Aircraft airframe mechanics?

[MPi-KM]

I HATE my current job and was thinking about going to school to be a airframe mechanic.Anyone here been/are one?What type of pay?

[Woodworker]

Get your A&P (airframe and powerplant) license and make $20+ per hour. Around here anyways.

WW

[OldFlyer]

Check the help wanted ads in the area that you want to live. Then go to the FBO and look at the working conditions winter can be difficult. Heating a hanger is expensive. Also remember each day there are trained people getting out of the military some have gotten their A&P before they got out. There is a school that advertises that their grads can make up to $40-K a year. I have two friends that are A&Ps. The guy one of them works for needed some forklifts assempled and paid the A&P more to work on the forklifts than when he was working on planes. One other problem they both have is company and plane owners wanting them to take shortcuts. When an aircraft goes down the maintenance logs are the first item that gets looked at. In many areas a line mechanic has better working conditions and better pay. In short you have to love aircraft to be an A&P.

[Noah Zark]

You need to PM imanaknut. He's A&P.

Noah

[imanaknut]

I am an A&P, and currently work developing and testing software that controls automatic transmissions! I really enjoyed working on light a/c until I found out that my friends that were auto mechanics were making almost twice as much as I was. And they can tell the driver if he has problems with his car to just pull over to the side and give them a call. Can't do that with an airplane!

Also like OldFlyer said, when you sign that log book, you are signing more than just a piece of paper. You are guaranteeing the airworthiness of the a/c, and if the unthinkable happens, you are the first one they go after.

I enjoyed working on aircraft, and sometimes flying the plane after a repair which really was great pr. The pilots/owners really liked seeing the mechanic take the bird up himself after a repair. If the mechanic was willing to fly after a repair, it must be right. Today, I still love aircraft and many times have lunch at the end of the runway at the Indy airport since I work down the street from it, but it is really nice to have a job that if I break something, nobody dies.

[Ronwicp]

My mom is A&P. She has been doing it for 20+ years too. She makes good money and works pretty good hours, though there are times when she works a lot of hours. She started off doing sheet metal work and some stuff with fuel tanks. Then when she got old they moved her to the inside of the aircraft. I guess that is easier work.

[F-16 CHIEF]

A&P here as well. I got out of the business in 2000 because I am in a small area and only made 10 an hour to put my life on the line. I worked at a Beechcraft FBO so I didn't really use my license per say, but I still hated to make 10.00 per hour.

If you live near a big city and are willing to work nights and things of that nature then it might be okay. The airline business is bad to say the least however. It's up to you, but I might look at other things.

[imanaknut]

I will start by restating this: I love airplanes! That said, after I got my ticket, I visited the headquarters of several airlines, hoping to get a job with one. TWA, Pan Am, Eastern, you sense a pattern here? Getting a job with an airline that pays a living wage is a crap shoot. United pulled up roots on their 737 ops in San Fran, and moved it to Indy, then shut it down here. ATA, one of the best airlines around, headquartered here in Indy just shut the doors and moved out. They don't care about their workers, only their bottom line. When the going gets tuff, they fire the mechanics.

When I signed off an aircraft as being airworthy, if it went down for any reason, the first one hung is me, the mechanic. My buddies working on cars made twice as much with no responsibility.

FBO mechanics are lucky to make just under twice minimum wages doing work that has to be perfect the first time. You don't get a chance to say "oops" to a family asking why they are burying their loved ones because you missed installing safety wire on a bolt. I hate to burst your bubble, but unless you like the image of the aircraft mechanic, it doesn't pay what you have to go through. I started taking the flight school aircraft out for "check rides" just as a way of making up for the lack of money to buy a nice house, or put food on the table.

It might be a glamour job, but the pay sucks. Ask Owen80 who just found out how nice ATA was to their workers.

[RogerLee]

Where I work at, the airframers (basicly all the mechs) gets $25.43 hr. Our QA and NDI guy gets $26.77 hr.

[Ronwicp]

All the big airlines contract the maintenance anymore. That is what my mom does. She doesnt work for an airline, just a company that has a few airline contracts. And she makes quite a bit more than twice minimum wage. However, there were times when he company didnt have contracts and times were tougher.

[ksuguy]

Many of the large airlines are now flying their planes down to South America for maintenance. It's cheaper to pay some guy in El Salvador to do the work than it is to do it here. Even after you factor in the flight costs.