Air Force Flight Engineers

[GCD]

Are AF Flight Engineers required to be mechanics before they are selected for an engineer course?

Just curious. Army v. AF differences.








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[pkober]

No, but it helps. Most of our FE's on the C-130 came from MX.

Good Luck

CLAMBAKE

 

[Foties]

Our unit picked up a chick that came from Formal Schools (Admin type job). SHe is horrible as an F.E. but I think is is for reasons other than not having a MX background. Anything i spossible in the guard and reserve. Check out :

www.baseops.net

Check the aviation employemtn page. They always have units looking for F.E's

Later

40's

 

[GCD]

Thanks. I'm not the one looking. I'm trying to help write Army policy.

How about loadmasters <same question>?










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[Kikuchiyo]

Loadmasters can come straight out of Basic, though many of ours elected (or were forced) to crosstrain into the field.

When I flew the 141, (early 90's) there was a policy that all FE's had to have served in MX first. They couldn't come straight from Basic, and they couldn't come from other carreer fields. They changed the policy when they got short manned, and allowed crosstrainees from other fields. One of my best FE's was a former cop, but in general, the former MX guys had an advantage in the job. Sorry, don't know the current FE policy now.

 

[hawg2hawk]

Thanks. I'm not the one looking. I'm trying to help write Army policy.<<<<<<

This is the perfect place to be doing that research.

 

[GCD]

Thanks for the replies.

No, this is not research. This is a quick way to gather experienced opinions, though. Thanks for yours.

 

[trashhauler]

I've flown with the military for a long time and I've seen good FEs that didn't come from MX and bad ones that did. The AF doesn't allow first termers in the FE seat, they must crosstrain. I have seen guys move from LM to FE though, again some good, some not.

I think an aptitude test is used at some units, if not all, to determine if the guy has the math and mechanical skills to be an FE.

Good LMs can be first termers, but for the most part they have to want to be LMs. If you force a guy into it, he's not going to do it very well and there are some problems (like airsickness and no definite schedule) that make life a little difficult, especially if you don't want to fly.

 

[GCD]

Thanks for the reply, hauler.

 

[jetjock19]

For the love of god please be a maintainer before you become a maintainer. I do the crew chief thing on herks and it kills me every morning when the students who are not prior maintenance preflight the planes. Granted, I will give them the fact that they are new, but please do some maintenance before you do the FE thing. It really helps us all a lot.

Jet

 

[5niner0]

They are taking Chopper FE's straight outta basic.

 

[jetjock19]

They tried that on two people here on 130's. They did not do so well. In fact they sucked real bad. They had no clue whatsoever what they were doing. It was one of the worst experiments the Air Force ever tried. FE is just that kind of job you need plane experience before you try it.