Aircraft maintainers

PME Answer: Everyone is important to the mission, direct and indirect.

 

Agreed

 

So what's your job on aircraft that you're so hot about? Keep the shitter pumped? I know you AF guys have 'specialties'

 

AGE has a big job, but sorry to say your not a necessity to make planes fly. All aircraft (that I know of) have some sort of APU/QSAS (aux power unit/quick start apu system) and are self seficient. We can fly our jets (kc135) all day long without AGE. AGE just makes things a little easier sometimes, when your shit works that is.

 

It helps alot when you know how to use the equipment properly. Im not saying you as an individual, but as a whole. Many people just start pressing buttons and there is a starting sequence for a reason: either so the personel dont die or so the equipment doesnt malfunction

 

Ouch...so much hate for no reason. He still plays his part, let the man be.

 

Yes true, and not saying you, obviously, but I personally have told many AGE guys how to use their own equipment. They brought me a hyd mule once for a
B-1 converted to Kc135 and told me I needed to set it up for a B-1 in order for it to work. Needless to say the guy was a complete idiot.

 

I love listening to you guys You guys have specific jobs. On the other hand, we operate everything, the aircraft, GSE, loading equipment. We also maintain everything, all the same job. There is no specific assignment. Most of us are required to get multiple qualifications in the aircraft, including navigator. Such a different life, I hear nothing but bickering from you AF guys about each others jobs, no matter where I go...I don't envy you.

 

Yea but who wants to be a coastie? haha j/k man but seriously, yes there is a lot of bickering between maintainers. Most AF maintainers have a sense of pride and a sense that we are better than (most) others in the AF. We have a huge job of trying to make in some cases 50+ yr old aircraft fly everyday in extreme weather. Many people in other fields have been told " They can't fly those planes with you, you make this mission" blah blah blah. The fact is, we can! We dont NEED LRS, AGE, and many others. Im forward deployed right now with little to no resources and we make it just fine.

On a side note, many of us also are CUT trained in other jobs. Im hydraulics by AFSC, but also do jets(engines), E&E, and crew chief work. Avionics, now that I dont know jack about. All of our CUT trained stuff is still in maintenance though.

 

All of your cut training will be in maintenance. That why it's called cross utilization training. Lol.

 

Fixed...that better for you?

 

yep, all AF maintainers bicker among ourselves, its because we all have a outstanding pride for our birds. you should see when something goes wrong lol... All and all, even though we bicker, we still throw more things in the air and make alot of things go boom, that in itself no other branches can touch/ nor say they can out do our firework shows.

 

Maintaining aging aircraft is no different for us. We may not have the fireworks that you do but our Falcons are from the 70's... still original wiring, and it fails the minute you touch it. The engines are drone engines which they got for 'a steal'... things fail constantly. Workin on hercs now is no different, except its alot easier to get to the boxes on the plane since its much larger. Everyone in the CG workin on hercs loves em. I talk to my buddy in Little Rock frequently, and he absolutely hates workin on the C-130s... same plane, different attitude...and from his attitude has nothing to do with the plane personally. We basically have AMT's, and AETs.... thats it. If it has a wire going through it, AETs fix it. Everything else is a mech job. We also have a slightly higher workload because we are required to have 2 planes up at ALL TIMES. If all planes go down, guess what.... we're not going home. We always have to be able to answer the call.


Oh and who wants to be a Coastie... ask around---you'll find that at least a 1/3 are prior service. Alot of air force and alot of prior army join up.

 

you guys always have a place in my heart, dealing with all the dumb asses out there and keeping shit safe. But when your C-130 went down in the fire I spent over a year scraping and removing paint/sealant of of c-130's. so I understand your pain of 40 + year old airplanes lol.

 

The two year anniversary is this weekend... we just put up a huge memorial and the dedication is this weekend, its VERY impressive. Large brass C-130 as the centerpiece.

On second thought, what plane are you talking about? We didn't have anything go down int he fire. Are you talking about the national guard bird that had the center wing box fail? edit: maybe it was civilian, I forget....

 

Was told it was a fire fighter bird, I guess it was a Nat. Guard, came in for the drop run, pulled up, wings broke off.

 

Hawkins & Powers Aviation of Greybull, Wyo., owned and operated the accident aircraft under contract to the U.S. Forest Service as a FAR Part 91 operator.

From a news article. Few rules come out after that one as I understand it...

We actually have one bird that still flies with a damaged center wing box... amazes me. Sensors all over and extra limitations on the airframe.

 

Yea, some of the ones I had in Germany have purple hearts. 1 flew with 1.5 engine(s) to the next airbase after getting shelled while taking off.

 

Gotta love the Marine maintainers esspecially skidkids we are our own breed

 

good buddy of mine was a skid kid, love to hear the stories ya'll put the rookies thru, Walking the dog ring a Bell?