If you began your life as a military aircraft mechanic, when you left the military and entered the civilian world, did you have any "military equivalency" (if that's the proper term) that allowed you to get an FAA license based on your military experience without lots of school and testing ?
Question for Former Military Aircraft Mechanics
- Thread starter bafanguy
- Start date
Minuteman
Moⅾerator
Your FSDO can review documentation of your activity in the military (with documentation) and sign-off as meeting the practical experience requirement to sit for testing.
Ref AC65-30B, section 11.6 and Appendix A.
Ref AC65-30B, section 11.6 and Appendix A.
Wardogg
Meat Popsicle
20 years of military aircraft maint here. When I got out I went to the FAA and they throughly went through my records. I showed enough training and competence that I was given an approval to go take the written and practical tests without further instruction. And that’s as far as the FAA will just “give” you as far as sign offs.
What I didn’t know and what the examiner didn’t tell me was all that knowledge I brought wasn’t going to get me through those exams. Unless you are working on airplanes that need magnetos timed or cloth wings repaired you’re going to be as lost in the sauce as I was.
That said there are crash courses that get you through the tests in a few days but pick up a written test exam practice book and find out how much you may or may not know. But you will need that sign off to take those tests.