Learning Curve

Depot officials at Robins AFB, Ga., say they learned much from working on a C-130 transport for the first time under a new construct called high velocity maintenance and are already applying those lessons successfully as they now tend to the second C-130 to be handled in this manner. HVM is designed to reduce dramatically the downtime of a C-130 undergoing preplanned maintenance overhaul. The Air Force is considering implementing it for all C-130s and possibly for other aircraft in the fleet. Doug Keene, HVM product lead at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center, said the most challenging aspect of working on the first C-130 was mapping out all of the maintenance tasks in a day-to-day schedule so that the work remained on track. But with the second aircraft, the process is going better and there is growing enthusiasm about the new process, he said. (Robins release)