507th Air Refueling Wing

Joint Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard maintenance teams practice CDDAR (Crashed, Damaged, Disabled and Recovery) skills during a recent exercise at Tinker Air Force Base. Shown here maintenance crews from the 507th Maintenance Group and 137th Maintenance Group set up a platform and lifting bag to simulate the process that would be used to lift a damaged aircraft for repairs.

507th Air Refueling Wing

Joint maintenance teams from the Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard work together with Tinker Air Force Base crews to practice CDDAR (Crashed, Damaged, Disabled and Recovery) skills on a 507th Air Refueling Wing KC-135. Shown here, the team carefully positions a lifting strap around the aircraft fuselage. In the case of a damaged aircraft, the strap would then lift the aircraft allowing maintenance teams to positions jack stands prior to actual repairs. Because of the aircraft's operational status, no actual lifting occured.

Joint maintenance teams practice damaged aircraft repair

Published July 8, 2010
By Technical Sgt. Zach Jacobs
507th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs

TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Oklahoma -- Fourteen members of the 507th Maintenance Group and the 137th Maintenance Group (OKANG) took part in an aircraft accident exercise here on June 23, 2010.

The exercise was a simulation of a collapsed nose landing gear of a KC-135 aircraft on the parking ramp near the reserve flight line hangar for the joint Crashed, Damaged or Disabled Aircraft Recovery, or CDDAR, program.

Senior Master Sgt. Richard Stull, the 507th CDDAR team chief, said this exercise was a team effort with Tinker Air Force Base's 76th Maintenance Group, the 507th Maintenance Group and the 137th Maintenance Group.

During the first part of this unique training, the team used a construction crane to lift a 15-foot-long KC-135 steel spreader bar above the nose of the plane. Airmen on the ground held the spreader bar steady with ropes attached to the ends, while two workers in a "cherry-picker" crane attached a 30-foot-long, 12-inch-wide sling to each end of the spreader bar.

Stull said the procedure is used to lift a damaged aircraft off the ground, allowing the CDDAR team to put it on jacks. This enables repair crews to safely perform maintenance and repairs. Because the exercise involved using an operational aircraft, no actual lifting was performed.

The exercise was followed by hands-on equipment training. Stull said CDDAR team members were trained on the secondary method for lifting an aircraft -- using inflatable lifting bags -- while learning proper lifting procedures and equipment operation.

This process includes placing inflatable lifting bags on a makeshift platform of railroad ties and plywood sheets under the wing of an aircraft. The maintenance crews then attach an industrial-grade air compressor to the bag to slowly inflate it. In practice, this procedure would lift the wing of a damaged aircraft and allow maintenance teams to secure it prior to beginning maintenance repairs.

Stull said overall, the exercise and training were successful.

"This was the most successful, best organized exercise conducted between the 507th Air Refueling Wing and base agencies to date," said Stull.