Airmen replace door on C-5 landing gear

  • Published
  • By Nick DeCicco
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Six members of Travis Air Force Base's 60th Maintenance Squadron aero repair section recently worked around the clock for three weeks to replace a landing gear door on a C-5M Super Galaxy aircraft.

The aircraft, which has a Dover Air Force Base, Delaware, tail, had a crack in its left-side landing door. The door is approximately 20 feet long by 6 feet wide.

The crack meant the aircraft was not flyable, sidelining a major asset in the Department of Defense's fleet.

Replacing the door took the Airmen more than three weeks, during which the flight decided to assemble a "tiger team," which consisted of two, three-person groups on alternating 12-hour shifts to complete the work.

Second Lt. Keith Deering, 60th MXS, said such work is rare. More common is removing the door, repairing it and reinstalling it, a procedure which he said usually takes a day or two.

Replacing the door, however, involved removal of the cracked one and installation of the new piece. The door shape curves from the side of the aircraft to the underbelly, covering the wheels when they retract into the plane.

While the crack presented a challenge, Staff Sgt. Jamir Dominguez, 60th MXS aero repair flight, said the next task was to fit a new door onto the vehicle, which required rigging it and adjusting the contour to match the C-5M.

However, Tech. Sgt. Marcus Mimnagh, 60th MXS aero repair flight, said the replacement door was mis-shapen.

"With this, it snowballed things on top of each other," Mimnagh said.

Airman 1st Class David DePalma said the door was shipped to Travis improperly. That meant retrofitting the door to the aircraft, a grueling trial-and-error procedure which included modifying the door, checking to see how it fit and then repeating the process.

Senior Airman Joshua Purcell said the process moved slowly during the course of three weeks. Because of the duration of the repairs, the aircraft was moved around Travis' flightline as mission demands required use of certain hangar or parking spaces at different times.

Dominguez said after the three works of grueling work, it was time to relax.

"I got to catch up with life," he said with a laugh.

Appropriately, the Dover C-5M is visiting Travis for training purposes as it helps familiarize Airmen with the vehicle. Travis received its second C-5M Tuesday.