Powering flightline activities

Published March 17, 2009
By Senior Airman Brok McCarthy
379th Air Expeditionary Wing Public Affairs

SOUTHWEST ASIA -- The 379th Expeditionary Maintenance Squadron Aerospace Ground Equipment flight lives by a saying - "There is no airpower without ground power." That's because the flight is responsible for all the equipment used to test the systems of more than 100 joint and coalition aircraft stationed here without having to run the aircraft's engines.

"We maintain, inspect, repair and deliver 551 pieces of equipment in support of the Air Force, Navy and coalition aircraft here on base," said Senior Master Sgt. Fredrick Donecker, AGE flight chief, who is deployed from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas. "Everything that's green, gray or tan on the flightline is AGE. There is almost no maintenance performed on an aircraft without our stuff."

The flight receives approximately 330 requests for AGE support per day, or more than 120,000 requests per year, which is more than four state-side Air Force bases combined, the San Antonio native said.

In order to provide equipment to customers as quickly as possible, drivers are used to move AGE from various storage locations on the flightline.

"We have eight drivers to cover all the ramps here," said Staff Sgt. Dolan Simpson, assistant NCO in charge of AGE servicing, who is deployed from Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska. "Once they leave the shop, I very rarely see them until the end of the day. Our main method of communicating with them is land mobile radios."

In addition to delivering the equipment, flight members are responsible for performing any maintenance required to keep the AGE in working order. In the past year, flight members performed maintenance on the equipment more than 5,700 times. Sergeant Donecker said one of the most important jobs they have is maintaining the flight's 66 air conditioners.

"Air conditioning support is one of the most critical things on this flightline and keeping our air conditioning fleet running is one of the most difficult things we do," Sergeant Donecker said. "As the summer heat comes, it's tough on our equipment, especially the air conditioners."

The cooling units are used to cool an aircraft's avionics or other electrical systems when Airmen are working on them. Sergeant Donecker said without the cold air cooling the components, they would generate too much heat and systems would be damaged.

Despite any maintenance concerns, the flight keeps 96 percent of its equipment in working order, a rate Sergeant Donecker said most AGE flights never see.

"It's very difficult for an AGE flight to reach a 96 percent in-commission rate, and we are actually holding at it and should be at 97 percent soon," he said. "An average shop would be between 86 and 92 percent, so we are doing extremely well. People work [hard] here and they are very focused on getting their jobs done.

Part of the reason the flight sustains such a high in-commission rate is they are able to order parts and receive them quicker than a home station flight would, he said. He also attributed it to the high morale and work ethic of the Airmen here.

"Our job is about getting everything to a level that's really steady," he said. "Where the flightline has surges, our workload remains about the same regardless if the planes are flying or not. So we don't have a lot of down time, but we aren't running around like chickens with our heads cut off."

"People can see we are doing well here, and it makes them want to do more," Sergeant Donecker said. "We have good supervision and good people overall in our flight and we keep everyone informed. They all know our stuff is important and that makes them want to work to keep us going strong."