Chasing smoke: Grissom maintainers have difficult, rewarding job Published Jan. 23, 2013 By Maj. Kelly Howard 434th ARW Public Affairs GRISSOM AIR RESERVE BASE, Ind. -- There are some jobs where nearly perfect test scores are celebrated, and then there are those jobs where an occasional failure leaves you "chasing smoke." The 434th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron had a busy unit training assembly in January with two major aircraft issues that stymied them with difficult to duplicate failures and had them tracking one tiny wire from tail to cockpit and rewiring from fuselage to wingtip. "When you break out the 'megger' you know you have a serious problem," said Master Sgt. Tommy Patton, 434th AMXS electrical and environmental system technician. "It just isn't used that often because the problem is usually confined to a smaller area within arm's reach." The "megger," or megohmmeter, uses high voltage to test the insulation value of wires to ensure there aren't any breaks along the length of the wire. In the case of aircraft 0363, that wire spanned the entire length of the Grissom KC-135R Stratotanker when the fuel dump actuator in the boom developed intermittent failure issues. "Half the battle is duplicating a malfunction. That's what we're trying to do now but when it's intermittent it's like chasing smoke," said Patton during the process of hunting down the problem. "We don't want to spend a lot of time rewiring a section only to find out that wasn't where the problem was located. "One sharp, young troop, Senior Airman (Matt) Steele, actually caught a flicker on the meter and was able to narrow it down to the actual wire," he added. After determining which wire was the culprit, the maintainers had to then trace that exact wire, which was wrapped in a bundle of 20-plus wires, the length of the aircraft to the cockpit looking for rubs, pinched areas, burns or cuts along the way so it could be repaired. After the repair, aircraft 0363 was re-entered into service and with its actuator functioning perfectly. And while that crew was working tail to nose, a crew in Dock 1 was working nose to tip rewiring a fuel tank quantity system of the right wing on aircraft 3530 as it had started having issues with fuel quantity readings in the wing showing higher than what was actually onboard. Diagnosing such a problem and then correcting it is quite the undertaking, explained Master Sgt. Timothy Henneberry, 434th AMXS instruments and flight controls noncommissioned officer in charge. "Unlike a lot of other airplanes, this is not a redundant system; it's a singular fuel quantity system," elaborated Henneberry. "That makes it much more difficult to troubleshoot because you don't have two probes sitting next to each other for comparison." But when the problem persists, sometimes the best thing to do is to start from scratch and rewire the system. "Rewiring is the last resort; after all other troubleshooting methods have failed," said Henneberry. It took two shifts a day of approximately three-person crews about a week to complete the rewiring job, and nearly 500 feet of wire was required for the intricate and time-consuming task. Despite all of the hard and sometimes tedious work, the maintainers said they enjoy their jobs because of the challenges. "It's a very interesting job even after doing it for close to 30 some years because there's always something different," explained Patton. "As the planes get older, they require attention in different areas, and that keeps you on your toes as your constantly researching and constantly in the books." The Grissom maintainers also said they are proud to be part of something bigger than themselves. "Every one of these guys is proud of that," elaborated Patton. "It's a very unique opportunity to work on something that not just a normal job; you're serving your country, but at the same time you have a very interesting job." The 434th AMXS is part of the 434th Air Refueling Wing, the largest KC-135R unit in the Air Force Reserve Command. Aircraft from around the command are also frequently sent to Grissom for maintenance due to the high-caliber work done by 434th AMXS maintainers. Stay connected with Grissom and the 434th ARW on Twitter and Facebook.
