Eagle grounded by bird strike Published May 13, 2011 By Wayne Crenshaw 78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- Anyone who doubts birds pose a danger to aircraft should pay a visit to one of the F-15 hangars here. Mechanics there are engaged in a major and unusual repair resulting from a bird strike last August. An F-15E from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., was participating in an exercise near Shaw AFB, S.C., when a bird struck the left engine, causing a major fire. Engineers from the F-15 program office in the Aero-space Sustainment Directorate, led by Daniel Murphy, and maintenance planners from the 561st Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, led by Bill Lyons, traveled to Shaw and determined the aircraft was too damaged to be flown. A team from the 402nd Maintenance Wing's Expeditionary Depot Maintenance Flight, which travels the world repairing heavily-damaged aircraft maintained here, then went to Shaw. They partially disassembled the plane so it could be put on a truck and transported to Robins. Actual repair work on the aircraft began in January and is expected to be complete by December. It involves doing something which hasn't been done at Robins in at least 15 years - removing and replacing the rear half of the fighter. "This repair is not typical at all," said Ed Fuller, 561st AMXS F-15 planner overseeing the project. Replacement of the aft fuselage is done so rarely that one of the first tasks was to refurbish a key piece of equipment - the undercarriage on which the fuselage would rest upon removal and replacement. It needed significant work because it sat idle for so long. The replacement aft fuselage - the last one for the E-model in the Air Force inventory - had sat in a warehouse at Robins for almost 20 years. By coincidence, about the same time the accident happened, the Defense Logistics Agency was requesting to send the part to the Air Force "Boneyard" in Arizona because it needed the warehouse space. Maj. Kristoffer Smith-Rodriguez, deputy chief of ASD's USAF F-15 Branch, credited Laura Stovall of the program office with saving the Air Force $8 million on the repair. She learned about the request to scrap the fuselage, and happened to know about the aircraft damaged by the bird strike. She worked to secure the part from the Defense Logistics Agency at no cost to the Air Force. There was, however, a significant problem. Fuller said the new fuselage was built for 229 engines, while the aircraft previously had 220 engines. Also, the home base had 220 engines on all its aircraft, so putting 229s on it would have created an "oddball," which would have been a problem for the home base maintainers. They made some modifications to the fuselage so 220 engines could be put back on the aircraft. Integral to these efforts was a program office engineering team comprised of Julian Stevenson, John Stephens, Mickey Meeks, Khudeja Khan and Spencer Bonner. Sheet-metal mechanic Dennis Pickett, team leader on the repair, said he had last replaced an aft fuselage about 20 years ago. However, he expressed full confidence in his group's ability to complete the job. He said the team has a technical order which provides step-by-step instructions. "If you follow the TO, it shouldn't lead you wrong," he said. Fuller also said he is confident in the success of the repair. "I have volunteered to ride in the back seat when they do the test flight," he said. "I know that wouldn't be allowed, but I would do it." As a side note, the damaged aircraft had only recently gone through programmed depot maintenance at Robins, which includes refurbishing the fire extinguishing bottles in the engine compartment. The Hydrostat Shop here, which works on the bottles, can take pride in knowing their bottles worked perfectly, extinguishing the blaze and allowing the pilot to land safely.