AIRLIFTERS: KEEPING THE AIRCRAFT IN THE FLIGHT LINE

Submitted by lizahiede on Mon, 06/25/2018 - 10:44

07 April 2017

It is noteworthy to mention that with the current trend, the 220th Airlift Wing "Airlifters" remains to be the Philippine Air Force's most reliable and relevant workhorse. Airlifters have managed to provide capability such as providing support to internal security operation, conduct of sovereignty patrols, VIP movements, national development efforts and crisis response.

Aside from performing various airlift missions, the other equally important task is on aircraft maintenance, only to ensure that these are operational-ready aircraft that can perform such missions anytime, anywhere.

With such trend in operational tempo, the Wing's airlift operations, as obviously indicated in the monthly flying time accomplishment for all the Wing's air assets (almost doubled the allocated programmed flying time) and the round-the-clock nature of the flying operations, have resulted to increased frequency of maintenance inspections. Thus, preserving these valuable equipment and air assets is imperative considering that some of them are brand new. More so, keeping these aircraft on the flight line only demands high maintenance standards.

In fact a total of almost 20,000 man-hours was recorded from 2016 up to this date in order to correct almost 4,000 various discrepancies as part of both scheduled and unscheduled maintenance.

The maintenance personnel led by the 470th Maintenance Support Group Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Thorsten Ajello Bautista PAF and Major Rhanjee Lao PAF have truly proven their commitment and capacity to go beyond what is expected of them.

Credits to Major Jonelle Beltran PAF