Laptops give maintainers advantage

  • Published
  • By Staff Sgt. Patrick Harrower
  • 60th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs
TRAVIS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  Gone are the days of excess in the Air Force. As we usher in a new era of technology, wasteful practices are targeted and eliminated with programs like Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century and the Digital Air Wing Initiative. Practices are streamlined by cutting out any steps that are repetitive, costly or simply a waste of man-hours.

On the flightline at Travis, laptops have replaced the traditional technical order books maintainers have been using for decades.

"The laptops just make my life so much easier," said Senior Airman Ryan Holley, 660th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chief.

Holley is the technical order distribution account manager in the 660th AMXS and is responsible for keeping technical order books up to date with any recent changes that have been issued. Traditionally the TODA would have to go through each technical order in the tool room library, as well as any books kept in aircraft and mobility kits, he said.

"The TODA used to have to go through every single page in a (technical order) and post the necessary changes," Holley said. "With the laptops, it gets taken care of automatically when they are plugged into the network on their docking station."

Having the most current technical orders enables the maintainers taking the laptops to aircraft to perform maintenance and ensure they are doing their job correctly. They also have to carry less onto the flightline, Holley said.

The laptops contain every wiring diagram, illustrated parts breakdown, troubleshooting information, checklist, technical order and job guide in existence for every aircraft on Travis, Holley said.

"I used to have to check out up to 15 books a day to be able to do my job," said Senior Airman Anthony Mitchell, 660th AMXS crew chief. "Now I just check out one laptop and it has every technical order and job guide already on it. I don't have to go back to the tool room when I need a different book. The battery life on the laptop is 12 hours, so I can work five or six different planes with fewer interruptions."

Not having multiple books to check out and turn in also cuts the time it takes for maintainers to perform turnover between shifts, Mitchell said.

The laptops are also more durable than the traditional books. They hold up better to fuel and hydraulic spills because they don't have paper pages that get soiled and become unreadable. Another problem the laptops are immune to is the strong winds at Travis that constantly ripped the pages out of the books and scattered them across the flightline.

The mobility of the laptops doesn't just play an important role for the maintainers, but for the aircraft and cost effectiveness of flights as well, Holley said.

"Not having to take a library of books on the aircraft for a flight cuts down on the overall weight of the plane and results in lower fuel costs," Holley said. "There are also significant cuts in man hours spent when the TODA doesn't have to spend as much time checking every page of a book for changes."