C-5 Isochronal inspections move to Dover AFB

Published June 7, 2007
By Tech Sgt. Donald Osborn
60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- The men and women of the 60th and 349th Equipment Maintenance Squadrons witnessed the end of an era roll out with a C-5 Galaxy from the bay doors June 1.

As a result of the Total Force Isochronal consolidation, the isochronal inspections performed on Travis' entire fleet of C-5 Galaxies have moved from Travis to Dover Air Force Base, Del.

In an effort to increase the availability of C-5 Galaxies and to reduce supporting costs, the Air Force has decided to reduce the C-5 isochronal inspection sites from eight to three.

As part of an AFSO 21 initiative, Air Mobility Command officials decided in December 2006 to select Dover as one of only three sites to perform isochronal inspections because of facilities, maintenance support, base support, manpower requirements and other supporting data.

The other two sites, Westover Air Reserve Base, Mass., and one at an Air National Guard base which is scheduled to be released at a later date, according to AMC officials.

Travis' maintainers have been performing the inspections on Travis' aircraft since 1969. Isochronal inspections are major inspections that encompass the entire aircraft from nose to tail and port to starboard.

"Each C-5 Galaxy undergoes these inspections every 420 days," said Master Sgt. Howard Cox, 349th Equipment Maintenance Squadron, C-5 dock chief. The length of inspections varies from 16 to 23 days, depending on the age and extent of repairs required."

Although under the Total Force ISO, a portion of the active-duty manpower will be used at the Dover ISO inspection site, while the remaining active-duty personnel will be integrated with forces at the Reserve and Guard sites, it has yet to be determined how Travis maintainers will be shuffled around.

"We haven't received any information as of yet on how this will affect our personnel," said Sergeant Cox.

According to Brig. Gen. Robert McMahon, AMC director of logistics, C-5 availability will increase due to centrally scheduling the inspection from a fleet-wide perspective and reducing flow days (the number of days it takes to complete one C-5 ISO inspection) to a consistent number across the fleet.

This reduction in waiting time will add an estimated average of 2.5 availability-days to every C-5 in the fleet, which equates to about 300 more sorties per year, or 10,000 pallets of cargo, according to AMC officials.