Cynthia Champagne has been selected by Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) as its 6.0 Logistics and Industrial Operations Employee of the Quarter, First Quarter 2019.

Champagne is the Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW) Navy Sustainment System (NSS) project manager for the command’s 6.0 competencies.

Since October, her work proved instrumental in reducing the number of Naval Supply Systems Command F/A-18 Super Hornet material Issue Priority Group One (IPG-1) aircraft by 38 percent. IPG-1 aircraft are aircraft that are downed, often for components.

Logistics Specialist 1^stClass Sindy Johnson has been selected as the Navy’s 2018 Shore Sailor of the Year (SOY).

Johnson, who is assigned to Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW), was presented the award April 10 during ceremonies in Washington, D.C. She was one of five finalists to compete for the award, and will earn meritorious advancement to chief petty officer.

Born in Bluff, Nicaragua, Johnson moved with her father to Bronx, N.Y., in December 2001 at the age of 15. Three years later she joined the Navy.          

When circuit cards of avionic components belonging to the airframes serviced by Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW) need repair or troubleshooting, they often end up in the command’s micro-miniature shop in Building 463.

Manned by 11 FRCSW Sailors, the intermediate level work done in the shop plays a supporting role to the repairs made by the command to more than 30,000 components annually.

Many of the circuit cards, or shop replaceable assemblies, are held in weapons replaceable assemblies, the containers that house avionic functions.

Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW) celebrated a historic occasion at Naval Air Station North Island January 31 with the induction of its first MV-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft for Planned Maintenance Interval-Two (PMI-2).

The aircraft is assigned to Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 362 (VMM-362) under the 3^rd Marine Aircraft Wing. 

The command completed its first PMI-1 event on an Osprey in May 2016 at its Miramar site aboard Marine Corps Air Station (MCAS) Miramar.

Exposure to the elements and daily use at sea can take a toll on shipboard aviation equipment.

And like the ship and crew assigned to it, this gear needs rejuvenation upon returning to port. Aboard Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW), the Support Equipment (SE) Rework shop in Buildings 801 and 789 serve as the refurbishment center for these tools.

For over 30 years, the SE shop and its staff of five Sailors and five contractor personnel have handled the technical expertise, tools, and parts that enable Sailors to prepare equipment for its next deployment.

Throughout the Fleet Readiness Center domain, many programs form the team required to meet Commander, Navy Air Forces (CNAF) initiative to achieve 341 mission-ready F/A-18 Super Hornets by 2020.

At Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW) the hydraulics shop in Building 472 contributes to the CNAF goal by focusing much of its efforts on the flight control systems of the Super Hornet.

“Hornet E and F rudders, trailing edge flaps, horizontal stabilizers and ailerons are the most common components that we work on,” said pneudraulics work leader Logan Black.

Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW) artisans use a variety of tools and unique machinery in their daily work to provide the fleet with mission-ready aircraft.

One such machine, the “waterjet,” which is assigned under the industrial manufacturing program in Building 472, has the ability to cut aircraft wings in half.

With a 30-horsepower water pump and able to accommodate parts and materials up to 6 feet by 12 feet in its water tank, there’s not too much the manufacturing cutting tool can’t cut, curve, or shape.

FRCSW named Johnson as its SOY in October, and COMFRC followed one month later.

“I was humbled by the selections,” she said. “I wanted to get that far and keep going. It almost seemed like a dream, like `I’m shooting for this, but I don’t know if I’m ever going to get there.’

The maximum gross take-off weight of the E-2 Hawkeye surveillance airframe and its sister C-2 Greyhound transport is more than 52,000 pounds. Combined with landings, perhaps no other part of the aircraft absorbs as much pressure as its landing gear.

 Located in Building 472, the Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW) landing gear shop is the sole FRC for overhauls and repairs to the Hawkeye and Greyhound nose and main landing gear.