JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas –
Five hundred and seventy three maintainers in the 12th
Flying Training Wing Maintenance Directorate maintain 189 aircraft and support
six flying training squadrons at JBSA-Randolph and Naval Air Station Pensacola,
Florida.
The unit is a 24-hour, seven-day operation that is
responsible for the maintenance, repairs, inspection and the launch and
recovery of three types of aircraft – the T-6A Texan, the T-1A Jayhawk and the
T-38C Talon.
“It’s like a big orchestra,” Robert West, 12th FTW
maintenance directorate director, said. “We are constantly in motion.”
Maintainers conduct maintenance on all parts of the aircraft,
including the engine and electrical, avionics, aerospace and hydraulic
equipment, wheels, tires, panels and wings. Other maintenance jobs include
corrosion control, aircraft sheet metal, structural fabrication and repair and
changing the oil.
“We have a complete array of jobs to make an aircraft
maintenance organization work,” he said.
The team performs maintenance in 20 facilities and, in
addition, operates the Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory and paint
blasting facility, all at JBSA-Randolph.
The unit’s members average 20 to 25 years of experience
working on aircraft, with 80 percent of the group being retired military.
Safety is a priority as inspectors make sure the work the
maintainers do follows procedures and is done correctly, said West.
“We want to make sure these maintainers are always on the
right page, doing the right job at the right time and staying in sequence like
they are supposed to,” West said. “We have pilots’ lives in our hands; we want
to make sure they are safe.”
Nicole Goss, 12th Flying Training Wing Maintenance
Directorate crew chief at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, starts each workday
at 6 a.m. on the flight line inspecting
T-6A Texan II aircraft before they go on sortie.
Before the T-6As and their crews can be cleared for takeoff,
the aircraft must pass the rigorous inspections given to it by Goss. Making sure each aircraft is safe to fly for
their crews is a responsibility that Goss said she takes very seriously.
“My job is to essentially walk around the aircraft to make
sure nothing goes wrong,” Goss said.
Safety came first for Goss when she had to halt the launch
of a T-6A earlier this summer because the aircraft was leaking fuel as it was
about ready to takeoff.
“I had to shut down the aircraft and get the crew out of
there just in case something went wrong,” she said.
Goss said she got the crew out of the T-6A because there was
the possibility that the fuel mixed with the hot temperatures could cause the
aircraft to catch fire.
An inspection of the aircraft determined a problem with the
engine fuel boost pump. Goss said the problem was fixed and the crew was put in
a spare T-6A.
“We got them airborne without a hitch and they finished
their mission,” she said. “Lives were saved, aircraft spared and all was well.”
West said that the team helps maintain aircraft that average
38,000 sorties and 54,000 hours flown each year.
“We like to say, ‘There’s no air power without ground
power,’” West said.