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Guard, Reserve maintainers train to recover disabled aircraft

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Mark Hybers
  • 507th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Oklahoma Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve maintenance crews came together June 20 for a crash damaged disabled aircraft recovery exercise at the aircraft battle damage repair facility.

The annual exercise gives members of the crash teams a real-world experience by performing an actual aircraft lift while using related equipment.

The scenario for this year's exercise had a KC-135 Stratotanker's nose gear collapse upon landing. The crash crew was notified of the incident and responded.

After being released by the on-scene commander, the Reserve's 507th Air Refueling Wing maintenance team chief determines if the aircraft would have to be airbag lifted from the nose for inspection. The crash team was dispatched along with a KC-135 airframe engineer and jacking subject matter expert as well as the equipment to support the lift.

The team simulated defueling the aircraft and reading it to be lifted. Two aircraft 26-ton airbags were placed at the nose in order to lift and perform the inspection, while four of the same airbags were placed at the tail station to stabilize and prevent the aircraft from sitting on the tail.

Although the base has cranes that would normally be used to lift an aircraft in the event of nose gear failure, Master Sgt. Jason Lawson, exercise facilitator of the 507th Maintenance Squadron, said, "I think simulation with the aircraft airbags is great training in the event we could not get access to the cranes for any reason."

This year's training was an historic event of sorts. The members of the 137th and 507th ARWs did not have access to the aircraft battle damage repair in the past. All simulation for the exercise occurred next to an aircraft or in the hangar.

"We would simulate with just one airbag off to the side," said Lawson. "It's good for the crew to be able to get one of those airbags out and inflated, but it's not nearly the same as lifting the aircraft off the ground."

Master Sgt. Shaun Loeffler, 507th MXS crew chief, said getting access to the aircraft battle damage repair facility really added a lot to this year's training.

"We don't typically use the lifting bags," he said. "It was good that we went through the process, and the trainers did a great job of getting everyone involved."

According to Master Sgt. Robert Harding, a 137th MXS crew chief from the Will Rogers ANG Base, pulling off a training exercise of this magnitude was truly a joint effort and something that the 137th and 507th association will try to build on.

"Even though this is an annual exercise, we tried to give it more realism this year and will try to make it even bigger next year," he said.

He also said this training had more than just 137th and 507th MXS members involved. Crews from other maintenance squadrons on Tinker AFB attended as well as base crane operators, field training detachment instructors, students and other civilians from the base.

"This was hands down the best crash exercise we have done since I became a member of the 507th MXS several years ago," Loeffler said.

Moving forward Lawson said the next recovery training will be coordinated with all base team members and will provide a sling lift procedure. They will use a crane and put the sling around the belly of the plane and lift it up in order to fold the nose gear up in the wheel well. The team will then carefully sit the aircraft on its nose. They would then assemble a team to pick it up using a crane or airbags.

"The point of that would be to get everyone real experience in a controlled training environment," he said.

For now, Lawson said he's very happy they got a chance to work on one of the older model KC-135s and will keep building off that experience in order to get his members the best, real-world training possible.