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News | Dec. 1, 2016

Transient Alert and Aerospace Ground Equipment Maintenance offices offer a multitude of services

By Stacey Geiger 88th Air Base Wing Public Affairs

Ensuring the arrivals and departures of transitory aircraft at Wright-Patterson AFB go smoothly, the Transient Aircraft and Aerospace Ground Equipment (AGE) Maintenance offices are the ones who make it happen.

Transient Aircraft and the AGE Maintenance are operated by contractor Data Monitor Systems Inc. and fall under the 88th Logistics Readiness Squadron. Both provide a multitude of services for aircraft that land at Wright-Patterson AFB.

“We take care of transient aircraft by providing the pilots and air crew with requested equipment such as air and heating units, power units and stair trucks,” Transient Aircraft and AGE Maintenance supervisor Lloyd Christmas said.

Transient Aircraft also refuels aircraft and performs pre-flight, thru-flight and post flight inspections to ensure aircraft safety.

Along with providing equipment support and services for transient aircraft, Transient Aircraft provides presidential support for the surrounding five-state region, oversees the crash recovery program at Wright-Patterson AFB and offers support for real world events at Wright-Patterson such as a hijacking by vehicle placement to block taxiways. 

In June, Transient Aircraft and AGE Maintenance capabilities were tested by two large coinciding events, CORONA TOP and the Vectren Dayton Air Show. During CORONA TOP, Transient Aircraft and AGE Maintenance recovered and launched 45 aircraft and refueled 25 aircraft in support of the senior leadership from the various Air Force Commands.

On the following day after CORONA TOP ended, 15 truck-loads of aircraft support equipment were delivered to the site of the Vectren Dayton Air Show to support a total of 21 various aircraft from the Air Force, Navy, Marines and Army.

Christmas said although they put in a lot of hours, supporting the air show allows them the chance to get a hands-on experience to work with different types of aircraft that they typically do not see. This year two F-22s and for the first time, two F-35 Air Force fighters were participants of the air show giving the Transient Aircraft and AGE Maintenance teams the opportunity to deliver support.

A large part of the AGE Maintenance operation is the AGE shop and to ensure all the service equipment is in tip top shape, they focus heavily on maintenance prevention.

AGE Maintenance mechanic Mike Lunsford said the AGE shop has approximately 240 various pieces of equipment for transient aircraft and credits the cost savings and longevity of their ground equipment to their outstanding preventative maintenance program.

“We just recently turned in several pieces of equipment that were manufactured in the 1950’s and there was nothing wrong with them, just outdated,” Lunsford said. 

On average, the Transient Aircraft team supports 20 aircraft a week and Christmas credits the success of their operation to his highly trained and dedicated staff. Christmas said the majority of the staff are veterans and already had aircraft maintenance experience from their military careers.


Editor's note: The original story can be viewed on the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base website.