The flight line pilots of Fleet Readiness Center Southwest (FRCSW) depend upon the knowledge and skills of the command's artisans to ensure that the systems of the aircraft they test are safe and respond in an anticipated manner.
Equally important to the pilots and their crew are the Aircrew Survival Equipmentman Sailors of the paraloft shop in Building 785 who track, inspect, and test the aircrews gear.
As part of managing the aircrews equipment, the shop updates gear inspections to life preservers, water bottles, radios, and medical kits.
Inspection and maintenance of pilot and aircrew vests are kept with a history card of the gear in the vest that includes the ordnance, harness, and pocket knife.
The shop's Sailors also maintain some of the equipment in the aircraft like life rafts, seat pans and parachutes.
Equipment inspections are done in 30, 90, 180, and 360-day intervals, depending on the gear.
The 90-day inspection is an overall gear assessment that covers helmets, harnesses and everything carried in the aircrew pockets.
Pilot flight suits, boots, and gloves are inspected on a 360-day interval.
The shop handles any sewing repairs and modifications to flight suits or vests.
Because the shop is designated at the organizational level (O-level), equipment that is damaged or in need of repair, like radios, life preservers and breathing bottles, are sent to the intermediate level (I-level) for replacement.
Other gear inspected includes the anti-gravity (G) suits exclusive to F/A-18 Hornet pilots. The suits are connected to the aircraft and designed to inflate to compensate for gravity forces to prevent pilot unconsciousness.
G suits are inspected on a 90-day rotation and inflated to test for air leakage and a psi rating that doesn't fall below .5 psi for a 30-second interval.
Also specific to the F/A-18 and tested in the shop is the Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS).
The shop's testing equipment connects to the hologram-like informational displays of the JHMCS that project velocity, pitch, weapons system status, and other data onto the pilot's helmet visor.
Sailors assigned to the paraloft shop must also be ordnance qualified because they handle and track the pencil and day and night flares stored in the vests of pilots.