Life as an AP Mechanic

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...