Avionics: Small flight, big capabilities Published April 6, 2009 By Michelle Hozey 87th Air Base Wing public affairs volunteer McGUIRE AIR FORCE BASE, N.J. -- Once one of the largest shops at McGuire, the 305th Maintenance Squadron Avionics Flight now consists of six people, including the flight chief. Despite being a small shop, they accomplish a big mission. "Even though our workforce has significantly shrunk in size over the years, we are still able to provide our services to make aircraft mission-ready," said Master Sgt. Joe Delaney. He is in a unique position because he serves as flight chief to both the 305th and 514th MXS Avionics Flights. "Usually, I would have an active-duty counterpart," he said. Sergeant Delaney is an Air Reserve Technician who has been at McGuire for more than 25 years. In the 305th MXS Avionics Flight there are three civilians, one active-duty member and two ARTs, including Sergeant Delaney. The 514th MXS Avionics Flight consists of five Reservists. Some of the flight chief's responsibilities to the 514th flight include ensuring the Reservists have the tools and training they need so they can continue to be mission-ready. Avionics is an off-equipment maintenance field, which means they do not work directly on the aircraft. The shop is qualified to fix 40 different Line Replaceable Units, including heads-up displays and flight control computers. Faulty parts are delivered by supply with a tag stating the problem. The majority of items, Sergeant Delaney said, are marked INOP, meaning simply that they are inoperable. Other LRUs arrive with more detailed descriptions of the problem. The first step in fixing the faulty parts is visual inspection. The LRU is looked over for broken pins and panels and other problems that can be detected with the human eye. Then it is run through the test station, the C-17 Automated Test Equipment. The CATE runs a complete diagnostic test and shows where the problem may lie. After the problem is identified, the faulty pieces are removed and replaced. The LRU is tested again to verify that it is repaired and ready for issue. It is then cleaned up and given back to supply. After supply receives the repaired parts, the LRUs are kept until they are needed for the aircraft. When the aircraft has a bad LRU and there are none in supply, the part status becomes mission capable, meaning that the aircraft cannot fly without it. MICAP parts are the first priority of the flight. The avionics flight repairs LRUs for McGuire's C-17 aircraft as well as transient C-17s. Each LRU is coded to a particular flight for repair, in accordance with technical orders and the capabilities of the flights. Recently, avionics personnel noticed some items that were not coded to any work center for repair. These parts were being thrown away for scrap when they broke instead of being repaired. It was determined that several of these LRUs could be fixed within their flight. Due to this, 99 additional parts have been identified as repairable by avionics, increasing the flight's repair capability by 396 percent.