A maintainer who only does his monthlies
and 2 weeks is nowhere near as skilled as one who does it full time. When the
ANG flies aircraft during the week the part timers are not there to fix them.
Just what would you do with an aircraft flown on Saturday that has a
malfunction that will take 4 days to fix? That's why the full timers are
there.
I have seen 3 day repairs turn into 5 day repairs because they kept changing
the persons doing the job.

This is not an attempt to slam the Guard's maintainers, but 64 days a year is
not enough to keep your skills up.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired


Well you can compare the rates of aircraft having mishaps and mechanicals, of
the ANG and active duty, and you might be surprised. Guard F-16 mishap rates I
believe are quite a bit lower than active duty.

Guard pilots probably do not fly 64 days in a year too, except the full timers
and "guard bums"




Ron
Tanker 65, C-54E (DC-4)