When the 442nd Maintenance Squadron needs to repair one of the wing's A-10 canopies, they mount the Plexiglas domes on a work bench called a "canopy rigging fixture."

The problem is the canopy rigging fixtures they and other Air Force Warthog maintainers have had to use over the years are designed for F-16 - and not A-10 - canopies.

Now, thanks to the Air Force's edict to finally use the right rigging fixtures for A-10s, the determination of Master Sgt. Brian Bass, 442nd Structures Flight chief, and a Technical Sergeant in the Flight's Metals Technology shop able to take on tasks that would make television's McGyver panic, the Air Force finally has the right fixture for the job.

After a year-long effort, Tech. Sgt. Calvin Carter can now add inventor to his long list of accomplishments.

The Air Force decided in 2005 that the current model of fixture for rigging could no longer be used but they needed a workaround. They also had real doubts about finding a solution "in-house."

"They told us at a conference that no field unit had the expertise or capability to manufacture the proper fixture based on the old complex drawings," he said. "I begged to differ. Knowing we had people working in our shop with 20- or 30-years experience, I knew we could make it."

He also knew who could come up with a plan to make it happen so walked away from the apprehensive chief engineer and the active-duty personnel at the conference determined to prove the skeptics wrong.

"I call it the 'Carter Conversion,'" Sergeant Bass said of the Sergeant's plan. "(That is) based on just my confidence in Sergeant Carter's abilities and his ingenuity and willingness to commit to excellence,."

When something is broken, it's not surprising when Sergeant Carter of the metals technology shop is called on to roll up his BDU sleeves and fix it. He was long familiar with the problems caused by using the F-16 canopy fixture.

One big problem Sergeant Carter had noted was fixtures used at other bases didn't have a center rest to hold the correct angle for the back bow of the canopy, and as a result it might not correctly seal when closed on the aircraft.

"If you lose the bow, when the canopy is brought down it doesn't mate up to the windscreen," Sergeant Carter said. "Even when you inflate the seal, you still get air escaping. It might be good enough to get by for a flight, but it can still leak rain down inside the cockpit."

To correct that problem, the 442nd maintainers here had modified the fixture they used and added a center rest. Other units came up with their own versions of answers to the problem.

Still, the Air Force had decreed uniformity in all of the fixtures so Sergeant Carter and his maintenance shop took a set of complex 30-year-old drawings and, in their down-time, started to design and build what was to become the Air Force prototype for A-10 canopy transparency rigging fixtures.

"We looked over the drawings, checked all of the numbers, ordered materials and we began to build the fixture," Sergeant Carter said.

As the fixture came together, it soon became apparent to the reservists that all was not right with the original drawings and specifications.

"In the process of building it we would discover things that weren't feasible or weren't going to be very effective." Sergeant Carter said. "I let them know that changes would have to be made and they just told me to press on, and then once I was done to make note of all of the changes that we made and what their dimensions were.

"They came out, inspected it and checked all of the tolerances," Sergeant Carter said. "They made sure all of the angles were correct."

The hard work and attention to detail paid off. The Air Force accepted all modifications and decided to make the Whiteman fixture the prototype for all A-10 units.

"They are adjusting the original drawings to match what we did here at Whiteman," Sergeant Carter said. "They redid the drawings so that the rest of the A-10 units can build their fixtures like ours."

Using unit funds and working only between other assigned tasks, Sergeant Carter and his co-workers had not only figured out how to manufacture the fixture, but created a dual-purpose transportation and rigging fixture vastly improving the original design and ended up setting the standard for the Air Force.