HEMS
From a 30,000-foot overview, a base mechanic will discuss with his regional maintenance manager (RMM) about any upcoming maintenance. We look for bad weather days and make sure another base close by isn’t going out of service (OOS) at the same time so we don’t have two bases out of service at once. The aircraft is placed OOS through our main- tenance control center and a notice is sent out through our notification system. The maintenance is performed and our maintenance control will issue all the approval for return to service paperwork (43.9 and 43.11) to the base mechanic to review and sign. All records will be updated prior to the pilot returning the aircraft to service. Helicopter Maintenance – Of all the maintenance tasks that you perform, which have you found to be the most labor intensive and time consuming? Cleaves – Troubleshooting noises and/or vibrations. Un-
like a gauge that fails hard, noises or vibrations tend to be sub- jective in nature and are very difficult to duplicate and analyze. Helicopter Maintenance – Who performs pre-flight and post-flight inspections on the aircraft? Cleaves – Our pilots do, but I do ask each base mechanic to look over the aircraft every day they are on shift. Helicopter Maintenance – Who has the responsibility for assigning aircraft to flight operations? Cleaves – Our communication center and operations
control center perform this task. Helicopter Maintenance – Who assigns the mainte- nance tasks to be done each day? Cleaves – Our base mechanics are required to monitor the status of their aircraft; working in conjunction with the RMM, maintenance is scheduled either at the base or the SRMO.
Helicopter Maintenance – Please describe what takes place during a typical day in the life of the maintenance department. Cleaves – For me, I come to work with a game plan,
but in most cases it is out the window by 9 a.m. I like this, as crazy as that sounds. Every day is different. But a typical day for the department would be, on average, five to eight inspections are being performed in the field and we work on unscheduled maintenance as well. Aircraft are being moved to SRMO locations for heavy maintenance and plans are being made for upcoming aircraft upgrades — remember, this is happening 24/7, 365 days a year. Helicopter Maintenance – Has Air Evac started any
initiatives regarding the push towards a safety management system (SMS)? Cleaves – Yes, we have for the last four years. We are cur-
rently in level three, looking to exit sometime this year into the last level four. This has been an interesting journey — very process driven and a collaborative effort with our certificate management unit (CMU) FAA. If you were to ask me a few years ago, ‘What are your thoughts regarding SMS?’, I would have given you a negative answer, but I believe SMS has value. It really makes you look at proactive hazard identification, risk management, information control, auditing and training.
Helicopter Maintenance – Do you have any lessons
learned or tips you can share with our readers on a particular task that you found can improve on the maintenance process in the way of saving time, cost, materials, etc? Cleaves – Troubleshooting — it is a pet peeve of mine.
I don’t like the shotgun style of troubleshooting. What I mean by that is this: if you have a problem in a system, let’s say the fuel system. Replacing the fuel gauge, fuel transmit- ter, fuel harness and sending units all at once doesn’t really solve anything. I agree the problem is gone, but what fixed it? Furthermore, we have just depleted inventory of four other items. What I like is for our mechanics to spend a little more time troubleshooting down to the root cause. We replace only what is needed and the mechanic gets a better understanding of the system and we can truly track real problems looking for systemic issues.
Helicopter Maintenance – If you were looking to hire a
new mechanic, what skill sets would you be most interested in? Cleaves – Our minimum requirements are two years as
an A&P with two years rotorcraft experience. Communica- tion, in my opinion, is the most important skill set a me- chanic can have. I can teach technical skill, but I cannot teach someone how to communicate well. This is a trait that I feel is diminishing with young A&Ps. The Air Evac Lifeteam is out there saving lives and provid- ing positive outcomes to life- and limb-threatening emergen- cies for the folks in rural America.
October | November 2013
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