aircraft technician

[Zoomie]

In my interview for Aerospace engineering, the last question they asked me is: " Do U think u well get any flight time as an AERE?" ???

Seems like a stupid question on your recruiter's part.  My response would be "I really have no idea, what do you think?"  Most likely he/she have no clue as to what an AERE does. 

The answer to your question would be - hardly ever do AERE's fly and only as passengers in the back.  The only pers in the CF that can attain "flight time" are qualified crew members (ie. Pilots/Nav/AESOP/FE/LM/ST) - AERE are not members of any crew in any operational squadron in the CF.

 

[mony]

LOL, that is exactelly what I replied bluntly " I have no clue, do they?". I do know that sometimes civilian  AERE engineers  conduct test flights with the air personal. the way she asked me, it felt she was telling me "if U think U will have flight time or free joy rides U are wrong!" even though she did answer my question.

 

[Gunnerlove]

So the question should have been worded "I want to mooch rides in jets, what is the best way to do this?"

 

[CougarKing]

I'm just curious, is it common for AVN, AVS or ACS Techs who, after impeccable careers as NCMs, then later choose to go the officer route to become pilot officers? I know it also depends on the type of plane they are working on, but anyone have any thoughts on this?

 

[George Wallace]

I'm just curious, is it common for AVN, AVS or ACS Techs who, after impeccable careers as NCMs, then later choose to go the officer route to become pilot officers? I know it also depends on the type of plane they are working on, but anyone have any thoughts on this?

Why would it be any different for them than say an Armoured Crewman?  There are a couple of pilots I know who were once Crewmen, so why would any Trade not have the same opportunities?

 

[aesop081]

I know it also depends on the type of plane they are working on, but anyone have any thoughts on this?

You "know" ?

What would that have to do with anything ?

 

[CougarKing]

There are a couple of pilots I know who were once Crewmen, so why would any Trade not have the same opportunities?

I was just asking if someone who trained to be AVN Tech and who spent the most time with a particular type, say an F-18 or a Griffon, would have a much  better chance of getting a pilot slot for either of those types (provided they did alright in officer training) than a pilot candidate who never spent any time as an NCM.

 

[cp140tech]

  I'm an AVN tech in Greenwood, I perform first line engine work on the CP-140/A.  I don't have the first clue about what goes on in the aircraft cabin while it's flying, and for the most part I don't care.  You'll probably find that the operator and maintenance worlds cross paths much less than you'd expect, depending on the fleet and whether you're at home or deployed.  I only know of one pilot who used to be a tech, I believe she was airframe back when that was a trade, I'm not sure what aircraft she worked on.  The road from turning wrenches to driving aircraft is a long one and I doubt that any service experience you carried from an earlier trade would be considered.  I have no idea how they assign aircraft types to pilots, so I can't really say how much weight your preferences are given for postings.

  good luck

 

[childs56]

We have a few techs up here in Cold Lake whom have a few hours in the back seat of the 18. Most of them were at the right spot at the right time, and or a jet broke down some place and they flew them there for a quick fix. You cannot guarantee for sure that you would ever get a ride, but if you ask enough and show an interst, you might get a ride or two.
As for coming to Cold Lake, go on your course AVN or AVS an ask for Cold Lake. A 99.9% chance you will come here.

 

[krustyrl]

cp140tech I know a former ncm turned pilot, are you referring to M-Kelly.?

 

[krustyrl]

hey...another SST on here......Glad to meet you. I was on my 3's in early 87.

 

[cp140tech]

cp140tech I know a former ncm turned pilot, are you referring to M-Kelly.?

    That would be the one, I don't know her personally.....  just by reputation.  Not certain about her NCM trade, that was a half guess.

 

[.68]

Hey man

Im on my AVS 3's in borden now and ive heard is still similar, just the top in the class gets the posting preferences.

also for your info man, the AVN AVS trades just went through a new training plan that made them "better" and much longer

avs is at 6 months in kingston then 12-18 or so months in borden

avn is same 12-18 months here in borden.

as far as "free rides" i do believe your chances are pretty good, i have heard that after servicing is done on the a/c a test flight has to be done.  its possible that they take a tech on now and again

mabey for a "guarantee of work" LOL

so they will be goin up now and again. best of luck .

the airforce is good times,  if u choose to join, i doubt that you will be disapointed.

cheers

 

[Rusty_Poth]

If Ralph Klien can go up in one there is no doubting that you can too!!!

Having worked on or around CF-18's for 18 years it has become a whole easier to get a flight in one, I had numerous chances but I prefered to work on them, it used to be that you needed your "High Altitude Indoctrination, or HAI for short" as they wanted to teach you the signs and effects of Hypoxia so they would (in the case of those in Cold Lake) ship you to the high altitude chamber in Edmonton, after a day or so of training you would get the HAI qual and a card stating that you were qual'ed and when you wanted to go for a flip you would have to produce the card and show the pilot, sorta kinda like producing your ID for a beer purchase LOL. But now they have dropped the whole HAI thingy and you get a quicky breifing on Hypoxia and how the G-suit and ejection seat (which I had overhauled the major components on btw) work.

It has nothing to do with beeing a good top tech! It is mostly in whom you know etc etc.........

 

[CallOfDuty]

  Can anyone tell me how often they run the AVN course in Borden? 
Cheers

 

[dan_282]

Rusty could you please clarify how its all set up in Cold Lake,

reading your previous units in your profile u mentioned 416 tfs, and 1ams..

are there some techs at each of the fighter squadrons, and 1 ams, or do they all work at 1 ams only?

also, what type of work typically did u see each branch of tech doing? (being 3 in total i believe)

thanks man

 

[Rusty_Poth]

Rusty could you please clarify how its all set up in Cold Lake,

reading your previous units in your profile u mentioned 416 tfs, and 1ams..

are there some techs at each of the fighter squadrons, and 1 ams, or do they all work at 1 ams only?

also, what type of work typically did u see each branch of tech doing? (being 3 in total i believe)

thanks man

The techs in the front line uints (in my case that was 416, they just amalgamated 416 and 441 which has caused quite a stir from what I hear!!!) work mainly with the Aircraft,  anything that for the most part would take less then a day to fix (that is being quite liberal BTW, I had Snr NCM's that would ask if it would take longer then 3 hours to fix the engine problem, if it did replace the engine) is done by the techs in the First Line sections, they change the engines "black boxes" etc, they perform basic Servicing duties on the Aircraft like fueling pre-flight/post-flight inspections, also when I was there they would carry out Periodic Inspections that would take on average of 21 days to do.

But as I said they have made up a new squadron (439) due mostly to the budget cutbacks and the fact that a lot of us old warhorses retired they decided to pool thier resources and create a bigger squadron of technicians, but I have heard there is a bit of headbutting going on as the squadron is made up of two very distinct squadron philosophies.

1 AMS (which I was posted to for 13 years) is mainly for second and third line manitenence duties, like overhauling the main components of the aircraft systems, and repairing of the components that would take longer then a day or so.

 

[Inch]

But as I said they have made up a new squadron (439) due mostly to the budget cutbacks and the fact that a lot of us old warhorses retired they decided to pool thier resources and create a bigger squadron of technicians, but I have heard there is a bit of headbutting going on as the squadron is made up of two very distinct squadron philosophies.

You mean 409, 439 is a Griffon Combat Support Sqn in Bagotville.

 

[belka]

Rusty could you please clarify how its all set up in Cold Lake,

reading your previous units in your profile u mentioned 416 tfs, and 1ams..

are there some techs at each of the fighter squadrons, and 1 ams, or do they all work at 1 ams only?

also, what type of work typically did u see each branch of tech doing? (being 3 in total i believe)

thanks man

Just to add to what rusty said, there is now only 1 Tactical Fighter Squadron in Cold Lake, 409, which was amalgamated from 416 and 441. The other CF-18 sqn is 410, but this is only an Operational Training Squadron, basically, where the pilots complete their training on the CF-18. There are techs in both squadrons that handle first line maintenance and basic servicing. 1 AMS, which is second line, is comprised of techs, mostly experienced cpl's and above, from both Squadrons. Within 1 AMS there is second line where the jet is stripped for its periodic inspections, tank bay where major fuel snags are taken care of, engine bay where engines are completely overhauled and paint bay. A new pte or cpl will most likely go into one of the squadrons to gain experience and then transfered into 1 AMS and its subsections, if they are lucky enough. 

AVN's are now divided into 4 systems. Armament -  they load the aircraft with bombs, rockets, flares, external fuel tanks and basically maintain the aircrafts weaponry systems. Airframe - they handle flight controls, hydraulics and landing gear (these guys are usually the busiest due to the age of the airframe). Engine - they maintain the engines, apu, fuel systems and environment control systems. ALSE - they are responsible for the life support systems such as the ejection seat and its systems, the pilot suits and oxygen system. If you are a new AVN tech at the sqn, you will be dropped into one of the four systems.

AVS's handle the radar, instruments and the rest of the electronic systems on the aircraft. They also help with the flight controls because this is a flyby wire aircraft.

ACS - they do everything related to the structure of the aircraft such as painting, refinishing, etc.

 

[pteosborne]

Any idea why they combined all the AF trades into AVN techs, train you on all aspects for 16 months
only to put you into a specific area anyway?
IE: I got to Greenwood and I'm not really an AVN but more specifically I'm a prop tech.
Wouldnt it save training time to designate positions in Borden (CFSATE) and train accordingly? ???