Ramstein Civilians make complex C-21 engine swap

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Scott Saldukas
  • 86th Airlift Wing Public Affairs
RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany --  Civilian contractors from DynCorp International began replacing a C-21 aircraft engine Sept. 10 here that is projected to be completed by Sept. 16.

Usually an engine conversion is done meeting time-change requirements after 1400 hours of run time, but this engine is being changed due to an over-temperature condition.

"This engine change is unlike the standard engine swap usually performed on Ramstein, since this engine doesn't come fully assembled," said Tech. Sgt. Colby Brusch, 86th Maintenance Group contracting officer representative.

Sergeant Brusch explained how the Garrett TFE-731-2-2B turbofan used to power the C-21 comes delivered as an engine core and the accessory parts must be swapped over from the old engine to the new one.

Disassembling the old power plant and constructing the new engine is the extensive portion of the project taking three to five days compared to a normal four to six hour C-130 Hercules engine transfer.

"Normally, the military gets the engine already put together and just has to swap them out," said Dan Veloso, DynCorp aircraft technician.

Although the aircraft belongs to the 76th Airlift Squadron, DynCorp is contracted by the Air Force to complete maintenance on the 10 C-21A stationed here.

"There are only a few bases around that have these planes, and they are military variations of commercial Lear Jets. So, there are already plenty of qualified mechanics in the civilian workforce that can step right in and work on these," Sergeant Brusch said. "If the Air Force were to maintain these with a military workforce, we would have to send our Airmen to commercial schools to get qualified."

The process empowers both military members and civilians to work together to provide the Air Force and Ramstein with the best product.

"The contractors bring in best practices from the civilian industries and are not tied down by as many regulations, so implementing changes aren't as hard," Sergeant Brusch said. "Since this is a performance based contract, it allows us to focus on the quality of the product they put out and them to focus on finding the best way to accomplish a task."

That is exactly what DynCorp has focused on since its inception in 1946 after the merger of Land-Air, Inc., and California Eastern Airways.

"Having a contractor allows for fewer personnel to do the same job as the military. Where we have an entire maintenance group to maintain the 14 C-130Js, we have 18 contractors maintaining 10 C-21s," said Master Sgt. William Ewest, 86th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron maintenance liaison.

Playing a major role in the success of the Ramstein mission, the contractors provide maintenance-essential functions for continued distinguished visitor support, aeromedical evacuation missions and U.S. African Command missions on a daily basis.

In addition to providing the Air Force with contractor logistics support for the majority of their C-21 aircraft, DynCorp provides total organizational and depot level aircraft and engine maintenance, spares, special tooling and support equipment 24 hours a day, year round at six worldwide main operating bases and one overseas-extended deployment base.