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EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska – Training F-35A Lightning II pilots requires a combined effort from various shops. The Aircrew Flight Equipment team may work behind the scenes, but they have a very important role in ensuring pilot safety.
During the 58th Fighter Squadron’s temporary duty to Alaska in 2024, Senior Airman (then Airman 1st Class) Nikita Scheifele was one of the Aircrew Flight Equipment specialists on site, ensuring the pilot’s gear was in working order.
“We check over the gear and make sure they have everything required for their flight,” said Scheifele. “We then do the workload for the day: inspections, repairs if need be, and communicating with pilots for anything else they may need. Then we post-flight, which is double-checking to make sure they’re good to go.”
To successfully execute their mission, the AFE team needs to maintain constant communication with the units they will work with on the TDY.
“We don’t have our own shop like we do at home station,” said Scheifele. “We coordinate, both before and during the TDY, to ensure we have everything we might need. Once we figured out everything from the pilots in terms of scheduling, timing, and location, we were able to reach out to the AFE unit here and coordinate accommodations, space, and tool usage.”
Without AFE, pilots would be forced to either learn how to fix and maintain their own gear, or rely on a third party. Having AFE located within the squadrons gives pilots access to any help they may need with equipment.
“They have a lot of other things that they have to know to get the missions done,” said Scheifele. “Adding on to that with gear would be way too much. There’s a reason we have tight inspections as well, so that if one thing goes wrong, there’s a backup which keeps pilots safe in the air.”
Thanks to our AFE team, our pilots can always be sure their gear is safe and ready to use.
| Date Taken: | 02.26.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.25.2025 09:46 |
| Story ID: | 491558 |
| Location: | EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, ALASKA, US |
| Web Views: | 8 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, The backbone in the background: AFE, by SrA Christian Corley, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
