Treading the AOR: maintenance flight the ‘wheel’ heroes

Published June 13, 2008
By Senior Airman Tong Duong
379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- While one Airman rolls a C-130 wheel and tire assembly across the room another starts the process of breaking his down. Bit by bit, he separates the two halves as pieces crumble off onto the floor; trying to keep up with customer demands, he wheels on.

Day in and day out, the two, four-member teams of the 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron's Component Intermediate Repair Facility, break down and build up wheels and tires for airframes here and throughout the U.S. Air Forces Central area of responsibility.

Around the clock, they service all C-130s, KC/RC-135s and E-6/8s wheel and tire assemblies in the AOR. The flight averages 15 assembly rebuilds a day.

With each C-130-type wheel and tire combo weighing in excess of 450 pounds, the benefits of having the shop here, is a cost-and-time savings for the Air Force. On average, the flight helps reduce the turn around time by two weeks, said Tech. Sgt. John Davis, 379th EMXS day shift noncommissioned officer in charge.

"Without our service, the 379th Expeditionary Logistic Readiness Squadron, which is also the wheel and tire flight's CIRF account manager, would have to process the old parts and ship them back to the states," Sergeant Davis, a C-130 crew chief of 15 years, said. "That could take weeks for the wheel and tire to be broken down, built up and shipped back here, just to have them flown to where they're needed again."

When the assemblies come in, they are still bolted together, unlike those on a car. Flight members make sure there is no air in them and then start the process of parting the inside and outside halves, the sergeant from Yokota Air Base, Japan, said.

When the two halves are separated and cleaned, they are sent to the other shops in the 379th EMXS. First, it's a trip to the non-destructive inspection where the parts go through a series of tests for cracks. From there the halves are painted by members of the fabrication flight. They are then sent back to be reassembled with serviceable hardware and new tire skin installed.

"The whole process can take 14 to 16 hours, from the minute they are received to the assembly and leak down check," Sergeant Davis said.

The CIRF's main mission is to sustain asset availability to transport aircraft around the AOR. The shop also has the capability to replace and repair the assemblies of other aircraft, such as B-1s, F-15/16s, U.S. Navy E-6s and similar coalition forces aircraft if need be, said Senior Master Sgt. John Jarmon, 379th EMXS Maintenance Flight Chief, deployed from Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash.

While the CIRF here already does several more assemblies each day than an average home station flight creates, with the summer heat, they will be in even greater demand, said Sergeant Davis.

"We are coming up on the busy season, even for your normal car tire, the heat can [wreck havoc] on it," he said. "In just the past week and a half, we've had three completely blown-out assemblies come in."

Two issues that can cause tires to wear out faster are heat and runway conditions. A new tire may only last up to three or four missions if the runway conditions are poor; however, on average, a new tire could last up to five months for a main landing gear and eight to 10 months on a nose-wheel assembly if conditions are ideal.

"I expect to see the numbers of assemblies we've been doing the last three weeks to almost double," Sergeant Davis said. "A surge will be coming soon, but we're geared up and ready for it."

For the opportunity to learn a new system, Senior Airman Jeffery Singer, an F-117 crew chief from Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., volunteered for this deployment.

"Our squadron is transitioning from the F-117 Night Hawks to F-22 Raptors," he said. "There is some down time in the squadron, plus I've always been interested in learning and working on different jets. I love getting dirty."

In addition to the F-117, Airman Singer has worked on F-16s and is now learning the F-22 system. Since his deployment here, he's worked on C-130 and KC/RC-135 wheels and tires as well, learning as he goes.

"My wheel and tire training was on fighters, which are 100 percent different from what we do here, so I had to start from scratch," he said. "But I'm not the only one; there are others here who come from different jets, so we're all learning together."

As members of the CIRF learned the new system, they also took the time to streamline their workstation.

"We've completely rearranged the shop to manage the process better," said Sergeant Davis.

The way the shop was organized before the assemblies had to be brought in one end of the shop and then criss-crossed back and forth as they went through the repair process. Now it can be done in a fluid motion, he said. The parts needed to assemble the wheels and tires, such as bearings and bolts, were also brought out from behind the cages so that members don't have to leave their work areas.

"The whole process saves us an average of 10 minutes an assembly, which may not seem like much, but when you assemble 15-20 wheels and tires a day, it adds up," Sergeant Davis said. "With so many coming in from throughout the AOR, and with our minimal crew and time constraints, we need to get the wheels in and out as soon as we can."