Martinsburg Fixes C-5A Instead of Depot

Members of the West Virginia Air National Guard’s 167th Airlift Wing in Martinsburg are executing a repair on one of the unit’s C-5A transports that previously had only been done in depot, according to a unit release. “To our knowledge, the process that we are doing has never been done in the field,” said MSgt. Brad Teter, chief of the wing’s aircraft structural maintenance shop, in Martinsburg’s May 7 release. “It’s a depot-level repair,” he said. During an isochronal inspection of the aircraft earlier this year, maintainers found cracks in the crown skin of the airplane’s upper fuselage that required repair, states the release. Instead of sending the C-5 to depot, wing officials opted to repair it in-house by replacing two panels on the crown skin. Teter said the wing’s maintainers believe that they can complete the procedure in 15 days, roughly half of the estimated time to fix it in depot. (Martinsburg report by SSgt. Sherree Grebenstein)