ETHIOPIAN AIR FORCE

WESTERN AIR BASE

Prepared by:
Siraj Kedir
Solomon Abebaw
Advisor: Mr Mehari
June 18/2017
outlines
• Back ground of the company
• Vision and mission
• Products and services
• Organizational structure
• Work flow of western air base
• Working section
• work task executed
• Challenges we faced
• Measures that we took
• Overall benefits gained from the internship
• Project
• Problem statement
• Objective
• Conclusion and recommendation
Back ground of the company
• The origins of Ethiopian air force has been traced back to Ras Haile Selassie
witnessing a show of the British royal air force in November 1922 , in Aden. Having
never seen an airplane before, he was captivated by this defenestration of their
power and abilities. He afterwards advocated the development of the imperial
Ethiopian air force.
• Historical accounts proves that the previous location of Bahir Dar airport was
established at the present location of ‘Meskel Adebabay’. Bahir Dar airport was
functional to public service in 1978 E.C by the time that civil aircrafts were used for
transportation.
• Holding the establishment of the airport the Derg regime was decided to use the
airport for military purpose and have been using fighter jets of the types MIG 23
and MIG 21 until 1983E.C next to Asmara and Dire Dawa.
• The Ethiopian Air force was widely established and formed following the formation
of national defense force which keeps the constitution. The current location of
Ethiopian Air force Western Air Base is found in north west direction 7 km away
from Bahir Dar city and was established by head administer of Amhara region Mr.
Addissu Legesse in December 1988E.C.
Vision and mission

Mission
• Ethiopian air force is the air arm of Ethiopian national defense forces and
is tasked with protecting the air space, providing support to the ground
forces as well as assisting during national emergencies.

Vision
• The main vission of the institution is impowering the country by
protecting her from enemies and by ensuring sustainable development by
building a strong air force in Africa.
Products and services
Even though the company has no products produced and
manufactured regularly, it gives training services to the
society of the company. Some of the training activities given
are;
• MIG 23 maintenance
• Pilot training by using MIG 23 and helicopters.
• Ground technician training.
• Missile operation and installation training and
• Avionics technician training.
Organizational structure
Work flow of western air base
 Flight Inspection
• I. Preliminary Inspection
• Check inspection of air-craft and correction of troubles.
• Adjusting, cleaning, lubricating and preparation of equipments for flight
• Preparation of air-craft ammunition.
• II. Pre-flight Inspection
• Visual inspection of air-craft.
• Proper filling of air-craft systems with fuel, oil, liquid and charging with gases.
• Loading of ammunition on the air-craft
• Engine testing
• III. Inspection between Two Consecutive Flights
• Correction of troubles revealed during the preceding flight.
• Filling air-craft systems with fuel, oil, liquid and charging with gases.
• Load of ammunition
• Installation of removable equipment on the air-craft
• IV. Post-Flight Inspection
• Correction of troubles revealed during flight
• Filling the air-craft with fuel, oil, liquid and charging with gases
• Inspection of air-craft external parts such as fuselage and landing gear
• inspection of air intake, wing, main landing gear & cockpit
Scheduled Maintenance Operation
I. 50 hours
• Tasks which must be performed in 50 hours are:
• Inspection of attachment fittings of actuating cylinders.
• Inject grease into the fittings of the air brake,wing,flaps and rudder
• Extraction of shafts which connect levers of outer wing panel to screw jacks
• Washing landing gear shock struts with gasoline
• Check nose and main landing gear for correct play
II. 100 hours
• Check the oil level in the landing gear shock struts
• Removing the filter installed in the controlling pressure line and wash filters
• Check main and booster hydraulic systems for external and internal leaks
• Check functioning of gauges during automatic engagement of hydraulic drive
III. 200 hours
• Check the stabilizer control linkage flutter dampers for proper charging.
• Flush both hydraulic systems and hydraulic tanks and fill them with fresh oil.
• Washing and drying the pneumatic system charging filter
Working section

• To gain a deep knowledge about the working principle, internal and external
structure of the air craft we were employed in the dock and flight maintenance of
air-craft section of the air base. This section is subdivided as: armament, radio,
egress and avionics.
work task executed
• Maintenance of hydraulic jack
• Cleaning and greasing of main and nose landing
gears
• Disassembling and assembling of air craft body
• Maintenance of air craft oil filters
• Maintenance of fuel metering system
• Stabilizer adjustment
• Wing main shaft inspection
Maintenance of hydraulic jack
• In the first week of our arrival in
the company the instractors
showed us how to maintain
broken hydraulic jack by
themselves. After that they have
gave us the apportunity to
maintain it ourselves under their
careful supervision. So we have
fully disassembled the 5000kg
hydraulic jack which is used to lift
the air craft and installed it
correctly after maintaining it.
Cleaning and greasing of main and nose landing gears

• The other task we have performed is cleaning and greasing the landing
gears, after the flight control manager inspected the air craft 1207 MIG-23
he orders immediet clean up of landing gears and belly section, after
receiving the instruction we have cleaned those parts by using kerosene
and hand brush.
Disassembling and assembling of air craft body
• The next task we have performed
on the the other day is
disassembling of aircraft body to
prepare it for 100 hour operation
half section, in this job we have
fully detached the air frame cover
which is necessary to inspect and
greasing.
Maintenance of air craft oil filters

• Having dis assembled the air craft the next step was to remove the oil
filters from their threaded casing and writing their part and model
number so that they will not interchange during re installation finally they
will be passed to inspection room . The inspection is done by a
professional inside its own well equipped room.
Maintenance of fuel metering system
• The main fuel metering unit
of air craft 1206 MIG-23
found leaking fuel after
flight so, the technicians
desided to replace it with
new one.
Stabilizer adjustment
• The hydraulic operated stabilizer of air craft 1206 MIG-23 found to be
misalligned by vibration , so we have adjusted it to 7 cm according to the
manual.
Challenges we faced

The problems we faced during our internship

program are:
• Disturbing loud noise of the air-craft during engine
test, take off and landing
• Lack of transport service
• Shortage of food in the company lounge
• Intense heat during out door work during afternoon
Measures that we took

The measures we have taken for the problems we faced are:

• Use of ear plug for the loud sound
• Wake up early before 1 O’clock to wait transport service of
the company
• Negotiating with administrative stuff to set transport early for
us
• Work inside the hangar during afternoon
Overall benefits gained from the internship
Gain in Terms of Improving our Practical Skills

i. Inspection techniques: as mentioned in previous chapter,

before any flight and after any flight checking of the air-craft
is done to check if any problem or malfunction of the air-craft
happens. Testing of the air-craft well functioning by running
the engine
ii. Maintenance techniques and operations: testing the
performance of the air craft, cleaning, repairing and replacing
damage parts of the air craft. Assembling and disassembling
the air-craft for maintenance
iii. Manual usage: Understanding the use of manual, content of
the manual, using manual properly
Overall benefits gained from the internship
Gain in Terms of Upgrading our
Theoretical Knowledge
Introduction about MIG 23
• MIG 23 is derived from the name of the
two designers of the air-craft
• ‘M’ stands for Mikoyan one of the two
designers of MIG 23
• ‘G’ stands for Gurevich the other designer
of MIG 23
• ‘23’ indicate the series
• MIG 23 operate with turbojet engine
• The mach number is 1.75 and 2.35 for
bomber and trainer air-crafts respectively
• It is constructed from aluminum alloy
metal having flexible wings with small
negative inclination(the wing is inclined
down at small angle).
• fuselage consists of three parts nose main
and tail section
Overall benefits gained from the internship
I. Air System
the air system has two systems.
 Pure oxygen system: Pure oxygen system is used by pilot and
engine system
Atmospheric air system

• Main air system: the main air system

serves for
• Landing wheels braking control
system
• Canopy opening, closing and sealing
• Wing fillet adjustable panel control
system
• Fuel shut-off valve control system
• Drug-chute door opening and
jettisoning control system
• Emergency air system: it is used when
the hydraulic system failed to
perform such as:
• Emergency landing gear extension
and simultaneously retraction of
ventral fin
• Emergency landing gear wheels
braking
II. Fuel System

• Fuel tanks, internal fuel tanks and

external fuel tanks/drop tanks
• Fueling and defueling system
• Fuel tank pressurization and
venting system
• Consumption tank feeding
system
• Automatic fuel balancing system
• Fuel quantity checking system
• Fuel consumption line of the
engine