Rest assured, it'll work Published May 13, 2016 By Angela Woolen Robins Public Affairs ROBINS AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. -- The great behemoth of a plane, the C-5 with the Dover tail number, is given the once over by flight engineers after a recent unplanned depot-level maintenance stop here. The inspection isn't just a cursory glance; the engineers spend hours checking all the systems the maintenance team has repaired. "The C-5, by design, is a safe and redundant airplane. That's why we check all the backup power sources," said Lt. Col. Ronald Young, deputy commander for operations with the Air Force Reserve Command's 413th Flight Training Group. The plane that was being tested, a C-5M Galaxy, has a newer engine and is much more reliable, Young said. That particular aircraft was built in 1986 and has more than 20,000 flight hours. The C-5M is the largest aircraft in the U.S. military with a length of 247.8 feet and a height of 65.1 feet. More impressive, this plane can cruise at Mach 0.77 - about 600 mph. It can also hold six Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, which are supported at Robins, and up to five helicopters. "They can rest assured that it will work," Senior Master Sgt. Todd Wylie said. There are two pilots and three flight engineers assigned to the C-5 at Robins. One of the perks of having others on the aircraft is the tight bond the five share, evident in their interactions with each other. Senior Master Sgt. Pat Cioffi, Master Sgt. Richard Titcomb and Wylie are all flight engineers for the C-5. Between the three, they have more than 20,000 hours of flight time. Wylie has 10,000 hours himself and the patch to prove it. The preflight functional check flight, after the depot maintenance through the Warner Robins Air Logistics complex, takes four to six hours. "We fly each about three to four times to get everything checked," Young said. The crew visually checks every component that's visible which can mean hundreds of thousands of parts that need to be inspected. "The maintenance here is quite good for the C-5, one of the best in the Air Force. We have to be confident in their work," said Cioffi. Once the inspection is done, the test pilots are briefed on the aircraft. During the test flight, which took the crew near Montgomery, Alabama, down to Florida and back to Middle Georgia, they check that everything is in working order. Young was previously a C-141 pilot who made the jump to the C-5 when the C-141 program was retired. He was joined by pilots Lt. Col. John Grady, C-5 Command Chief pilot, and Maj. Carl Kleinebekel, C-5 test pilot. Grady has been flying C-5s for about 15 years. He said he wanted to be a pilot since he was in grade school. Kleinebekel was a flight engineer for four years before becoming a pilot. His most memorable moment was his first time in the pilot seat, pushing the power level up to lift off the ground. Grady and Young remember flying into combat areas. "When we were flying into Bagdad, it was kind of surreal. We were taking cargo to the warfighter, and there are people trying to kill you," Grady said. Young's encounter was in the Bosnia conflict in Sarajevo. A lot of the success of the mission was based on the training he received prior to going into a conflict zone, Young said. All three have been involved in combat situations and credit their training. Cioffi flew to Bagdad with 30 minutes on the ground to unload the cargo. Wylie's mission was two days after Sept. 11, 2001. "We went from Dover Air Force Base to Guam. It was then I realized everything I had trained for was going to be used," he said. Titcomb was part of the C-5 team that brought M-1 tanks to Somalia after two UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in 1993. All of that experience has led the five men to Robins to make sure the C-5's that are maintained here are fit for the men and women on the front lines. "We're the last link in the chain before it goes back to the warfighter," Wylie said.