Writing the Book on Reaper Maintenance

Maintainers with the New York Air National Guard’s 174th Maintenance Group at Hancock Field in Syracuse are becoming well versed in the intricacies of keeping their parent wing’s MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft performing optimally. They are also playing an important role as subject matter experts in “helping to decide the proper and safest procedures for maintaining the MQ-9” across the Air Force, said Maj. Tim Martin, 174th Fighter Wing Aircraft Maintenance Squadron commander. He noted, “Our maintenance personnel have contributed to the creating and/or validation of approximately 80 percent of all maintenance technical data for the US Air Force in regards to maintenance for the MQ-9.” The maintainers work out of both Hancock Field and the Wheeler-Sack Army Air Field in Fort Drum, N.Y., where the wing conducts training flights. They perform the more in-depth maintenance at Hancock Field, which has hosted the Air Force’s MQ-9 maintenance schoolhouse since fall 2009. (Hancock Field report by Capt. Anthony L. Bucci)