Aircraft maintenance training

Flying Safety, August, 2003 by Tim Nesley

In the 20 years of my Air Force career, I have seen maintenance training metamorphose the career fields have consolidated and philosophies change. But, one thing that has not change is the goal of having the best-trained airmen in the world, ready to respond to all the worldwide contingencies that face us today. Over the years, I have learned our process of instruction, formal education and On-The-Job-Training (OJT) is second to none. While the formal education has changed to match the times and organizational changes, the OJT process has not changed. It still relies on the seasoned veterans of our ranks teaching knowledge and experiences to the next generation of flightline leaders, armed with AF Form 623s and the checklist of material they are to know.

After completing the Aircraft Maintenance Officer Course, I started out as a bright-eyed 2Lt attached to the 320th Avionics Maintenance Squadron. Not knowing the formal education process, I was impressed with the organizational structure of SAC Regulation 66-1: having all sorts of shops (Comm-Nav, Doppler, Bomb/Nav, ECM, Instrument, Autopilot, etc.) with a seasoned MSgt as the Shop Chief. All the technicians in their shops were masters of their systems. When a plane landed with an in-flight discrepancy and the crew debriefed, I enjoyed the interaction of the shop chief with his shop. Like the old family doctor, he would listen to the symptoms and direct his NCOs and airmen to look in certain directions during their troubleshooting to solve the mysteries of the failed system. Upon isolating the fault, the maintainers would bring the "box" into the shop, pop the top, run it across the mock-ups and further isolate the fault, down to the electronic component or broken wire. The maintainer would fix the fault, run back to the flightline and perform an operational check on the system to validate the repair. The end result: We had maintainers who understood their systems cold. I had the opportunity to watch 7-level TSgts and SSgts teaching the young airmen the physics on the ASQ-38 B-52 Bomb/Nav Radar operation on a blackboard, and how they refine the system to perform at peak operational capacity, providing the crewmembers the best we could. In their spare time, the Shop Chiefs would send their NCOs and airmen out to research the Tech Orders, providing test questions to find. As a Shop Chief told me, "Busy hands are happy hands. Through these Q and A sessions, refined and honed by practical work experience, our airmen of that generation set the stage for the transformations of the future.

In my next assignment as an AMU OIC, the Air Force underwent its first major classification reorganization, Rivet Workforce. Like career fields were combined (Instrument-Autopilot, Comm-Nav, Electro-Environmental, Sheet Metal-Structures, etc.). OJT became more critical as our 7-levels were not only training the 3 and 5 levels, but each other. But armed with our Job Qualification Standards (JQSs), we plowed through this requirement and became stronger for it. But still, our 7-level maintainers, backed by the seasoned Senior NCOs, were the rock on which we built our house.

Similar changes have taken place with the Career Field Education and Training Plan (CFETP). Jobs consolidated, new requirements levied, and new challenges given. But armed with our checklist of tasks and lessons to learn, and that experienced maintainer to teach, we will continue to excel. It is the role and duty of each NCO, to not only teach via OJT all the parts of the job, but also mentor the leaders of tomorrow with war stories and experiences of our past, to pass on what we have learned. As an AMU OIC, I relished the time I rode with my production supervisor and assistant OICs, imparting my philosophy and debriefing the results of the day's staff meetings.

As an AMC Squadron Maintenance Officer, before a contingency exercise, I would show/ teach my officers and production supervisors the wartime plans they impacted (to their security level), how the timing of each aircraft in the lineup impacted other events and aircraft. This would show them, in the heat of a generation, that there is method to the madness, and they were then able to provide better inputs and responses to the directions.

In the Depots, the civil service workforce performs the vast majority of the work. In the WR-ALC Maintenance Directorate alone, there are approximately 6500 team members, of which about 50 are blue-suiters. To train the employees, they use a system very similar to the blue-suiters. Production Acceptance Certification (PAC) is a certification by Depot maintenance task. First, the individual must have basic skills training (i.e., basic sheet metal training, electronics, etc.; generally formal training), then systems-specific training (MDS-specific, generally a mix of formal structured training and OJT) and then task-specific training (primarily OJT). There are also general and task-specific recurring training requirements such as corrosion, safety, ESD, etc., and finally, special skills requirements such as egress, welding, NDI, flight control rigging, refuel, etc., that require extensive formal training and structured OJT. Once all training is complete, individuals must demonstrate proficiency before they can be certified to perform the tasks. Only then can the supervisor certify the individual to perform the task. After they have completed the task, they perform a self-inspection and then certify the Work Control Document, signifying that the work meets all technical requirements. Each PAC-certified worker must get personnel evaluation by Quality Assurance at least once every two years. Documentation of PAC is in the Production Acceptance Certification Standard System (PACSS), which tracks all the training and certifications.