Structural maintenance flight keeps JBER airworthy

Published Dec. 4, 2015
By Airman 1st Class Kyle Johnson
JBER Public Affairs

JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska -- Airman Melissa Weaver, an aircraft structural maintenance apprentice with the Aircraft Structural Maintenance Flight, 3rd Maintenance Squadron, stepped into the small paint room clad from head to toe in a suit one might expect to find in a gas chamber.

Once inside, she adjusted the nozzle on her industrial paint gun with a few latex-covered fingers until she gets just the right spread she needs to efficiently prime the Northrop KD2R5 wing behind her.

The KD2R5, a basic training drone used by at least 18 countries in the mid-twentieth century as target practice for pilots, can stay in flight via radio controls for up to an hour, and has a wingspan of three and a half meters.

To help out the community with available resources, this particular drone is destined to hang in a museum as a key piece of aeronautical history; but on a normal operational basis, Weaver is used to much bigger aircraft, in a much bigger paint room.

To be more precise, it's a paint hangar, or as the locals call it, "the paint barn" - essentially an entire hangar which has ventilation for chemicals, heating elements for curing, and all the supplies at a body shop.

Instead of half-century-old drones for museums, here, Weaver and other ASM Airmen repair structural and paint damage on C-17 Globemaster IIIs and E-3 Sentries.

"We're basically body mechanics, but for aircraft," said Senior Airman Kurtis Steinecke, aircraft structural maintenance journeyman with the 3rd MXS.

ASM Airmen ensure the structural support, exterior body and paint on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson's heavy aircraft and their ground equipment is maintained and operational at all times.

"We cover a very wide spectrum of maintenance," Steinecke said. "If it's not electronic or engine-related, it's us."

Because the C-17s are mostly composite, and F-22 Raptors are handled by the low-observable structural maintenance team, they see a lot of composite material repair.

Composite laminates have several layers, or plies, which are sealed together by applying resin and heat, Steinecke said.

There are many different kinds of composites, but the most well-known is carbon fiber.

"Composites often get [delamination], which is a separation of the plies," Steinecke said. "That's important to catch as soon as possible because just a slight delam lets moisture in and causes increased deterioration."

If even a small delamination goes unnoticed or unattended, it could eventually create a catastrophic scenario for the crew of the aircraft, Weaver said.

In addition to composite materials, they do sheet metal repairs on the aircraft that require it. The process is completely different, but the risks, importance and significance are the same.

When a hunk of metal 174 feet long is flying around the globe at 450 knots, little cracks can quickly become large problems.

That's why aircraft receive regular preventative maintenance year-round. If an aircraft needs body maintenance, it need not to be sent thousands of miles away on the Air Force dime to get a touch-up; it can just taxi into the paint barn with some paperwork and be back in operation with minimal delay.

"Flightline would taxi the aircraft in, from there they change it's paperwork over to us and it's completely our jet," Steinecke said. "Then, we start by finding the areas they want fixed, we sand it, clean it, treat it for corrosion, then prime and paint."

In a typical month, they usually perform repairs like this on three aircraft. Over time, their efforts save the Air Force millions of dollars.
"We save the Air Force tons of money by preventing them from having to purchase new parts and aircraft," Weaver said.

"The in-house repairs we do may cost us $1,000, but it would cost much more otherwise," Steinecke said. "Instead of sending the planes off for paint every year, they can do it every few years and save a lot of money there as well."

ASM also helps maintain the aircraft ground equipment associated with JBER's heavy aircraft.

"We do AGE repairs too. If they need the paint stripped, we'll either blast them, use chemical stripper, or mechanical removers like wire wheels," Steinecke said. "From there, it'll go to metals [technology] where they'll weld the areas that need fixed. Then it comes back to us and we're in charge of painting those as well."

The classic bombers bearing distinctive pin-ups are now a thing of the past, replaced by slate-grey aircraft with a singular - and deadly - purpose, but that doesn't mean there's no significance to a nice paint job.

"Yes, the paint looks pretty," Weaver said. "But it stops corrosion."

"Corrosion would start off small like simple rust," Steinecke said. "If you let the surface rust go, it's going to rust through until that panel completely falls off."

"Then the substructure is going to fall apart and pretty soon you won't have an aircraft," Weaver said.

That surface rust can compromise static aircraft just as easily as operational aircraft and because of that, all the static aircraft on base belong to the ASM shop.

Soon, they are scheduled to give the C-130 Hercules in front of the 3rd Wing Headquarters a makeover.

Aircraft Structural Maintenance Airmen work on drones and statics, but their real bread and butter is keeping crews safe by ensuring they can count on their aircraft as they fly across the globe.