JOINT BASE LEWIS-MCCHORD, Wash. -- The 62nd Maintenance Squadron (62nd MXS) hydraulics shop, in conjunction with the 446th MXS, is working on 16 C-17 Globemaster III hydraulic brakes that arrived here from a Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) facility via the Air Force supply system, Aug. 12.
The hydraulics shop here typically receives an average of four or five brakes a month to repair and have mission-ready. However, the team welcomes the challenge of fixing 16 brakes at one time.
“As long as I’ve been here, we haven’t had this many brakes at once,” said Master Sgt. Warren Hessler, 62nd MXS hydraulics section chief.
The brakes have already been disassembled and are now awaiting the shipment of new parts to be built back up.
“This is a huge asset for us to take care of for the Air Force supply system,” said Staff Sgt. Stephan Roszel, 62nd MXS aircraft hydraulics systems specialist. “They were initially at a Canadian air force repair facility, but they weren’t able to handle the tasking because their equipment was down. So they reached out to us and we were able to step in and make it happen.”
The hydraulics shop balances equipment maintenance and repair requests from multiple 62nd Maintenance Group agencies, other units, and organizations, such as C-17 allies like RCAF.
The increased workload allows for unique training opportunities for newer Airmen in the unit.
When the brakes arrived, Airmen disassembled them to see what parts needed to be ordered. For an Airman who has never looked at a C-17 hydraulic brake, each part represents something new to learn.
“Any hydraulic parts that are pulled off the aircraft come to us,” Hessler said. “We tear it down, inspect it, replace any of the minor parts on it, then rebuild the whole brake assembly back up.”
The ability of the 62nd and 446th MXS hydraulics shops to take on the overhaul of 16 brakes helps keep the aircraft mission-ready.