What are the responsibilities of a Crew Chief(AG)

[CaliforniaBear]

Afternoon Marines
It is my understanding that a Crew Chief is in charge of the Air Craft that they are assigned to and delegate assignments Air Craft Mechanics. As a Private what exactly is it that they do? My recruiter told me that they are supposed to know everything about their Air Craft just as the Head Crew Chief but I'm still unsure as to what they do. Are they Mechanics until they become a Sergeant/Staff Sergeant? I was told they also encourage the Staff NCOs to become Warrant Officers to fly helicopters. Any and all information is appreciated.

[Zulu 36]

Afternoon Marines
It is my understanding that a Crew Chief is in charge of the Air Craft that they are assigned to and delegate assignments Air Craft Mechanics. As a Private what exactly is it that they do? My recruiter told me that they are supposed to know everything about their Air Craft just as the Head Crew Chief but I'm still unsure as to what they do. Are they Mechanics until they become a Sergeant/Staff Sergeant? I was told they also encourage the Staff NCOs to become Warrant Officers to fly helicopters. Any and all information is appreciated.

Helo Crew Chiefs go through a separate MOS training track. They are trained as mechanics on their aircraft of specialty. They are assigned an aircraft and are responsible for it's maintenance and fly as part of the crew, except for Cobras.

Aircraft that do not fly with a crew chief aboard have what are called plane captains. They are mechanics who qualify as a PC within their unit. They do the same ground maintenance and care and feeding of their assigned aircraft as a crew chief.

There are mechanics that specialize in various areas of the aircraft who do much of the maintenance work under the Crew Chief's supervision.

The Marine Corps only uses commissioned officers to fly aircraft, not warrant officers. Only the Army uses warrant officers.

[thezero]

Crew Chiefs are in charged with several inspections to ensure there is nothing wrong with the aircraft all fluid levels are correct, they also have a lot of communication with pilots and such since they are the eyes and ears etc. Before each flight the pilots and crew chiefs screen the aircraft records to ensure there is no downing work orders and that if there is an issue with the bird but it isn't a downer that they already know about it so they don't have to come back in and document it. Crew chiefs are in charge of passengers and anything they carry, you have to know the aircraft the systems how it works, egress procedures, you have to know how to use the weapons (except C-130). Also when they do not fly they are used as maintainers

Also we do not work under crew chief supervision like the Sgt says, and by "PC" I believe he is referring to Maintenance Control, they delegate work and safe birds for flight. The crew chiefs also do not tell maintainers what to do, if they find something they initiate a work order and maintenance control will delegate the maintenance as they see fit, if it is something that downs a bird from flying they will get on it pretty quick if the bird can still fly then it may wait. The crew chiefs normally let the mechanics know before they write up a work order so we are prepared and aren't blind sided. We work under CDI's (Collateral Duty Inspectors) and QAR's (Quality Assurance Reps) so myself and my Marines go out on a job and I supervise making sure it is done right and that there is nothing else wrong and check surrounding areas to ensure there was nothing missed and that the aircraft will be safe to fly again.

If you are a private and a crew chief you will probably not fly since you would have gotten in trouble and they may ground you by time you get the chance to start on aircraft you will most likely be a LCpl unless like I said you get in trouble.

And like the Sgt said, only the Army uses Warrant Officers to fly. Marine Corps uses commissioned officers.

There's a down and dirty to some of your questions

[CaliforniaBear]

Thank you very much, that answered just about every question I had about it. I guess I hadn't thought about the fact that you would probably pick up LCpl by the time you got to the duty station