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Maintenance prepares for Air Mobility Rodeo 2007

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Connie L. Bias
  • 92nd Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash. --  Eighteen Fairchild Airmen are working some major overtime right now, all to show the world they're the best at what they do. Air Mobility Rodeo 2007 is fast approaching and local teams are training at their hardest.

The biennial competition, which takes place July 22-28 at McChord Air Force Base, Wash., is the Mobility Air Force's readiness competition. Rodeo events include aerial port, aeromedical evacuation, aircrew, fit to fight, maintenance and security forces competitions. Fairchild's competitors are pulled from the maintenance, security forces and aircrew fields.

The maintenance team is the largest of those three groups, with 10 local representatives. The team has representation from all across the maintenance specialties, including crew chiefs. At the competition, they'll be judged on their proficiency while performing pre- and post-flight inspections and fuel servicing operations. They'll also be judged on daily observations such as launch, recovery, aircraft maintenance and safety. To prepare, the 10 are perfecting every nook and cranny of the dedicated KC-135 Stratotanker.

"These maintainers are going crazy; they're working really hard," said Maj. Greg Hankins, Rodeo team chief, adding that along with the dedicated KC-135, the maintenance team is also preparing a backup aircraft for the competition.

"Our portion of this competition is: How well do we maintain this aircraft? And of course, safety is the most critical component to aircraft maintenance," explained Capt. Bill Hargrove, Rodeo maintenance officer-in-charge, saying these last days of preparation will be spent checking and double-checking every little part of the aircraft. This type of extreme focus is a total group effort, the captain added. "In addition to the outstanding support we've been receiving within the 92nd wing we've also been getting tremendous support from our Guard brethren. Last week they sent a team of highly qualified and experienced maintainers to go over the plane with a fine-tooth comb. Right now, we're fixing the discrepancies they found."

Perfecting the aircraft isn't the only part of preparing for the competition. None of these maintainers have been to a Rodeo before, nor have most of them ever worked together. They've spent the last few months turning themselves into a team.

"We've had to get used to working with each other, and there's been a lot of training - a lot of technical data," said Master Sgt. Richard Davis, production superintendent and Rodeo team member. "That's all gone really well, and by now things are flowing nicely."

The maintenance officer agrees that progress is superb.

"These guys do a great job anyway on a day-to-day basis; they were chosen because they're the best of the best," said Captain Hargrove. "Now we're fine-tuning that excellence for the Rodeo competition."

That tuning can require long hours, the captain added. "We're not bound by an eight-hour shift; we're bound to getting the job done," he said.

From now until the end of July, the team will hone their attention to detail and have more people inspect them for quality assurance, said Sergeant Davis.

"I feel really good," said Sergeant Davis. "It's a big ball of wax, but we've managed to get it going. We're excited about the competition."