Hi guys, new here. Planning a move to SLC within a year, going to try to get on the line there, probably at Million Air.
What I'd like to know is, from your experience working the line, what advice would you have for someone brand new and unexperienced?
I've been applying for the line at PIH for 6 years no less and it hasn't happened for me, SLC has more opportunity, so if I'm lucky enough to get hired on there, I don't want to be too big of a screw up when I first start!
I did a brief internship for the PIH line in 2002, but it wasn't a very in depth experience, I never fueled anything larger than a C172. But if I get this SLC job it'll be the start of my career and I want to do things right.
Got any advice?
And just how forgiving of "newbie" questions and errors are FBOs for the most part? I ask a lot of questions because I like to be 100% precise in what I do, rather than just "wing it." Is this a good policy?
Thanks in advance.
Although this has applied to me with every job, I'd say that specially in aviation, you can't just send in a resume and hope someone will call you. You have to go in and talk to a manager. If they say they're not hiring you keep coming back till' you get hired. That's how I got it and that's how I know some of the guys here got it.
If you work for an FBO worth working for, you won't need to know anything prior to getting a job there. My company has an entire training program with videos/OJT so that we can hire guys who know nothing about airplanes and get them up to par in relatively little time. One thing that would have helped me a bit prior to getting there, would be learning to recognize different aircraft. Learn the difference between a G4 and a G3. Go on a.net and look at photos and learn what they look like.
Summing up, the job is not as hard as it sounds. All duties are pretty straight-forward.
Fueling- Single-point and over-wing. Over-wing you just press the nozzle and fuel squirts into the tank. Single-point you hook up the hose to the aircraft and press a button (deadman) and fuel flows to the aircraft. Prist is an additive that prevents ice from building in the fuel. Positive prist indicates the aircraft needs prist and negative prist indicates no prist needs to be added. Usually hawkers and beechjets take prist.
Lavs- Different places on different aircraft. Some are pull-out, and some you hook up to the aircraft using a lav cart. With pull-outs, the pilot usually will hand it to you and you just dump it at a designated area and then fill it up with blue juice or water per pilot request. The kind where you hook up to the aircraft, you have two hoses. One pumps clean water with a blue chemical (blue juice) and the other is used to dump the dirty water. Hook both up to the aircraft. Dump the dirty water, ask the pilot how many gallons s/he wants back in (usually ranges from 1-3 gallons), then you pump that many gallons in. I try to do a good job so I go ahead and dump it and pump that many gallons back in. As a matter of fact, its a bit of a waste to put the full amount the first time so I usually just put half. Hawker lavs are a PITA because you have a "doughnut" that needs to be removed prior to dumping. I won't get too deep into lavs but you get the idea.
Marshalling- Easy hand signals that can't be explained over the forum and you'll learn in 5 minutes.
Towing- Can't be explained over a forum. At my FBO, you are selected to go through a training program for it. You'll need to learn the different tow heads, tow limits (limit in which the nose gear can be turned either way), as well as which aircraft have disconnects and gear pins. After that, you still have to develop the art of fitting aircraft into hangars without wasting much space.
Potable water- Kind of like the lav without the dumping part. Expect you fill it till' it's full. Different aircraft have different indicators telling you when that happens.
GPUs- Or Ground Power Units. You just connect it to the airplane (different locations on different aircraft). Turn it on then turn the connector on. Usually you'll turn it off right after both engines are started. Some aircraft like the P180 though they like it turned off after the right engine is started because the GPU location is right in front of the left prop and there is a good possibility of getting hurt.
Oil- If you're a pilot this should be easy. Jets are much different.
Just a quick overview from what I know so far. Eventually I might clean this up considerably and get more input from the other line guys here on JC and make an official guide.
