Maintainers log in to technical orders

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Maximilian Goldberg
  • 439th AW Public Affairs
WESTOVER AIR RESERVE BASE, Mass. --  In an effort to maintain air superiority and increase efficiency and productivity, Westover’s 439th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron has adopted tablet technology in place of bulky technical orders and volumes of manuals.

Staff Sgt. Joe St. Peter, a crew chief with the 439th AMXS, uses a tablet during a pre-flight inspection of a C-5M Super Galaxy.

“Having all the checklists and information in one place is much easier than the 15 binders previously used for preflight checks,” said St. Peter.

In the past, technical orders could only be used one at a time by an individual during maintenance on the flightline. Now with the tablets, each crew chief has every technical order at their fingertips.

“This access has significantly decreased the time it takes to perform pre-flight inspections,” said St. Peter.

St. Peter and Tech. Sgt. Robert Smyth, also a 439th AMXS crew chief, are able to accomplish individual tasks simultaneously using this technology.

“I don’t have to worry about using one binder to work while someone else has to wait for me to finish before they can do what they need to do,” said Smyth. “We each have the tablet and can get the job done at the same time.”

Master Sgt. Mike Jaczyk, the 439th AMXS support flight chief, said using this new technology allows for faster updates and quicker resolution of any issues.

“The system automatically updates every week,” said Jaczyk. “It’s great because before we had to wait for someone to send us a piece of paper with the new information and then distribute it to everyone who needed it.”

The squadron has 50 tablets that have become used regularly in daily maintenance operations. This use of a new technology is one of the many ways the Air Force works to increase its capabilities in air, space, and cyberspace.