Thursday, January 19, 2012

TOP STORY >>Qualified to fly

By Staff Sgt. Jacob Barreiro
19th Airlift Wing Public Affairs

A lot of work goes into maintaining the largest fleet of C-130 airplanes in the world residing on base here. Countless hours and unmatched effort are put into making these airplanes mission capable and ready to fly, and, for the Airmen working at the 314th Maintenance Operation Group Quality Assurance unit, the details can be deviling.

The group QA team oversees and assures the maintenance compliance of 28 C-130H and J model airplanes. Each airplane has numerous pieces of equipment requiring thorough and detailed inspections; this requires routine maintenance inspections on top of additional check-ups required for repairs or replaced pieces of equipment. Yet, these inspections and checkups, while routine, are anything but perfunctory ... the team of inspectors understand the impact and consequences of missed details.

Tech Sgt. George Terrell, 314th MXG avionics quality insurance inspector, said the QA team inspects nothing less than all of the systems on these 28 airplanes.

“We check all the systems that let the pilot know what direction they’re going, how fast they’re going, if they’re going up or down, what altitude the aircraft is (flying) at,” said Terrell.

The job of inspecting aircraft requires diligence and thoroughness, said Terrell.

“Every maintenance action that’s performed on the aircraft has a governing directive of some sort,” said Terrell. “The majority of them are covered in technical orders, we use those along with maintenance group operating instructions, Little Rock operating instruction, Air Force Occupational Safety and Health standards, and that’s just to assess how well individuals (maintaining the aircraft) have complied with those publications.”

The publications governing the maintenance of the airplanes are based on the specific type of maintenance action being performed. Terrell said it is the QA team’s job to ensure these publications are being adhered to because he knows that if they aren’t, the consequences can be serious.

“The impact (of what we do) is significant,” said Terrell. “What we do is tied directly to the (Logistics Compliance Assessment Program) inspection, and basically the quality assurance is the maintenance component of the LCAP. Those guys come to measure compliance, and on a day to day basis that’s what we do too. If we do our job well, we should be able to give an indication of what we should get on an LCAP.”

Maintaining inspection-readiness and mission capability is a large part of the QA team’s function; however, an equally important aspect of what they do is ensuring safety standards are being met.

“Compliance with publications goes hand-in-hand with safety,” said Terrell. “We’ve got to keep people safe and alive on the flight lines, and when people deviate from the prescribed procedures, that’s when the potential for injury or mishaps is greatly increased.”

As much responsibility as his unit has for maintaining the safety of the airplanes on base, Terrell acknowledges that the maintenance isn’t a one man, or one unit, job.

“It’s takes a lot of coordination and looking into the details,” he said. “From the people doing the repairs to my unit inspecting them, there are a lot of details that go into maintaining these aircraft.”
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