Welcome to the Maintenance AFSC discussion blog. The purpose of this blog is to foster discussion between future AF officers interested in this career feild and current officers in 21A & 21M. The views expressed in this blog are solely the opinions of the individual authors and not of the USAF nor the DoD.
Friday, September 29, 2006
A day in the life of an Aircraft Maintenance Officer
I'll give it to you straight. A day in the life of a mx officer is a long, usually, quite busy day. Maintenance is not for those who are looking to get by easy and head home at 4:30. The days are usually around 12 hours long (if working the flightline) and there is a lot of pressure at certain times to answer for events that may occur on your watch.
However, despite all that, maintenance IS the place for you if you're looking to jump into leadership with two feet and really have an influence on a lot of people. As a 2nd Lt, I managed over 60 people and really had no idea the first thing about aircraft or people management. But, I learned quickly and loved it. As a Capt, I was up to managing over 200 people. Not a lot of other people your age will be able to come upon those kind of extreme leadership opportunities. The last thing I should mention is that mx officers deploy. You can expect to do a deployment for at least 4-6 months in most assignments. In addition, you may be asked to do a lot of smaller schools and trips between deployments. Good luck to all of you!
2 comments:
A typical day can look like this for an airlift or specialty aircraft maintenance officer:
0545 Prepare for morning production meetings
0600-0800 Flight/Squadron/Group Production meetings (fleet health)
0800-1000 Watch jet launches, visit maintenance troops, brief/get briefed on aircraft issues
1000-1300 Administrative work, aircraft scheduling (flight and inspection), budget and TDY requests, EPRs, decs and awards
1300-1500 Quality assurance, training, production and other group meetings
1500-1800 Watch jet recovery, visit maintenance troops, brief/get briefed on aircraft issues
Repeats in different forms everyday!
I'll give it to you straight. A day in the life of a mx officer is a long, usually, quite busy day. Maintenance is not for those who are looking to get by easy and head home at 4:30. The days are usually around 12 hours long (if working the flightline) and there is a lot of pressure at certain times to answer for events that may occur on your watch.
However, despite all that, maintenance IS the place for you if you're looking to jump into leadership with two feet and really have an influence on a lot of people. As a 2nd Lt, I managed over 60 people and really had no idea the first thing about aircraft or people management. But, I learned quickly and loved it. As a Capt, I was up to managing over 200 people. Not a lot of other people your age will be able to come upon those kind of extreme leadership opportunities.
The last thing I should mention is that mx officers deploy. You can expect to do a deployment for at least 4-6 months in most assignments. In addition, you may be asked to do a lot of smaller schools and trips between deployments.
Good luck to all of you!
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