FRCE’s H-53 line ends fiscal year with strong push
Doug Merrell, plane captain on Fleet Readiness Center East’s H-53 aircraft line, communicates with Capt. Ryan Boyer, H-53 functional check pilot, and Sgt. Matthew Hotelling, H-53 crew chief – both in the cockpit – during the “ground turn” of a Navy MH-53 heavy-lift helicopter, one of the final two Planned Maintenance Interval events the H-53 line completed in fiscal year 2021. A ground turn is an essential operational test of all of an aircraft’s systems and components.