Airmen Perform First Deployed PMP (on $355 million dollar F-22)

Airmen Perform First Deployed PMP
August 09, 2010
Air Force Print News|by Airman 1st Class Anthony Jennings

ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam -- Airmen performed the first accelerated packaged maintenance plan on an F-22 Raptor in a deployed environment here Aug. 4.

Members of the 27th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Unit completed what has never been done with a fifth-generation aircraft before. A PMP is a scheduled, long-term, heavy maintenance on a fighter aircraft, performed every 300 flight hours.

"It's much like your car," said 2nd Lt. Lauren Chaffee, of the 27th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron. "Every few thousand miles you bring it in for a tune up. Well with fighter aircraft, it's every 300 flight hours."

The process normally takes a month to complete. Deployed unit officials were tasked to accomplish an accelerated PMP in 10 days.

"A dedicated team of 16 personnel working 12-hour shifts around the clock, to get the job done made this possible," said 1st Lt. Ikedinachi Akagha, of the 27th EAMU. "It's just incredible we were able to get this, not only planned, but executed. Everything fell into place so well over these past 10 days."



unhappycamper comment: 16 people to work 12 hour shifts for 10 days every 300 flight hours seems to be a bit labor intensive. Sure glad we only have 186 of these marvelous flying machines.

But they do it between rounds, watching a top fuel team rebuild an engine is a truly awe inspiring experience for a gearhead.