Army helo unit reassembles by night, flies by day

Photo By 1st Lt. Kali Gradishar | Soldiers with the 16th Combat Aviation Brigade, Ft. Wainwright, Alaska, steady the aft pylon as it’s lowered onto the main body of a CH-47 Chinook on the flightline, Sept. 6. The Chinook is disassembled to fit on transport aircraft carrying the helicopter over long distances. Once reassembled, the helicopter will undergo ground runs and maintenance test flights to ensure it’s ready for operations.  

CHAKLALA AIR BASE, PAKISTAN

09.08.2010

Story by Staff Sgt. Kali Gradishar 

United States Air Forces Central     

CHAKLALA AIR BASE, Pakistan – Members of the 16th Combat Aviation Brigade from Fort Wainwright, Alaska, are reassembling CH-47 Chinooks and preparing for departure in hours of darkness under beams from flood lights and head lamps. In doing so, the Soldiers are slowly acclimating themselves to a change in climate and pace for their humanitarian mission in Pakistan.

“The big difference in the climate is the humidity and the heat. This time of year in Alaska it’s about 40-50 degrees, and about 70 degrees is the warmest it’ll get right now,” said Sgt. 1st Class James Eastman, CH-47 Chinook maintenance platoon sergeant who has been in the Army for 14 years. “We’re working at night to mitigate the issue of the heat being such a factor.

“With the light systems that we have, it’s almost like working during the day as far as the lighting goes. But just to cut down on the amount of people affected by the heat, we’ll try to avoid the hottest part of the day,” said the sergeant responsible for overseeing the build-up and unscheduled maintenance for the Chinooks.

Eastman, who is on his first humanitarian mission, is one of approximately 300 Soldiers journeying from Alaska to Chaklala Air Base, Pakistan, to re-assemble Chinooks and UH-60 Black Hawks tasked to aid the Pakistan government and military with flood relief efforts in the northern regions of Pakistan.

Preparing for the more than half-day flight and follow-on mission requires the organization of personal mobility gear, as well as the disassembly of the helicopters for them to fit on transport aircraft such as the Air Force C-5 Galaxy and C-17 Globemaster III.

“When we tear these down, the entire top half is basically cut off,” said Spc. Adam Quinn, CH-47 Chinook repairman, also on his first humanitarian mission. Then the “Air Force mostly handles putting them on and taking them off [the transport aircraft]. We’re just there to lend assistance if there’s anything that needs to be done.”

When the aircraft are unloaded, Soldiers go to work rebuilding the assets starting with the aft pylon, moving to the forward and aft transmissions and finally hanging the blades.

“You have to go in a certain order just to make sure that the weight is distributed so it doesn’t tip in any direction,” said Quinn, a prior Air Force aircraft electrician on A-10 Thunderbolt IIs.

Quinn recalled the switch to helicopters aiding in a humanitarian mission as being “a little bit more fulfilling,” he said. “I have a good feeling about these missions that we’re going to be doing.”

Switching from Thunderbolts to Chinooks, from fixed wing to rotary wing, also brings a change in pace. The process of reassembling Chinooks typically takes an entire day, sometimes more, and can often present challenges for the repairmen.

The time it takes to reassemble a Chinook “depends on if the bird wants to go together or not,” said Quinn. “Everything’s manufactured to specifications, but sometimes things just a little bit difficult ... You just have to know when to work with it or when to let somebody else give it a try.

“If it wants to go together nicely, it’ll go pretty quickly,” he said.

As the Chinooks are reassembled, each is tested to ensure it is functioning properly –by conducting a ground run followed by maintenance test flights.

“The maintenance test pilots have a checklist they [use to] check everything out. If everything is working as advertised, then it’s good to go. If not, then we adjust from there, figure out what’s wrong with it and send it on its way,” said Sergeant Eastman, a native of Moline, Ill. We “keep them flying the best we can.”

Just as they arrived, one-by-one or in pairs, the Chinooks and Black Hawks will travel north carrying maintainers, pilots, gear and equipment to Ghazi Air Base, Pakistan. Once there, the 16th CAB is expected to transport food, water and other supplies in partnership with the Pakistan military to the hard-to-reach areas in the region.

“Our aircraft is capable of carrying a gross weight of 50,000 pounds,” said Sergeant Eastman. “So, anything that we can fit in there at a gross weight of 50,000 pounds, we’ll deliver. I expect to help [the people and government of Pakistan] in any way we can.”

• Date Taken: 09.08.2010
• Date Posted: 09.08.2010 08:56
• Story ID: 55894
• Location: CHAKLALA AIR BASE, PK