When on deployment on an aircraft carrier, everything is
about timing, scheduling, and routine.
When it came to flight missions it was critical for your squadron to
have a set amount of operational aircraft or helicopters available for flight
ops. So timing was, in essence,
critical.
The maintenance crews were always being pushed to make sure
the aircraft was operational. It was a
fact of life that airplanes and helicopters broke down, especially in the
hostile environment of the desert and Persian Gulf; the sand just destroys
everything from engines to hydraulics.
The aircraft I worked on were F-18 Hornets. The aircraft carriers I served on were the
USS Eisenhower and the USS John C. Stennis.
These are Nimitz class carriers.
Missions
were either flown during the day or night; the carrier couldn't do both because
the down time was needed to fix the planes. Our maintenance shift was at night. A carrier at sea uses a 12 hours on and 12
hours off shift schedule with no days off.
The maintenance crews were always scheduled to work in the down time
hours, except for trouble shooters who would work during flight ops and would
have the final say on whether the aircraft could be quickly fixed and still go
on its mission, or whether the plane needed to be shut down for maintenance.
When flight operations are over, maintenance control
activates. As the shift starts all the shops, from the electronics guys to the
engine mechanics, gather in maintenance control to see how the 'birds' flew and
what needs to get fixed.
The amount of planes that needed fixing varied greatly,
sometimes there was nothing that needed fixing and all we did was just do
inspections and other times, five or six planes went down and we would be busy
the whole night.
The team discusses the severity of the problems and the best
approach to fix the aircraft, especially if there are multiple problems. When the crews are fixing the aircraft major
problems are brought down to the hangar deck where multiple parts can be removed
or if the engines need to be dropped.
Space can get pretty crowded and is sometimes very limited so all the
squadrons need to communicate.
Aircraft with minor issues are often just done on the flight
deck As soon as the aircraft in the hanger is fixed it is brought up to the
flight deck and another busted aircraft is brought down to the hangar bay for
repair. This process went until the
morning when the next day's launch will be prepared. When the maintenance shift is just about
over, each shop head will meet again in maintenance control to assess
everything that's happened and what still needs to be fixed. This usually
coincides with the shift change so the flight ops team knows what they have to
work with.
This was our routine every night for over six months when we
were at sea. So my life was definitely
all about timing, scheduling, and routine.
It wasn't all work and no play -- you could listen to your music while
you worked, talk to your buddies about everything, play pranks on each other,
and countless other things. You'd have
time for a smoke break or take extra time at chow if it wasn't too busy. In a nutshell that was the maintenance life
on board an aircraft carrier while at sea.
Image
| 
Re: Aircraft Maintenance on an Aircraft Carrier
