F-35 Maintainers keep the mission going

Photo By Senior Airman James Hensley | Staff Sgt. Brittney Lehr, 61st Aircraft Maintenance Unit crew chief, inspects the wheel well on an F-35 Lightning II at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., Sept. 6, 2016. Lehr is responsible for checking the aircraft prior to flight to ensure the pilot’s safety. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman James Hensley)  

LUKE AFB, ARIZONA, UNITED STATES

09.01.2016

Story by Airman 1st Class James Hensley 

56th Fighter Wing

Several legacy aircraft maintainers made the jump up to the F-35, since the jets arrived at the 61st Fighter Squadron reactivated in 2013.
“I went from working on F-15s at Seymour-Johnson Air Force Base to Edwards AFB for flight test and now I’m here at Luke working as a crew chief on F-35s,” said Staff Sgt. Brittney Lehr, 61st Aircraft Maintenance Unit F-35 crew chief. “I had no idea what really to expect.”
Going from the dual role F-15 to the multirole fifth generation F-35 is a big step, but Lehr has taken it in stride.
“As a legacy aircraft, F15s experience the normal wear and tear that comes from flying,” Lehr said. “With the F-35 being so avionics-based, a lot of the work we do is with the avionics and software aspect of the aircraft.”
One of the biggest things Lehr was looking for at Luke was not only to work on F-35s but to also have a faster pace.
“I love it here, it’s the pace I was looking for,” Lehr said. “At Luke we get to be more hands on. We get to do more of our job.”
Lehr said, as with any new aircraft there are challenges which arise when working on a new system, but they adapt and overcome them. When it comes to the equipment or day-to-day routine it takes adjustments to better suit the needs of the F-35s.
Lehr is just one of several crew chiefs who made the transition from legacy aircraft. They work with crew chiefs who came straight into the Air Force as F-35 maintainers. This allows experienced crew chiefs and pipeline Airmen to cooperate and learn from each other.
“Those who came from legacy aircraft learned the basics, or maintenance 101, while those who came in as F-35 maintainers are sometimes a little easier to teach,” said Tech. Sgt. John Accurso, 61st AMU crew chief. “This generation grew up with computers and videogames so it’s sometimes easier to teach them since the F-35 is so advanced and computerized. The legacy maintainers catch on faster because they’ve got the experience of having to work with technical orders and having to troubleshoot problems.”
The crew chiefs, legacy, or straight from technical school, all have challenges they overcome to be on the same level of technical expertise as the F-35. It helps that the aircraft is so advanced because a majority of issues are easier to resolve than they were on legacy aircraft.
“Overall, the units benefit from having both the legacy crew chiefs and pipeline Airmen because they can both learn from one another or step up into their roles as supervisors of crew chiefs or subordinates,” Accurso said. “This combination of Airmen is a great way to make sure jets stay in the sky and Luke can continue to produce the world’s greatest F-35 fighter pilots.”

• Date Taken: 09.01.2016
• Date Posted: 10.26.2016 15:42
• Story ID: 213003
• Location: LUKE AFB, ARIZONA, US