Life as an AP Mechanic

Four B-1B bombers and 200 airmen arrived in Guam from Texas last week to partner with allied partners in Bomber Task Force training missions, according to a U.S. Air Force release. Approximately 200 Airmen accompanied the B-1B Lancer aircraft from the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron (EBS) at Dyess Air Force Base (AFB), Texas. They arrived at Adnersen AFB, Guam on October 20. Senior Airman Zach Cruz, 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron crew chief, closes a panel after inspecting a B-1B Lancer auxiliary power unit. (Photo Courtesy U.S. Air Force) The Dyess airmen integrated with aircraft from the Japanese Self-Defense Force (JASDF) near the Sea of Japan, and the amphibious assault ship USS America in the western Pacific Ocean. “Our ultimate strength in the Indo-Pacific is joint force lethality—our ability to train and operate as one layered, capable, and credible combat team,” said Capt. Luke Frost, USS America’s commanding officer. “The Air Force plays hard. Integrated air defense and sea c...

Few aircraft can captivate an audience the way the U.S. Navy Blue Angels do. Their engines roar to life and turn heads toward the sky, accomplishing exactly what the elite demonstration team was designed to do: showcase the pride and professionalism of the United States Navy and Marine Corps with incredible flight demonstrations and community outreach. Fans world-over will recognize the signature blue and gold jets streaking through the skies, most recently in nationwide-hospital flyovers to honor the work of first responders and medical personnel fighting the COVID-19 public health emergency. Photo Courtesy Chicago Sun Times But the F-18 Hornet isn’t the only marvel on display. The Blue Angels team is a high-functioning machine in itself. The Blue Angels pilots often get most of the attention, but did you know there is a team of approximately 100 military and civilian personnel working on the ground to keep this fleet airworthy? Here’s a look at what it takes to be a Blue Angels maint...

This goes out to all the aircraft owners considering maintenance work. If your aircraft has a mechanical problem, don’t choose to “deal with it” until you can’t get around it anymore. Just fix it, and do it as soon as possible. I don’t say this to make you spend more money in the maintenance shop. The truth is, it’s almost always cheaper to fix a problem sooner rather than later. It’s better to fix it at the first sign of malfunction, especially if the issue has to do with maintaining the integrity of your aircraft fuel system. At the first sign of a leak, some aircraft owners may just be tempted just to turn the fuel selector off to stop it on the ground, as one pilot did when they noticed a slow drip off his aircraft’s nosewheel. They flew like this for a year, leaving the fuel selector in the off position on the ground, and didn’t investigate the issue until they lost almost all of the fuel in their tanks. Hundreds of dollars of AVGas dried useless on the tarmac, and they still had...

Aircraft Mechanic Ototoxicity If you are like me, you have met a lot of older Airframe and/or Powerplant Mechanics and pilots that have hearing issues. You might even be one yourself. It makes a lot of sense. We spend a lot of time in loud shops and then a lot of time around loud engines running. I can remember a time not too long ago when I was stuffed up in the back of a CRJ200 yelling into a cellphone with both packs running off of the screaming APU, trying to tell the pilot when to activate the dump valves. I still think that that is the loudest single event I have ever been involved with.              What does not make sense it how few of us have heard of ototoxicity or know the intricacies of the hearing process. So, what is it? What if I told you that hearing was at its root, a chemical process? The sound waves travel into the auditory canal and vibrate the ear drum, which in turn transmits the w...

Daily life of an Aircraft Mechanic Picture this. I was the new guy on the job. Almost everything I did was highly scrutinized. As with any busy FBO, mechanics are pulled off one job to go work on a job that has suddenly higher priority. You are constantly switching gears mentally and trying to regroup. It is one thing that makes our job as GA mechanics so hard. But, its also part of what makes it rewarding. At the end day you can look back and see just how much you accomplished, whether that’s through work orders completed, or hours billed, or callouts responded to. However you want to quantify it, it is usually a lot and quite varied in content. Aircraft Maintenance Schedules             One day I was doing an oil change on an SR22T. Routine, easy maintenance. In my opinion, changing oil with a quick drain, on a 6 cylinder recip, is easier than most modern cars. I had just cut open and inspected the filter when a Ci...