Maintaining mission-ready Eagles Published Feb. 22, 2018 By Senior Airman Abby L. Finkel 48th Fighter Wing Public Affairs ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England -- A vehicle operator needs to know that they can rely on whatever they are flying or driving to do what it’s supposed to do. This is particularly true if that vehicle is an F-15 – which can fly at speeds of up to 1,875 mph. The 48th Equipment Maintenance Squadron Maintenance Flight is one of the shops responsible for making sure that each F-15 is ready to fly and able to execute the Liberty Wing mission safely. It is comprised of three sections: phase inspection, repair and reclamation, and support, each playing an important and interlocking role in maintaining both Eagles and Strike Eagles. The inspection section is responsible for completing a nine-day-long phase inspection on each F-15 after every 400 flying hours. During the inspection, crew chiefs assigned to EMS check to make sure everything is in working order. "It's one big inspection team,” said Staff Sgt. Michael Backus, 48th EMS repair and reclamation supervisor. “They take all the parts out and inspect everything, put it back in, run the jet, and it's good to go." The phase inspection also gives crew chiefs the opportunity to troubleshoot any problems the aircraft had been having or fix anything they find that is broken. Another section of the maintenance flight, repair and reclamation, has several responsibilities and works in tandem with the inspection section. "[We] deal with in-flight emergencies, ground emergencies and the rigging of flight controls, landing gear and canopies,” Backus said. As the experts on flight controls, they carefully check them during the phase inspection, making sure the controls are correct and will respond exactly how a pilot needs to them to. “When you are flying along at 500 feet above the ground and over 500 mph, you can imagine that even a small error in the flight controls could quickly cause a pilot to lose control of the aircraft,” said a 494th Fighter Squadron pilot. “Fortunately, the F-15 hasn’t had an accident in decades because of a flight control malfunction, and that speaks highly of our EMS professionals who rig and repair the F-15 flight controls.” In order for both the inspection and repair and reclamation sections to be able to keep the F-15s in top shape, they need the right tools. That is where the support section comes in. "We keep phase and repair and reclamation equipped to do every job that they need to on these aircraft," said Staff Sgt. Trevor Myers, 48th EMS support section supervisor. Working behind the scenes, the three sections of the EMS maintenance flight work together to maintain mission-ready aircraft that Liberty Wing pilots can rely on in the air.