EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska -- Just as a reliable vehicle sometimes needs parts replaced, an F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft is no different. Luckily, there are many people who work hard to make this process happen as efficiently as possible.
The 354th Maintenance Squadron propulsion flight works on 18th Aggressor Squadron aircraft to make sure they are capable of being the best adversaries during RED FLAG-Alaska exercises.
“What we do directly correlates to return of flying hours,” said 2nd Lt. Brandon Feil, the 354th Maintenance Squadron maintenance flight commander. “It essentially allows us to fly more.”
Aggressor F-16s are put under large amounts of stress during different RF-A exercises, and routine maintenance is performed to make sure they are ready for the next mission.
Occasionally, when parts on an aircraft’s engine breaks or needs to be replaced, the 354th MXS propulsion flight has to pull the engine out.
“Pulling the engine is not a normal phase operation,” said Tech. Sgt. Matthew Golitko, the 354th MXS inspections section dock chief. “It all depends on what is wrong with the engine. For this one, the Joint Service Electronic Combat Systems Tester had to be fixed, and the only way for maintainers to get to it was by pulling the engine out.”
Because of the experience and skill of the aerospace propulsion craftsmen, they were able to remove the engine in record time with the minimum number of people required.
“There must be a minimum of three people, but you can have more,” said Golitko. “This is the first time I’ve seen them down here with just three, there’s usually four or five of them. This is also one of the fastest times I've seen them get an engine out; they had it out in about an hour and a half, and that’s awesome.”
Once the jet arrives at the phase shop, many steps take place to prepare it for the operation.
“There is a decent amount of preparation for it,” said Golitko. “They have to shut off the fuel, the fuel manifold has to be drained and disconnected, then you have to disconnect all the ECS [Environmental Control System] ducts from the engine, transfer the weight of the jet onto the trailer, disconnect the throttle, and yank it out.”
It is a timely process, but when Airmen working on an engine weighing approximately 3,800 pounds that costs 3.8 million dollars, taking time to be careful is important.
“It’s pretty extensive,” said Golitko. “I’ve seen people who are new to it take four to six hours. But if you’re experienced and you’ve got three people who know what they’re doing, it’s like a well-oiled machine that all comes together.”
Removing the engine is just the first link in a chain of events that will take around three or four days.
“Now the phase guys will inspect the engine bay for foreign object debris and cleanliness, they'll clean it out, and basically do the same process they do to the airframe,” said Golitko. “After that, quality assurance comes out and overlooks all of that work and makes sure it’s good to go. Once that is good to go, the engines shop will do a general overlook of the entire engine. After all of that and the JSECST is fixed they’ll put the engine back in.”
Once the engine is back in place, and the required tests and inspections are performed, the jet is ready to rejoin its fellow Aggressors in the sky.
“By us ensuring that all of the jets have their inspections done, they can continue to fly,” said Feil.