BOGOTA, Colombia -- The Colombian Aviation Industry Corporation (CIAC) has started a major maintenance effort on one of the Colombian Air Force's C-130 Hercules transport. The effort is part of a Programmed Depot Maintenance (PDM) being conducted on Colombia's fleet of seven C-130 aircraft.
Under the PDM, CIAC personnel have dismantled the entire structure of the aircraft, including the wings, vertical stabilizers, engines, and landing gear. With the aircraft taken apart, CIAC will now conduct inspections of the entire airframe and carry out repair and replacement of components as needed. In addition, CIAC will carry out non-destructive tests, such as X-rays, ultrasounds, and applying penetrating inks to determine the status of structures that cannot be inspected by the naked eye.
CIAC has employed 43 people, including technicians and administrative staff, in the project, which is expected to take seven to nine months in total.
The particular aircraft being worked on, license # FAC 1001, has undergone this process once before, about six years ago. Colombia has received C-130s secondhand from Canada, Australia, and the U.S. since 1969. A few were lost over the years, leaving seven in Bogota's inventory.
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