Flight Equipment Technician

Morning starts with IMRL inventory accountability for your assigned items — any item that moved overnight gets verified and logged. The shift work order is pulled from the MDS queue: today it's a scheduled 30-day inspection on two SV-2 survival kits and a pre-installation inspection on a replacement LPU-36P life preserver. You pull the applicable MIM chapters, verify you're working from the current revision (NATEC website or the unit's technical library), and set up the inspection surface. The CDI reviews the work in progress on the first kit and signs off each step as it's completed; you do not move to the next step without the sign-off. At midday there's a NATEC directive review — new TCTD on the ACES II ejection seat component, which goes to the senior CDI to evaluate against your unit's inventory. End of shift: complete the work orders, update the IMRL due-date records, and stage the completed kits for next-morning QA review.

Daily IMRL inventory reconciliation for items in your custody. Weekly work order queue review with the division LCPO or staff NCO — what's due, what's delinquent, what's pending parts. Scheduled inspections cycle through on the IMRL calendar: some items are 30-day, some 90-day, some annual; missing a due date triggers a grounding discrepancy on the associated aircraft. Weekly MIM revision check — NATEC posts updates continuously and each CDI is responsible for knowing what changed. Monday morning safety brief covers any OPNAVINST 3750.6 hazard reports or lessons learned from the wing aviation safety officer. Pre-deployment readiness checks are event-driven but typically fall every 6-8 weeks during workup cycles.

COMNAVAIRFORINST 4790.2 (NAMP) is the governing bible for everything you touch — learn the Maintenance Data System (MDS) documentation flow, the work order chain, and the acceptance/transfer inspection process before you need to use them in a crisis. Individual packing and rigging of NB-8 and SV-2 survival kits requires exact sequencing per the applicable MIM (Maintenance Instruction Manual); the MIM is not a suggestion, it is the legal record of how a life-safety item was prepared. IMRL accountability under MCAVIA 13650.1 means every item you sign for has a serial number, an inspection due date, and a disposition status — own that spreadsheet at the shelf level, not just at the division officer level. Two-Person Integrity (TPI) procedures apply to ejection seat arming pin removal and installation, explosive component handling, and ALSS items designated in the applicable MIM; TPI is not bureaucracy, it is the verified-twice standard that exists because single-person errors have killed aircrew. Oxygen system servicing — filling, leak testing, and pre-flight inspection per NAVAIR 13-1-6.7 — is a core qualification because it covers every fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft in the wing inventory.

COMNAVAIRFORINST 4790.2 (Naval Aviation Maintenance Program): every maintenance action, every documentation requirement, every qual-card approval flows through NAMP. Know the difference between an A, B, and C check and what the MDS form chain looks like. NAVAIR 13-1-6.4 (Aircrew Personal Protective Equipment): the technical manual governing parachute assemblies, harnesses, and survival kits — the item-specific MIMs reference this as the parent document. NAVAIR 13-1-6.7 (Aircrew Breathing Equipment): governs oxygen system inspection, servicing, and troubleshooting; you will reference this every week. OPNAVINST 3750.6 (Naval Aviation Safety Program): the safety-of-flight governance document; understanding it explains why ALSS defects are reported through the aviation mishap reporting chain, not the standard WO system. NATEC (Naval Air Technical Data and Engineering Service Command) directives: engineering change notices and time compliance technical directives (TCTDs) that modify or supersede the base MIMs; a missed TCTD on an ejection seat component is a grounding defect. MCO P4790.2 (Marine Corps Maintenance Policy): the Marine-specific overlay on NAMP, covering IMRL accountability reporting and unit-level maintenance authority.

At E1-E3, the standard is: every maintenance action documented completely and legibly before the work order closes, every qual card step performed exactly as written with the authorizing signature obtained before you proceed, every IMRL item you touch accounted for at end of shift, and every TPI requirement completed with two witnesses — not one tech who stepped away and came back. The unit's CDQARs and CDIs will inspect your work against the MIM, not against what the senior tech told you verbally. If the MIM says torque to 15 inch-pounds and you did 12, you failed the standard even if the part looks fine.

Packing a parachute canopy without verifying suspension line continuity and twist count per the applicable MIM step — visual inspection is not a substitute for the tactile line-by-line check. Installing oxygen masks or regulators without performing the leak-check at the correct pressure differential; leaks that pass a casual visual fail under cabin altitude simulation. Mis-routing anti-G suit hoses so the suit inflates in the wrong sequence — the inflation sequence is not intuitive, it is specified. Signing off a survival kit without verifying all pyrotechnic components are within service life and properly seated; expired flares and signal devices are a grounding discrepancy. Transposing serial numbers on the MDS work order — happens on 10-digit NSNs at the end of a 12-hour shift, has cascading effects on IMRL reconciliation, and is auditable.

The first decision is whether to actively pursue CDI qualification early or coast through the minimum qual-card pace — the techs who finish their qual cards ahead of timeline get picked for more complex work orders faster, and that visibility compounds into promotion board inputs. The second decision is whether to stay in the MALS/MAG paraloft world or pursue an FMF deployment cycle with an active squadron — squadron billets mean more flight-line exposure and stronger FITREP material, but MALS billets provide deeper depth in the IMRL management and logistics functions that are valuable for career longevity.

In a MALS (Marine Aviation Logistics Squadron), you're the deep-maintenance hub — larger IMRL, more complex equipment, and direct interaction with Type/Model/Series aircraft engineers for complex discrepancies. The pace is more structured and documentation-intensive. In an active HMLA (light attack helicopter), HMH (heavy lift), or VMF/VMA (fixed-wing) squadron paraloft, you're closer to the flight line, the operational tempo is faster, and the CDI is signing off equipment that's going on missions the same day. The aircraft-type shapes your ALSS inventory: fixed-wing ejection-seat equipment (ACES II on AV-8B, NACES on F/A-18 legacy) is present in fixed-wing squadrons and absent in rotary-wing units. MAG (Marine Aircraft Group) staff billets exist but are uncommon at this tier.

The outstanding junior tech at this tier does three things nobody told them to do: they read ahead in the MIM before the shift starts so they are not slowing down the CDI during inspection; they maintain a personal log of every serialized item they've worked and its current inspection due date; and they ask to observe TPI procedures on ejection seat components even when they're not the assigned tech, so when the qualification card gets to that step, the procedure is already familiar. They are also the tech whose work orders come back from the CDI clean — no corrections, no erasures, no missing entries.

At E4, you're expected to begin working toward CDI qualification on at least one equipment category — that's the gate between being a supervised technician and being an authorizing inspector. Cpl-level work means leading junior techs through inspection sequences, reviewing their work before the CDI signs, and being accountable for their documentation errors as well as your own. The technical complexity doesn't change much; the accountability does.