TMDE Flight flies under the radar

  • Published
  • By Capt. David Nelson
  • 60th Maintenance Squadron
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  All too often these days, we find ourselves at the gas pumps listening to the slow guzzle, watching the gallons increase and feeling the wallet get lighter. 

Sometimes, I find myself wondering about the rate at which gasoline flows into my gas tank compared to how the ticker climbs, hoping that the measurement that the pump shows is actually what is in my car. This reliance falls onto a weights and measures technician for the State of California to calibrate the pump to match the amount of fuel dispensed. Similar to the pump, everything that is used in the United States Air Force to measure a quantity requires validation or calibration. We are a compliance-based Air Force after all. 

Upon entering the Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory, visitors are quickly met with a consistent and controlled atmosphere and the sounds of technology being bent to the will of mankind ... beep, squeak, whirl and ratchet. Welcome to the Test, Measurement, & Diagnostics Equipment Flight, one of seven flights in the dynamic 60th Maintenance Squadron. 

Also frequently referred to as PMEL, the TMDE flight is responsible for 12,720 equipment items owned by 275 organizations within the western United States, such as Navy units, Air National Guard units, Air Force Reserve components and even the Coast Guard. The TMDE flight is organized into four separate sections: production control, electronics, physical-dimensional and quality assurance. 

The TMDE flight's mission is to coordinate and provide quality repair and calibration of TMDE to support customers' mission in a timely manner -- ensuring TMDE safety, reliability, measurement accuracy and traceability.  In order to reach this goal, Master Sgt. Bjorn Snider, PMEL production supervisor, balances customer's needs, technical directives and the requirements of the Air Force Calibration Program. When asked what his goal is, as the PMEL production supervisor, he said "ensuring that all his technicians have the tools and equipment required to calibrate their customers' TMDE." 

One of the key tools to diagnosing an issue within the flight is Quality Assurance Tech. Sgt. Jose Sanchez, TMDE Flight Quality Assurance manager, said that, "QA is the eyes and ears of the flight chief." PMEL's QA takes quality reviews and process reviews quite serious as they illustrate the product that the flight is supplying its customers. 

A quality review is an inspection into a completed or calibrated equipment item on the other hand, whereas, a process review goes through the way the calibration was accomplished. QA puts the focus on the process to establish a quality product, so if a quality review is failed it drives a process review to determine the root cause of the failed process.

In the spirit of Air Force core value of integrity, "when a review finds an issue from an individual or technical order procedure the management team looks into all affected units and enacts a recall," Sanchez said. "We want to ensure that we are only giving superior products to our customers."

"Our equipment recalls start with an email in the case of a routine recall or positive contact in the case of an emergency recall," said Tech. Sgt. Ryan Carpenter, PMEL equipment scheduler. "An emergency recall is performed in order to preserve the safety of the personnel using the asset and the equipment item itself." 

Carpenter informed me that it was often difficult to deal with so many customers since they focus only on their portion of the scheduling puzzle with 12,720 different items coming in at different cycles. He works alongside Staff Sgt. Tinisha Bush, TMDE supply liaison. Bush is responsible for the packing, tracking and receiving of more than $100,000 of TMDE monthly that requires higher level calibration at a depot PMEL. The schedulers and supply liaison interface between the flight and the customers. Their jobs are pivotal in assuring the amount of equipment due for calibration does not outweigh the amount of TMDE available for use by the customers, also known as the availability rate.

As a customer of the PMEL, it is difficult to relate to the measurements being performed by the Electronics Section technicians. Technicians calibrate and certify a wide variety of instruments, such as multimeters, oscilloscopes, signal generators and frequency counters. They also work on some key navigational items used by the 60th Operations Group such as the Tactical Air Navigation System, Very High Frequency omnidirectional radio range and Instrument Landing System equipment.  The Electronic Section even works on the tester for night-vision goggles used during night-time operations.

Being the section that is less tangible, it is often difficult to understand that a sensor is calibrated to detect less than a microvolt because you cannot see that. 

"This section can be daunting at times with the complexity of the measurement processes, but our technical school, plus my local trainers allow me to be confident in performing calibrations," said Airman 1st Class Edward Cook. 

Cook is a new PMEL technician arriving at Travis Air Force Base in May.

"In the lab, we promote asking questions, discussion, performing research and teaching others in order to reduce the uncertainty in the process." 

While the Electronics Section highlights the equipment used to test many of the things that are not tangible, the Physical-Dimensional Section handles many of the physical parameters requiring precision measurement.

The TMDE Flight is most well-known for calibrating torque wrenches, but they are only a small number of items within the responsibilities of the Physical-Dimensional Section.

"Physical dimensional is always traceable back to a physical entity, for instance lengths are traced back to the distance the light travels in a particular time," said Senior Airman Johnathan Littlefield, PMEL technician. "This knowledge is used to calibrate items like Security Forces' small arms bore gauges, which are used to check new weapons to ensure a serviceable barrel. The Physical-Dimensional Section also certifies thermometers for use in the Armed Services Whole Blood Processing Laboratory, who supply blood to units throughout the Department of Defense. 

"We use the triple point of water .01 degrees Celsius (where water exists at all three states: solid, liquid and gas) as a reference for all temperature TMDE," Littlefield said.

He also discussed how Physical-Dimensional Technicians perform the verifications and adjustments to the Test Cell Hush Houses for trimming fighter engines at Reno, Nevada and Fresno Air National Guard Bases. Weight scales, micrometers, aircraft balancing kits and gun alignment fixtures are also calibrated in Physical-Dimensional Section.

"This is a great career field, where I get to see new things daily. It is not just a controlled temperature facility, we have to dig deep and get extremely cerebral," Cook said.

Given that Bush is a supply airman by trade, she let me know, "I did not know about TMDE before coming to this unit, nor did I understand the importance of PMEL to everyone's missions."

The impact of TMDE is illustrated by the vastness of their customers. Like many other specialties, TMDE is becoming more regionalized. Take for example the reduction in the Beale Air Force Base laboratory. The closure increased our TMDE requirements by 3,200 and added 75 additional customers. The TMDE gained from the regionalization is used to support the U2 Dragon Lady, T-38 Talon and the Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle.

So the next time that you find yourself at the gas station or using a calibrated piece of test equipment, stop and think about the amount of time and care that someone invested into that asset to ensure that it works properly for you. Don't take properly functioning equipment for granted.