By Jeanette DeForge | jdeforge@repub.com
CHICOPEE — For the first time in 20 years, the inspection hangar at Westover Air Reserve Base will no longer look like a cartoon character with its tail hanging out of its pants.
Members of the maintenance group at the 439th Airlift Wing are in the process of moving into a new hangar built just for the giant C-5M cargo planes after a multi-year $46.5 million federal project to build the first new hangar on the base in decades.
“We cannot ask for a better asset than this hangar for the safety of our airmen,” said Col. Joe Winchester, the new senior commander for maintenance group at Westover.
When the new hangar is officially put in operation Oct. 25, it will mean the 160-member crew of civilian employees and reservists, who do regular inspections and maintenance on the Air Force’s fleet of C-5’s, no longer have to do a lot of the work outside, he said.
It is safer, more efficient and means they have better working conditions. They always got the job done, but it makes it harder when a maintainer has stiff fingers frozen from the cold or is sweating in the heat, said Chief Master Sgt. James Jordan.
In 2006, Westover was selected as one of three bases to conduct regular isochronal inspections, which involve required tip-to-tail examinations of all 52 C-5s in the Air Force fleet, including active duty, reserve and National Guard units. Since the work is done every two years on each jet, at least 22 come through the base each year, said Karen Magnus, a retired colonel and the current director of mission sustainment and community partnership.
Having the work done in one place — two other bases perform more extensive inspections done every four and eight years — makes the military more efficient and more of a global asset, Winchester said.
The problem is Westover never had a hangar large enough to fit an entire C-5, so the work was done outside or in a hangar with the doors open. Eventually the doors were rigged, so there was a cut in the middle, so they could be closed and sealed to the cold with the tail hanging out.
“This is a very important part of our defense galaxy for sure nationally, but it is also a big employer, a huge employer,” U.S. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, said.
The base is also important because about one-third of the aircraft that fly or take off are commercial or private planes, since the runway is shared with the civilian Westover Metropolitan Airport, he said.
An investment like this also helps secure the future of the base and the good-paying jobs it brings, Neal said.
“One of the things about defense spending is there is a pretty wide magnifying glass on requests,” Neal said.
It can take years and lobbying not only by members of Congress but by the military. Westover officials played an important part in showing the need and value of funding for the hangar, he said.
The new hangar is a huge upgrade. It is designed so scaffolding and other equipment doesn’t have to be moved around and set up as often, and is much larger, so it accommodates the 65-foot height of the tail, said Senior Master Sgt. Keegan Sears, maintenance flight chief.
It also prevents delays, which is vital considering the team is on a very tight schedule, he said.
“We don’t have to shut down for weather, for lightning strikes, for wind,” Sears said. “We can’t have the aircraft out there on jacks in certain winds. We can’t have personnel out there in bad weather.”
“If we are enclosed, we aren’t affected at all. We can stay on track: Every two weeks, we have a new airplane coming in,” he said.
It is also easier to move a jet into the hangar so work can be done. With the existing hangar, there is little room to maneuver, so usually the most experienced maintainers are the ones who move the jets in, because if they are just a tiny bit off, they have to restart the process, said Master Sgt. Austin Schmidt.
