F-15 wing shop aids C-130 maintainers Published March 20, 2009 By Wayne Crenshaw 78th Air Base Wing Public Affairs ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- When C-130 maintainers were faced with a time-consuming task to replace a single part, a specialized team in the F-15 Wing Repair Flight at Robins came to their aid. Previously when C-130 workers needed to replace the sloping longeron, a 22-foot long piece of the tail-section frame, it took two weeks and 320 man hours. That's because the new part required 571 holes to be precisely drilled, which the maintainers were doing by hand. The C-130 team asked the F-15 wing shop for help. Seven sheet metal mechanics who specialize in the use of a drilling robot took on the task. The end result was that they cut the time down to only 64 hours, saving 256 man hours. David McNeal, director of the F-15 Wing Repair Flight, said it was a notable achievement by the team for numerous reasons, not the least of which is that they had never even seen a sloping longeron before. The piece was also larger than the robot was set up to drill. They had to build new tooling to hold the piece, and go through a tedious process of setting up the computer to drill the holes in exact locations. "What these guys did that was really so amazing is that there was nothing to tell them how to do this," Mr. McNeal said. "These guys came together as a team, made the tooling out of scratch, programmed the robot and drilled it. The end result was a perfect fit the first time." The robot team members are David Ashley, Charles Confer, Ken Conner, Richard Flynn, Gene Manns, Michael Monroe and Thao Nguyen. Due to their efforts, they were recently given a Notable Achievement Award, which carried an extra $200 in their paychecks. It's not unusual for the crew to help out maintainers in other areas at Robins who need some high-tech help. The robot is a drill mounted on a large frame so that it can move around to reach any location on the part. A new robot is under construction. Mr. Manns said it's interesting to watch the robot work once all the set-up work has been done. "It looks like a ballet when it's doing it," he said. The team was first asked to take on the task late last year and has since completed drilling on four sloping longerons. The team is still trying to improve the process. "What we are doing now is looking at getting some specific tooling to make it even faster," Mr. McNeal said.