NAVAIR Depot North Island helps grounded Navy “Angel” fly coast to coast

By Bill Bartkus
NAVAIR Depot North Island

CORONADO, Calif. – Thanks to teammates from NAVAIR Depot North Island, an “angel” is back in the air and flying again with its counterparts.

The angel is a Blue Angel, and a member of the Navy’s elite precision flying demonstration team.

In early December, Depot engineers received a call from Master Chief Maintenanceman (AW) Robert Hayes with the Blue Angels in Pensacola, Fla. Hayes, the team’s maintenance master chief petty officer, needed to know if NAVAIR Depot North Island could repair a cracked 70 percent spar in the vertical tail on one of the Angels’ F/A-18s. The Blues sent the planning and estimating request, and Depot engineers worked it out and decided that Field Service artisans could repair the aircraft.

Robert Lester, David Triglia and Mark Heacock, with the Depot’s Field Service Team, flew to Pensacola in early December and worked on the aircraft. The three men returned to San Diego to spend Christmas with their families, and then Triglia and Heacock went back to Pensacola to finish the job and came home on Dec. 31.

“The job was a very difficult one,” said Jim Bray, planning and estimating supervisor. “We provided materials and hardware that are usually provided by the customer. We needed to obtain three each three R’s (rapid reply requests) from Engineering, one from Materials and two from Structures.” Bray said that this was a repair that had never been done before. “No one was familiar with the required processes,” he said.

“The mission was successful,” Bray was quick to say. He said that the NAVAIR Depot North Island team exceeded turnaround time. “The Blue Angels provided a must meet date of Jan. 4, and the Depot team completed the work five days ahead of schedule,” he said.

Hayes said that he appreciated the expert help that Lester, Trigilia and Heacock gave the Blue Angels. “They worked long hours and displayed a professional attitude. We appreciated their help, and we were able to start our annual training cycle in El Centro (Calif.) on time,” he said.

This job will be a memorable one for Lester because it came on the heels of his scheduled retirement. Without hesitating, he jumped in with both feet. He and the team worked together to get the grounded Hornet back in the air in time for its annual migration to El Centro.