Creativity and a skilled eye keeps the mission running

by Airman 1st Class Tammie Ramsouer
JBER Public Affairs

5/19/2014 - JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARSON, Alaska  -- The 3rd Maintenance Squadron Fabrication Flight is doing its part to limit Air Force operational costs on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson.

Aircraft structural maintenance personnel restore the structural integrity of aircraft. This duty requires the use of materials such as titanium, aluminum, steel, carbon-fiber or any other materiel that provides aircraft with refurbished environmental or structural protection.

"Our job is important, because it repairs the structural grade of the aircraft and keeps the aircraft in the air," said Janny Dunlavey, 3rd Maintenance Squadron aircraft structural maintenance craftsman civilian. "Our job could vary from repairing a small crack to an entire aircraft wing."

Dunlavey and her peers' job starts by first assessing damage on an aircraft to determine what type of repair is needed. Then they call for a transport for the aircraft to go to a hangar, where the repair crews work around-the-clock shifts to make the aircraft mission ready.

Personnel also repaint the aircraft's exterior to avoid further damage being done to exposed sheet metal. Rather than contracting with a private organization, members simply handle the job themselves.

"When people think of sheet metal, they normally think of nut-plates, rivets and any other material associated with an aircraft's outer hull," Dunlavey said. "We, as aircraft structural maintenance personnel, are charged with the tasks of restoring the body of an aircraft to its original state."

The maintenance personnel not only uses sheet metal, but they also use aluminum, steel, titanium, carbon fiber, fiberglass and many more materials when fixing damages on aircraft.

Airman 1st Class Devid Doronin, 3rd Maintenance Squadron aircraft structural maintenance apprentice, said some of the repairs could take from one to two hours and up to three days.

"Airmen must constantly adapt to repair challenges because of the unpredictability of damage to an aircraft," said Tech. Sgt. Donald Penn, 3rd Maintenance Squadron aircraft structural maintenance section chief. "They pride themselves in being able to repair a crack if it's within their capabilities and limitations."

If the repair is beyond the limitations of the shop, they start a Request Engineering Disposition Instruction process, which asks the aircraft manufacturer for authorization to make or repair the part. Pieces that cannot be fabricated or repaired using the REDI process are transported to Robins Air Force Base in Warner Robins, Ga. Robins is the Air Force-owned major repair center and is just one of the major repair facilities that specializes in replacing heavily damaged aircraft material.

"I have only been here a year and two months, and I did not expect to learn the amount of creativity you need in this career field in order to fix these aircraft," Doronin said. "I've built things here that I never would have imagined building."

The pressure is always on the aircraft structural maintenance shop personnel to get the repairs done as soon as possible due to the high-mission tempo rate at JBER, but it's a challenge they said they welcome.

"The highlight of my job is knowing the 3rd Wing's mission is a success when I see those aircraft take-off," Penn said. "At the end of the day, we put those planes back in the sky and we save lives by fixing them correctly."