Forum: Air Force Life

When I was in Tech School in 1982 (FTD at MacDill AFB), each of us in the class was greeted daily with a piece of paper that contained a wiring problem. The instructor would select a random aircraft connector and pin, and ask the following...

1. What size is this pin?
2. What color is the wire that is attached to it?
3. What system does the pin belong to?
4. What is the part number of the connector?
5. How long is this wire? How long are all the rest of the wires in this signal path?
6. What is the eventual termination point of this wire?
7. How many bulkhead disconnects does this wire go through?
8. What signal is carried on this wire?
9. Is the signal analog, discrete, or MUX?

...and a host of others I can't remember. Why is this important now? Well, 24 years later, I just spent two hours with our customer over here tracking down a problem with the wiring diagrams in the tech orders. Because that instructor drilled this information into us 24 years ago, I was able to resolve this problem today. I would be interested in any comments from the Instructor crowd out there that reads this forum.

Training for Avionics troops was a little different in those days. It started out at Lowry AFB, with six weeks of Avionics fundamentals, with mostly classroom study and a little soldering and heat gun work with connectors. Then we were sent to FTD (Field Training Detachment) for two months, where we got in-depth F-16 system training, and performed our first ops checks and pulled our first boxes. We then went to our assigned base, where we were scheduled for the Aircraft Maintenance Qualification Program (AMQP), where we got really hands-on with the aircraft and learned how to do the 781s and other maintenance documentation.

This training produced high-quality Avionics specialists who were all 7-levels by the late 1980s-early 1990s. Subsequently, this cadre of well-trained troops was decimated by the VSI/SSB fiasco of the early 90s, where most of them got out. It was astonishing to see the brain drain that took place, even as the Gulf War loomed. Some people who accepted VSI/SSB were still being paid SRBs (until somebody at Randolph figured that out and stopped it). First you pay people to stay in, then you pay them to get out.

As a first-line supervisor in the late 90s, I was dismayed at the level of training that the newbies showed when they hit the squadron; even though they showed up as "Mission Ready Technicians (MRTs)" with AF 623 already filled out and signed off in some places, we ended up decertifying all of them and starting training from scratch.

Again, I would like to hear from USAF Instructors out there. What kind of training are Avionics troops getting these days?

Best Regards,

F-16.net Sponsor

in regards to crew chief school, i think it should be whittled down to a couple of weeks of basic tool use and work and then a couple more weeks of basic jet fundies along with servicing and crap. We spend entirely way too much time in tech school. Like you said, they are supposed to be arriving fully mission ready and are no where near close to that mostly. Give me a couple of weeks of steady ojt with a new guy and he'll be better off than the 6 months he spent at sheppard wasting taxpayers money. This might not go for all shops though.

i know what your talking about akruse...... i probably spent about 2 weeks at sheppard doing nite servicing. and add a few more weeks of learning about parts of the aircraft that i will never need to know about. the real stuff that you do need to know (such as dropping and hanging tanks) you spend only a day doing it. same with learning the intake and exhaust stuff for BPO/PR when by the time your able to jump tubes as SRA you would have forgotten the stuff. too much wasted time in school learning stuff you dont need to know and not enough stuff on what you should know.

You guys are right...the whole idea behind AMQP (see my first post) was to get the new guy into the maintenance they would be performing at their particular base. You get better training (most AMQP instructors were not full time instructors, they were flightline guys who only taught the classes as needed) and it is more relevant to what you do at your assigned base. Costs less too because you are at your permanent base and no longer in TDY status. Also, putting a new guy in AMQP also took the burden off the maintenance units to try to fit the training in around the flying schedule; you know how training days go, you might have some tank hanging training scheduled but have to cancel at the last minute. AMQP guaranteed that you would get trained. Crew Chiefs would spend a couple of days dropping and hanging tanks, and then do the transfer checks. Today's training looks good on paper...somebody must have gotten a reward for dreaming up the MRT program.

Best Regards,

Hey akruse21 and cchief16, I hear what your saying and partially agree. I think to much time is taken here and the vast majority of training time should be spent at Luke AFB. (or anywhere there is active, daily flyers) The only problem with that is this: the biggest, and in my opinion, most important part of our job (as crewchiefs) is inspections. Could you imagine how the quality of inspections would go down the tube if we try to just teach them to inspect things without first teaching them what they are and how they work?? That is what the biggest majority of the time here at Sheppard is taken up with. Ultimately, after a newbie spends his/her time doing the dayshift launch and recovery thing and starts moving more into the maintenance and troubleshooting side of things....it's all about those fundamentals. Evil or Very Mad

thats just it. By the time the guy gets to his active squadron he has not touched a jet in over a month and when he did touch the jet it was with a class of 5-7 guys being rushed thru. I've had so many dudes show up not even having a clue as to what he should be looking for. Now they go through a month of FTAC also. Tech school needs to be totally revamped crew chief wise. All the instructors from sheppard aggreed also when i was there for seven level a while back.

There is room for improvements...all facts there man. Evil or Very Mad

Forum: Air Force Life

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