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4 Time Management Skills I learnt As A Crew Chief

So recently you might have known that I’ve dabbled with the thought of doing freelance writing. But I was thinking I don’t have any solid area of expertise that I can really write on. I was pondering hard and thought why not start with an area in which I had a certain amount of experience in; being a dedicated crew chief for the Singapore Air Force.

Now a crew chief’s job is to look after everything that pertains to an aircraft. Some of the roles on the job include inspection of both the exterior and interior (i.e. intake, exhaust, cockpit) – basically every part that is accessible and visible – servicing things like tyre pressure, hydraulics, engine oil, refueling and performing external launch procedures like pre-flight startup checks and marshalling. On top of that we also have paperwork to clear. Needless to say it is a rather demanding job both physically and mentally as we have to work within tight time frames to ensure the airworthiness of the aircraft.

As you rough it out on the job, you can get the hang of it and there are certain skills you unknowingly pick up that actually make you better time managers. So here are 4 that I learnt during my stint as a crew chief.

 

Plan Your Tasks

Now this may seem like a no brainer but plan your tasks before jumping straight into it. It makes all the difference that you go through the tasks in your head before proceeding and this will ensure a seamless flow of work done.

For instance in the case of recovering the aircraft, I would make sure the first thing I tackle once the pilot descends from the cockpit is to get an engine oil sample. Next I would get into the cockpit to ‘safe’ it and put switches back to ‘norm’, the next likely step will be for me to inspect the intake and exhaust before refueling and finally, performing a thorough external check (including the wing top). Now you may not fully identify with what I’m saying as you may not have worked on a fighter jet, but the principle behind it is planning your tasks ahead.

For a routine job like ours, the sequence of our tasks are more or less fixed once you have developed your own style and flow. However there are times where occasional things like a defect on the aircraft, a schedule like a canopy polish or aircraft wash, or a change in configuration for a different sortie mission, may disrupt that.

Mental preparedness and having your fixed plan laid out is key to work around these occasional curve balls. Use your downtime (in my case aircraft airborne time) to plan ahead what you can do.

 

Never Make Two Trips

Nothing spells inconvenience like a crew chief’s job. We have to bend or kneel in awkward positions to inspect certain areas of the aircraft. We have to climb into hot stuffy engine intakes and exhausts. We have to put on boot covers just to climb onto the wing top. The list goes on! Now the last thing you would want is to wriggle, all the way into the a dark, hot intake only to realize you have left your torch in the cupboard! That is quite unlikely but is also not an impossible scenario if you’ve had a long day and are feeling a bit fatigued.

“Real men never make two trips.” You might recall of a popular meme about men and grocery shopping that emerged from the shadows some 4 years ago (maybe longer). And this holds quite a bit of truths.

If you have worked on a fighter before, climbing up to the cockpit to reset the switches then down again to fetch the blanks can expand a lot of energy. Trust me, when you’re hot, bothered with a shirt soaked in sweat, maximizing your energy levels while saving time could mean the difference in your knocking off work time. So my practise then is that I take everything up the ladder the first trip.

Another thing I find related to the point we’re on is this; if you are anything like me, you wouldn’t have qualms about walking around extra to get things done. It may not occur to you but doing aircraft work can get your hands rather dirty, and I would rather make multiple trips to the washroom to wash my hands than to stain everything with my oily and blackened hands. There are people like that and I can’t imagine why! However the thing you need to know is that the place we house aircraft at are also pretty big, each compartment is quite wide to accommodate a jet, and the washroom is at the far end. In the grand scheme of things, I’ve got to make those trips count, drop off an oily rag along the way (we have a specific point to throw them), return a tool into the tools room etc.

Now this may all seem like minor petty things, but when you are on route home and the tiredness comes crashing down on you all at once, you might just realize how much these ‘extra trips’ squandered your energy.

Bringing it down to a more common level, have you walked in and out of your kitchen or room because you forgot to take something or put something back? It makes it worst if you live in a big house doesn’t it? I believe the key to saving time really is being conscious about your movements whether at home and at work. Are there ways you can cut down these ‘extra trips’?

 

Tackle The Hard Tasks First

Have you heard the saying, “Eat the frog first?”. I read this before on another time management article and it simply means to not put off the hard task and to tackle it first. You’ll find that many things in life aren’t actually hard more than they are tedious. Such is the life of a crew chief, we have many tasks that seem like mountains when seeing it from the start of the morning, however they all doable things when you break it down step by step, chunk by chunk. That being said, I am not undermining skills and expertise needed for the job as well.

From a crew chief’s perspective some of these tedious tasks, just to name a few, could include; refueling, tire change or manually pumping the jet fuel starter. This because these tasks are more specific in nature, require prior preparation of tools, is time consuming and may involve more than one person on the job, as opposed to simply ‘inspecting’ the aircraft, though it’s just as important. Also completing these major tasks would clear off your mental to-do list, somehow giving the illusion that you have more time for other things, though time remains constant. I believe everyone can relate with the above mentioned through your everyday situations. For instance after completing a major task like finishing an essay or clearing some chores, you get that mental relief and find that you can take things a little easier.

Tackling the tedious tasks first may not always be the first thing you want to do, that is only the natural human response, but, it sets the pace for the rest of your day. If you waste time procrastinating, not only does your time get delayed but you’ll also have these tasks constantly nagging in your head.

 

Give Yourself A Tight Turnaround Time

However as crew chiefs, we don’t usually get the luxury of idling or delaying the time. We work within fixed tight schedules.

Between the plane landing and taking off again, there is a process called the turnround. This is the tightest time for us as we have to refuel, inspect and sign off the aircraft as fit to fly. It can be an overwhelming feat since the whole jet is under your sole care. On paper, we have X amount of time given to do everything, but on the ground things are not always ideal, as it is a dynamic environment where things can change. A weapons team may do some loading of rounds or missiles, specialists may come down because of a defect, your jet may be the last to land or shut down. Though I mentioned earlier that our job is pretty structured and routine, you may encounter different factors like these which may eat into your time.

Why did I talk about the turnround? It’s because likewise you should give yourself fixed amount of time for your day to day tasks, and try to make it short as possible. Other things may come in your way to distract or sidetrack you, and you may have to adjust accordingly, but at least you have a plan in mind which will not allow your day to just run its course.

Stick to the schedule.

When I was in basic military training before joining the Air Force, I learn an important lesson; if you could clear a standard obstacle course (which include clearing 12 obstacles and a 300m dash to the finish line) in under 5 minutes, you can actually do a lot of things in 5 minutes.

Sometimes, we don’t need a whole lot of time to do something. For example, writing out this article may just require 2 solid hours if I stay absolutely focused and committed to completing it, since it’s based entirely out of experience and need little background research. Perhaps, you don’t need so long to shower each day, maybe that task at hand doesn’t require you to stay back overtime to complete if you weren’t checking facebook or instagram every 15 minutes, maybe you don’t have to take an 1 hr for each running session. I’m not saying to take shortcuts but rather to be more efficient in redeeming time.

Give yourself fixed timelines and adhere to it as much as possible. Be realistic but also challenge yourself to break out of mindsets that you need long to finish something.

 

Conclusion

If you made it this far, I hope this had been an informative read from a crew chief’s perspective. Time management skills are absolutely vital in an age full of distractions, and is a pretty widely written about subject. Perhaps you too can learn a thing or two from your own job about time management and productivity just like I have. If you have an idea or two, why not put it down into words which could end up as helpful tips for others.