XLer of the week: Gerry Yung

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Benjamin N. Valmoja
  • 47th Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
LAUGHLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Texas --  Gerry Yung, 47th Maintenance Directorate aircraft electronics mechanic, was chosen by wing leadership to be the “XLer” of the week, for the week of Sept. 24, 2018, at Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas.
The “XLer” award, presented by Col. Charlie Velino, 47th Flying Training Wing commander, is given to those who consistently make outstanding contributions to their unit and the Laughlin mission.
In the world of aircraft maintenance, most jobs come with a manual to walk you through the troubleshooting process. But what happens when the job doesn’t have a manual? 
Yung, a retired U.S. Air Force master sergeant, and 30-year veteran to the maintenance world took it upon himself to work through the problem and get to the bottom of why a particular T-1A Jayhawk’s autopilot was going awry.
With no published fault isolation procedure for this anomaly, the Yuma, Arizona, native dug through the entire $130,000 avionics system wire by wire.
“We’ve never encountered this problem before, so we had to rely on system knowledge alone,” Yung said. “We troubleshot the problem and narrowed it down to a loose grounding block.”
Just like a lightbulb that isn’t fully seated, once the grounding block was fastened it fixed the autopilot problem as well as numerous other problems the aircraft was having. For Yung, it was just another day doing what he loves.
“Ever since I was little I’ve liked electronics,” he said, laughing. “I don’t know how many times I took apart my radio. And I learned it all from my dad. He is the one who got me hooked.”
Pairing passion with a work environment that Yung is proud to be a part of, he said working with the maintenance team is the perfect job for him.
For thinking outside of the box and using his knowledge to think through a tough problem, Gerry Yung earned the “XLer of the week.”