THEY REBUILT an F-5 - Learn about FAB MAINTENANCE

Video from the channel Aero Por Trás da Aviação about Northrop F-5, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 14:10. Language: Portuguese. Video type: Onboard.

The presenter visits the F-5 maintenance line at the São Paulo Aeronautical Materiel Park (PAMA-SP), in the military area of Campo de Marte, an aircraft the Brazilian Air Force has used for 50 years. The tour includes conversations with a veteran hangar warrant officer and with a quality-control and inspection sergeant specialising in the fuel system.

An aircraft is seen being reassembled, with primed areas following fuselage repairs, the rear bays where the two afterburning General Electric J85 turbojets slot in like a drawer, the air intakes, the radome with the pitot tube in the nose, and the aerial refuelling probe. The cockpit is shown stripped down, with the gaps left by the digital displays from the upgrade. The upper and lower wing spars and ribs are explained, a removed spar that will be kept framed is shown, along with a 1,000-litre external tank next to the hardpoints under the fuselage and wings.

PAMA-SP is the hub of the project and carries out the 1,200-hour general overhaul: the aircraft land at Guarulhos and arrive by road, are disassembled, digitally X-rayed for cracks, and receive anti-corrosion treatment and a full repaint. The bases at Santa Cruz (Rio de Janeiro) and Canoas (Rio Grande do Sul) handle intermediate maintenance up to 900 hours. The depot replaced all the spars of an aircraft for the first time, with parts made in its own metalworking section. After the hangar tests come engine runs and runway taxi trials, with no takeoff due to the length of the Campo de Marte runway. The mechanics are specialist sergeants trained at the EEAR in Guaratinguetá.