TRAWING-5 Exceeds Two Million Contractor Supported Flight Hours
Navy NewsStand
Story Number: NNS090910-14
Release Date: 9/10/2009 4:10:00 PM
By Jay Cope, Naval Air Station Whiting Field Public Affairs
WHITING FIELD, Fla. (NNS) -- Training Air Wing 5 (TRAWING-5) surpassed two million flight hours under contract maintenance. Helicopter Training Squadron 8 performed the hallmark flight Sept. 8.
TRAWING-5 has averaged 6,000 hours per month for more than 28 years. The milestone signifies the success of the transition from military personnel performing maintenance on the aircraft to contractors taking charge in 1981.
Col. Scott Walsh, commander TRAWING-5, greeted the flight crew and praised the maintenance teams that help them and others return home safely time and time again.
"Two million flight hours can be achieved because of a professional team that asks themselves, 'If that was my son or daughter, would I let them fly that aircraft?' Those decisions are made every day and made by true professionals," Walsh said before helping William Bailey, L-3 Communication's maintenance manager, cut the ceremonial cake.
The military-contractor partnership initiated Oct. 15, 1981 was a radical departure from the established method of maintaining the Bell TH-57 helicopters used for training student pilots at Naval Air Station Whiting Field. Performing scheduled maintenance, aircraft repairs, test flights, and unscheduled maintenance due to pilot flight discrepancy inputs, the contractors have helped keep up the tempo for the busiest training wing and naval airfield.
"The professionalism of the mechanics on the floor and the administrative support team are essential in ensuring the pilots have safe aircraft to fly," Kenneth Karr, L-3 Site manager said. "Without them, none of this happens. They do an outstanding job."
L-3 Communications has the current contract, but the maintenance has been kept in good hands through such companies as Raytheon, Burnside Ott, Dyne Corp, and others. However, the real strength of the maintenance process has been the continuity of exceptional employees. As the contract for taking care of the TH-57s has changed, many of the workers are retained to continue performing the same jobs. In fact, 31 of the current employees for L-3 have been working since 1981, and some of them as Sailors even earlier.
John Jerome, a quality assurance inspector, is one such example. He served in the Navy as a flight crewman and mechanic with Helicopter Training Squadron 18 in the late 1970s. When he separated from service, he continued working on the aircraft as a contractor. After 28 years, during which he worked as part of a test flight crew for 25 years, he wouldn't want to do anything else.
"I never thought I would still be doing this, but I enjoyed flying, the maintenance work, and just seeing the pilots. I like taking an aircraft, making it right, and giving them a safe aircraft back," he said.
Jerome expects to have more than 50 years working on aircraft when he retires.
The TH-57 may still be around when he does. With more than 30 years on that airframe already, it is a durable and sturdy asset to the fleet. It is also, according to Walsh, the only aircraft in the Navy inventory that doesn't have a specified shelf-life.
"Every component that wears out is on a planned replacement cycle. But the airframe itself is not wearing out," he said. "That puts even more emphasis on quality sustained maintenance efforts. Two million flight hours is just one milestone in the life of the Bell Ranger."
TRAWING-5 operates 124 TH-57 B and C models of the aircraft at Whiting Field. The D model of the aircraft will begin to arrive in 2010, but will be a retrofit of the same aircraft currently on the air station.
For more news from Naval Air Station Whiting Field, visit www.navy.mil/local/naswf/.
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