What AFTO form is used to document accrued aircraft and engine time?

Answer 1

AFTO 781J - Aircraft and Engine Operating Time, Cycle and Oil Added

AFTO means Air Force Technical Order. The 781 is a series of forms used to document aircraft usage and maintenance. The most common of the 781 series of forms is the 781A where all discrepancies are listed along with their corrective actions.

The 781J is used to document Airframe and Engine Time, Cycles and How much oil has been added to each engine. Engines require maintenance after they have been run a certain number of hours, or they have been started a certain number of times, or if they are using more than a specified amount of oil per hour of operation. The airframe requires inspections after a certain number of hours in the air, or a number of Take-offs and landings. For a number of reasons, all engines on an aircraft may not be run the same amount. For example, a 4 engine cargo plane may shut down two of it's engines during a "Hot Load" operation where cargo is loaded in a hurry and you don't want to risk having trouble getting the engines started again, or the base you are at may not have the ground equipment required to get the engines started. At the same time, you don't want the ground crew behind the aircraft fighting the engine exhaust, so typically, the inboard engines are shut down. Bleed air from the still running engines can be used to start them again.

So each engine and the airframe have their own 781J to keep track of their use and determine when inspections are due.

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