Generating Airpower: PMEL perfectionists

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Derek VanHorn
  • 35th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
MISAWA AIR BASE, Japan --  (This article is part of a series featuring the 35th Maintenance Group on their ability to generate airpower for the 35th Fighter Wing's Wild Weasels. The 35 MXG is compiled of 22 career fields that support the mission of the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses, the only SEAD wing in Pacific Air Forces.)

There's a group of Airmen here who take their work to a different level - they're precise, detail-oriented and absolute perfectionists. They speak their own language, and terms like spectrum analyzing, oscillation and kilohertz are casually tossed back and forth.

Their laboratory has the feel of a technology convention. Hundreds of wires jut from machines, meters and scales are commonplace, circuit boards are routinely dissected and the buzz of energy waves fills the air.

"I'm constantly digging and working through problems, day and night," said Staff Sgt. Noel Morgan, 35th Maintenance Squadron.

Morgan works at the Precision Measurement Equipment Laboratory here, and occurrences like this are customary. With the task of knowing the operating intricacies of about 4,400 units across base, the PMEL makes a habit of untying unpredictable knots around the clock.

"It makes it that way in every aspect of your life," said Staff Sgt. Kyle Martin, 35 MXS. "We notice the small things and pay extreme attention to detail."

By layman's terms, PMEL is responsible for performing and managing repair, calibration, and modification of test, measurement, and diagnostic equipment.

"That's the simplest way to put it -- we calibrate test equipment," Martin conceded.

"It's hard to explain," he continued. "We calibrate anything on this base that measures power, wattage, time, GPS, frequency, and more. We're constantly troubleshooting and learning something new every day."

The PMEL is broken up into three sections - physical and dimensional measurements, frequency and time domain measurements, and voltage, resistance and capacitance measurements. Martin specializes in frequency and time domain, and today his coworker, Staff Sgt. Corey Crim, has an oscilloscope torn apart in numerous pieces as he methodically runs tests on different parts of the machine.

What looks like a disaster to a passerby is exactly the opposite to a technician. For them, it's business as usual.

"You don't see too many career fields troubleshooting to the component level anymore," said Martin, a 7-year veteran. "It's usually all done electronically. This is one of the few jobs left where you're going to see people open equipment up to fix it rather than replace it."

This type of work presents challenges for PMEL members, as they have to learn machines inside and out, often times with equipment they're seeing for the first time. The majority of the calibrations performed in the lab are preventative and scheduled, but that doesn't change their approach.

"You have to know more about the customers' equipment than they do," Martin said. "I'm always pulling out manuals and finding the best way to troubleshoot. Everything we do is by the book; you can't do cowboy maintenance here."

Across the laboratory from Martin in a back room reserved for torque wrench calibration stand two of the shop's youngest members, Airmen 1st Class DeSean Freeman and Raul Marquez.

Master Sgt. Christopher Knowlton, 35 MXS PMEL chief, calls this area the "fun part of the shop." It's noticeably more hands-on, and provides the most tangible view of what PMEL does.

When Marquez first learned he'd be working in metrology - the science of weights and measures - he laughingly admitted he thought his job would involve predicting the weather.

Instead, he's running calibration tests on one of the most important items in the shop - torque wrenches.

Every single torque wrench used on the stock of 44 F-16 Fighting Falcons here is calibrated to a veracious standard by the PMEL flight. With nearly 1,000 maintainers on base, the testing never ceases.

"While everyone probably knows what a torque wrench is, they don't necessarily understand the importance of one," Morgan said. "There's a lot of work that goes into one, especially if you're using it to put a wing on a jet."

Each wing on an F-16 requires 16 wing attach bolts to secure its connection, and with jets being subjected to nine times the force of gravity, precision is imperative. Misawa maintainers are responsible for executing nearly 15 percent of F-16 wing changes across the Air Force, putting the behind-the-scenes effort of the PMEL flight on constant display.

"An average human probably has enough power to apply around three foot-pounds of torque," Morgan said. "These torque wrenches we calibrate go up to 1,000 foot-pounds, so it's extremely important we have the right measurements."

Morgan said around 80 percent of the items they work on in the physical dimension measurements section are directly related to F-16s, including critical parts such as the jet's boresight fixtures.

Boresight fixtures interconnect the jet's Heads Up Display, radar and targeting pod, and are used to establish the geometry of the aircraft and its relative systems to the pilot, according to Knowlton.

"We measure the distance between fixed points, which in the end, ensures the aircraft's weapon systems are perfectly aligned," Knowlton said. "That measurement is critical to enable pilots to accurately take out targets, both people and property. The precision operation of the gun firing exactly where the pilot directs his attention certifies the unrelenting lethality of our operators."

The PMEL applies a strict standard that ensures every piece of equipment that enters the lab leaves with exacting tolerances.

Knowlton said there's chain of traceability from the customers' equipment to Air Force-level standards through at least three other equipment calibrations, and each step is four times more accurate than the last.

He used an example of the journey of a torque wrench through their PMEL as an example, explaining that a customer's torque wrench would be calibrated using their torque calibration standard, and that standard is calibrated with weights. Those weights are calibrated using a high accuracy scale, and that scale is calibrated with an even higher accuracy set of weights which are calibrated by the Air Force Primary Standards Laboratory.

It truly is perfection in action.

"We know that everything that passes through to get calibrated is going to be as good as it gets," Morgan said. "Knowing that we're making the best measurements possible and every part has been calibrated by us leaves no doubt in my mind that pilots and maintainers have everything they need to accomplish the mission."