 Military News
The Roughnecks work around the clock to maintain the fleet of almost 30 UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters the battalion uses on a daily basis to strategically move coalition forces around the battlefield. "If something goes wrong during a flight, you can't just pull over, you can't pull over to the nearest cloud and say 'ok, it is broke, send a tow truck.' It doesn't work that way," said Spc. Cody Chandler, a UH-60 helicopter repairer. The way it does work is that all the aircraft have scheduled maintenance schedules called phases. "Phase maintenance is a timed maintenance. Every 360 hours the helicopters come in and everything gets taken apart and inspected to make sure there is nothing wrong going on with it," said Spc. William Gentry, a UH-60 helicopter repairer. "We do phases mostly, but we also do unscheduled maintenance. It just depends on the day." This day, the Roughnecks have a Black Hawk in their hangar for a Phase Maintenance-1 inspection. The tail rotor and main rotor systems have been removed and inspected to make sure that they are within specifications listed in the technical manuals. Even the Black Hawk's blades are checked to ensure their pressure is correct. This means servicing for low pressure and venting of the blade if the pressure is too high. An improperly pressurized blade can cause the blade not to track properly, which can lead to serious or catastrophic damage to the aircraft. "The PM-1 is not as in-depth as a PM-2, but we still take off the main rotor head, the main rotor seal and the whole tail rotor system," said Gentry. "We also check the aircraft for leaks, cracks and service all the tires and struts." During the inspections the Soldiers check the parts and hardware for any wear-and-tear. When Chandler and his fellow mechanics found the Teflon peeling in two places on the damper race bearing, they checked the technical manuals to see if the part was still within operating tolerance. "The Teflon allows no metal-to-metal contact. It allows for the parts to glide a lot smoother along the main mast," explained Chandler. "With the small amount of peeling, it might have been able to go another 360 hours and not had any problems. But, the book says no peeling or chipping is allowed. If the part doesn't meet certain criteria we replace it." He said that although a part may still have many hours left on it and would more than likely make it to the next phase, the mechanics don't take any chances with the parts or the aircraft they are responsible for. With the rotors turning at over 250 revolutions-per-minute the smallest bit of peeling could quickly become a bigger problem. Less Teflon is going to equal more friction between the bearing and the main mast. "Then you have even bigger problems and the whole transmission has to come out," Chandler said. Sometimes a part requires a second set of eyes. "I just found a bearing that might be out of limits, so I am having a TI (technical inspector) check it for me," said Gentry, while working on the tail rotor system. "The Soldiers come to us (technical inspectors) because we have the technical expertise and knowledge," said Staff Sgt. Joseph Evans, a TI for the Roughnecks. "We are the final say, the final approval before a helicopter is released." Before the Black Hawk rolls out of their hangar and back to the flight line the maintainers want to make sure that the helicopter is the best that it can be. "You've got two pilots, two crew chiefs and whoever is sitting in the back, they all have family, and they are all counting on this aircraft," Chandler said. "I hope that if it is me in the helicopter, in the crew seat or as a passenger, that somebody else took as much time and care in their job as we do." ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:
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