Becoming an A&P Technician

Airdale

Airdale

Well-Known Member
Hello! First time for me posting in this section.

Here's the situation. I'm an FO at Colgan on the Beech 1900. Becoming an airline pilot has been a childhood dream for me, so finding the motivation to get the training and make the sacrifices wasn't that difficult.

My brother on the other hand, well he doesn't know what he wants to do. He's 19, working at Home Depot, and has no plans for college. He's thought about becoming a computer technician, but he doesn't want to be a desk jockey his whole life. Well I brought up the idea of him looking into a career as an Aviation Maintenance Technician. He seemed pretty enthusiastic about it and I gave him sort of an idea of what he can expect as an A&P. He likes the idea of working on Jet engines or avionics.

I was wondering if some of the A&P's on here can offer me some suggestions for him as far as what is required to get into the field, some school suggestions, typical pay and work hours and what the best career path would be. Now he lives in New Jersey with my parents, and he says he doesn't want to move too far away, either for work or school. That might change if he finds the career field something he really wants to pursue. I'm taking him to our local airport on Monday (TTN) where I used to flight instruct to see if I can talk to an A&P there and have him show us some stuff in the hangar.

Any advice would be great!! JC has been a huge help in my career with all of the networking, it would be great if I can help my brother get into a respectable career field as well. I might have him register on the site here so he can ask questions. Thanks guys!
 
Not a practicing A&P but have the certificates. I attended Spartan in Tulsa and it was expensive. I later learned that I could have got the same training at a local community college for a fraction of the cost. My advice would be to take advantage of local smaller community type schools and avoid the high dollar schools. The certificate(s) look exactly the same regardless of where you get your training.

While at a Lexus dealership, I learned that they like to hire A&Ps as their mechanics. I guess they like the "certified to work on airplanes" concept. The starting pay for their A&P certified mechs was considerably higher than non A&P mechanics. I never realized that there were so many opportunities outside the traditional jobs A&Ps are typically hired to do.

I don't think your brother would have any difficulty finding work in this field. The satisfaction of watching an airplane fly that you have just repaired has got to be a wonderful thing.
 
He should go to the cheapest, closest A&P school. Most of what he needs to know will be learned on the job.

Avionics will probably require a special school unless he can luck out and become a trainee somewhere. Most A&P schools won't teach you to be an avionics guy.

Typical starting pay at a regional airline will be around $15 an hour. Most airlines have decent benefits, including travel of course. Typical newhire schedule will be four on/three off, third shift, middle of the week. He can bid out of that schedule after a while, depends on the airline. He might work line maintenance, which means he will be out on the ramp changing tires, brakes, servicing O2 and so on, or he could work hangar maintenance, performing heavy checks and other major repairs/inspections. He might end up in the accessory shop, servicing components like batteries, tires, building up engines, etc.

After a while, he could move up to several positions. Many people become leads/supervisors. Some move over to Quality Assurance and become inspectors, auditors, or planners.

Once he has some experience (5-10 years) he could get on with someplace bigger and start out around $20-25 an hour, with a fresh crappy schedule. I think most top out around $30 an hour right now, but don't quote me on that.

That's all I can think of right now, I'll answer anything else I can.
 
Thanks a lot guys! I actually found a local school here in New Jersey that he could go to.

http://www.teterboroschool.com/

I'm going to pass this information on to him and see if he is interested. We have a few airports here where a lot of Corporate aircraft are serviced, Ronson Aviation being one of the best. Not to mention we have a few flight schools too where he could probably find work to gain experience. I'm not sure that he would want to do the airline thing and get based somewhere, but locally there might be opportunities with the State Police and a few Corporate flight departments. Hopefully he will find interest in this, as he doesn't really know what to do with his life. I would love to see him be successful at something. I'll point him to this thread. I thought A&P's made really good money. After 3-5years in the field, what sort of salary can he expect with a Corporate flight department? I know he isn't thrilled with flying in small airplanes, in fact I think he's only flown once, but he sounds interested in working on them.
 
Airdale said:
I thought A&P's made really good money.
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Not really, no. Perhaps they should, considering the education requirements and the responsibility.
After 3-5years in the field, what sort of salary can he expect with a Corporate flight department?
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Most corporate flight departments don't have their own mechanics. I have a friend who works at one that does, and he makes about $16 an hour with ~four years of experience.

That's a pricey school you linked to. $21,000 is a lot for an A&P school.
 
Thanks for the info everyone. I called up Ronson Aviation at Trenton-Mercer Airport, and set up an appointment today to meet with the supervisor Mechanic there. My brother seems pretty excited about it.

The only two A&P schools I could find in the NJ/PA area, were the Teterboro School of Aeronatics and the Aviation Institute of Maintenance (http://www.aviationmaintenance.edu/), located in nearby Philadelphia. Not sure what their tuition is, but we requested some information. I explained to him that it doesn't pay well the first few years, but he's okay with that. He's only 19, so he's got some years living with Mom and Dad still. :) Anything would be a jump up from the 8.50/hr he makes at Home Depot. He wants a job that he enjoys going to, and I think the responsibility of being an aircarft mechanic would be good for him. He sounds excited about it. I'll just make sure he doesn't work on my airplane! :D

I'm just kidding....:)
 
Your brother could also consider getting a job at a company like FedEx or UPS while he is in A&P school. After getting his certs, he can apply for a/c maintenance jobs from within. My brother did that and got a job fixin planes for FedEx about a year after A&P school. I think he started at $26/hour.
 
The A&P career has its ups and downs like most jobs. You really need to want to work on aircraft to get into this field. There are alot of mechanics on layoff right now, United, Northwest, USAir,Delta and even American. Many of them have moved on and are working other jobs but they are still eligible for recall so the prospects of employment as a major airline mechanic isn't what it used to be. On a brighter note, the average age of mechanics at these majors is really going up and retirements will start to cause hiring some day. UPS and Fed Ex as mentioned above would be a great choice to pursue. Also as mentioned the only thing a top name school will get you is expensive student loan and good looking resume. That may help if you aren't working for a major airline when you graduate but a local community school will get you an A&P just the same as a big name school. As for wages, it varies from location and type of work. I guess the average FBO wage would be in the $11.00-$20.00 range and major airlines/cargo pay starts in the $11.00+ range and some top out at $33.00+ like UPS, Fed EX and Southwest. The carriers that have been thru bankruptcy have ripped wages which are down in the $25.00+ range. Your brother is so young it wouldn't hurt to get an education now and see what happens in a few years. Personally I wouldn't recommend A&P if you wanted my advise. There are other well paying jobs out there that have more job security and aren't effected so much by fuel prices and terror attacks.....Besides doing this for 25+ years I'd probably be doing something else if I didn't have so much time invested. It gives you gray hair quick!!! But I still love working on jets and that the bottom line!

Best of Luck!!!
 
He might want to consider getting his training in the Air Force or Navy then translating that experience (plus the other electives and stuff) into a college degree. Or the Air National Guard. The job used to pay pretty decent on the major airline level, still not the worst out there although nowheres where it needs to be. From what I hear, FedEx and UPS still pay pretty well. Avionics experience if you can get it is invaluable to having a well rounded AMT resume for a major.
 
I went to Aviation institute of MAintenance here in Kansas City. Dont do it. Sure you can get your A&P but that place is a corporate money maker.. and thats it. We were taught by what ever A&P's they could find and all they cared about was getting our money.. and its very expensive. ( about 23k last I heard)
 
falconvalley said:
Your brother could also consider getting a job at a company like FedEx or UPS while he is in A&P school. After getting his certs, he can apply for a/c maintenance jobs from within. My brother did that and got a job fixin planes for FedEx about a year after A&P school. I think he started at $26/hour.
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Fedex maybe, UPS is a definite no. They shut down their junior mechanic program in 2004. There is still a huge surplus of mechanics with "heavy" experience that they pick who they want. With their pay and benefits being at the top of the industry, I don't think they will ever restart the junior mechnic program.
 
Has anyone here gotten their A&P after the service? I am in the Army as a blackhawk crew chief and will be getting out after my next deployment in two months and was wondering if anyone can give me insight on how they recieved their ticket with their military exp.?
 
Nick1301 said:
Has anyone here gotten their A&P after the service? I am in the Army as a blackhawk crew chief and will be getting out after my next deployment in two months and was wondering if anyone can give me insight on how they received their ticket with their military exp.?
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First, see if your military occupational specialty code in in the PDF below. The FAA recognizes these codes as careers that cover the A&P requirements. There's lots of info on the FAA Website...

http://www.faa.gov/library/manuals/examiners_inspectors/8300/volume2/media/2_022_00.pdf


http://www.faa.gov/licenses_certificates/
 
How's parks College? I know that it is in the NYC area near LaGuardia. Some places can offer apprenticeship, he can try the military, or just go with a college that offers the course.

Apprenticeships take longer, but going through a college or military is a better option (Both the apprenticeship and colleges go by hours that you need which the FAA requires you have in order to qualify for the license). Once you have passed the classes, you can take the oral and pratical and written for the license. If he wants to go through and get a degree(like what I am doing), then he can but starting out with the training is the best option. It took me 2 years to get the training for my A&P through the University that I am at now.

The outlook is good depending who is hiring. Here at Lewis University there have been regional carriers like American Eagle, Skywest, and Mesa that are looking for mechanics at ORD. One of my friends works for Skywest and he likes it. The pay is good (I think he gets paid $15-16 an hour) and benefits are good also. He is full-time but has a good outlook going for him. Several companies need mechanics and once you have the traning and you want to move on to the larger aircraft later on after about two or three years. For me I hope to start out with regional jets and work my way on up to doing widebodies for a major carrier or a private overhaul shop(that's what I really want to do in the long run):D. best bet is to check airline websites including the regional carriers for positions in the NY,NJ,PA area.
 
Before starting flight school, I looked around for a while at different A&P programs as I thought I might might to make a career out of it. Throughout the time I spent doing research I found out a few helpful things about A&P schools.

1. AS was already stated find a community college to do your training at as they are generally much less expensive than the bigger technical schools and universities and you get pretty much the same thing.

2. If you aren't adverse to relocating, there are great community college/technical schools out in the Midwest and Northwest region of the country that have good programs (from what I could tell) and are much less expensive. Some examples are:
- Spokane Community College Spokane, WA
- Portland Community College Portland, OR
- Iowa has a really great school that seemed good and had a great price (around 8,000 for the whole program) I can't remember the name.
- There are even some less expensive schools in the Chicago, Minnesota area that I discovered

I hope that helps. Good Luck!
 
dont forget the overtime you can get too.

the community college i'm looking into has an Associates degree program for $16,000 for 2 years. so there are cheaper places out there. as well, i can get cheaper federal loans to pay for them than going prvivate!!
 
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