Innovative Airman

Mr. Dave Farley (not shown) and Mr. Lonnie Taylor work in the 97th Maintenance Directorate Aerospace Ground Equipment flight providing maintenance for all aircraft support equipment. Since 2007, a ground heater unit blew the exhaust stack off due to a misaligned electrode and excessive raw fuel in the burner can seven times. In addition, the incident caused damage to the unit’s heat exchanger at a cost of $24,000 and could have injured personnel and aircraft assets. Mr. Farley and Mr. Taylor not only turned in a deficiency report and an Air Force Form 1067 Modification Proposal to address this hazardous problem, they developed and made recommendations for an alignment tool, adding a clamp to keep the electrode aligned while suggesting a fuel drain be added to the burner can to ensure excessive fuel drained back to the tank. Depot engineers took the ideas of Mr. Farley and Mr. Taylor and developed a test program for the engineering design that was tested here at Altus. After six years of testing, meeting with engineers and refining the suggested changes to the heater unit; a new alignment tool, addition of a clamp to keep the electrode aligned, and new burner can configuration were approved August 14, 2013. These two individuals set the standard for all others to follow and are examples of why 97th MX was recognized as a Voluntary Protection Programs star site.