I’ll say not destined to guide the plough, which has to be in the right line. :-o)
Aero performance here in the DFW area has , (No Joke) spoke with them last Friday, 63,000 Tempest AA48110 oil filters on back order.
You nailed it! Especially for General Aviation. While some pilots say "the pilot shortage won’t affect ME–they ignore the existential threat of the mechanic shortage. Here in Minnesota, mechanics are “aging out” and retiring–and there are not nearly enough mechanic graduates coming out of schools.
There aren’t nearly enough mechanics to service the existing GA fleet–they either retire, or go straight from school to the airlines, corporate, or big FBOs. I operate a GA airport, and offer free hangar space, free utilities, the use of my shop equipment, access to my parts inventory, and use of my FAA approved pitot/static/transponder check equipment to anybody that wants to run their own business–AND, will be their best customer on maintaining my own 9 rental airplanes. So far, no takers.
THAT’S how short it has become!
How do you define real wages? I’m a Regional Captain and have only been with my company 5 years. I work less than 4 days per week, never pick up extra work, get 3 weeks vacation and will make 150K this year. I have no desire to fly for a mainline (and I have the opportunity available to me now), I’m already 60 and came to this job after making much more in my previous career. If I were younger would I go to mainline, yes probably. But with unions and seniority priorities I will gladly retire from my lowly Regional job with another 750k in earning over the next 5 years.
The people you see complaining on the forums likely never had a real job and have no understanding whatsoever of what constitutes a good job.
It’s good to see things have worked out for you. Judging by the former regional pilots my company gets these days and listening to their comments regarding their experiences, you are a minority. Also the comments on forums I have referred to are actually pilots who have already retired. Although they have been asked to either return or come back as sim instructors, all of them have said they would not even think about returning due to the current state of the airline business.
Not surprising for their to be a pilot and mechanic “shortage”, after the airlines laid them off a year ago. I suspect that one of the biggest reasons for the multitude of flight cancellations is that the airline marketeers put a lot of flights into the booking system, even though they didn’t have enough crew to staff them.
Like a many of us that fly, it was always a dream to wrench planes and learn how it all works, so I took advantage of the pandemic out-of-office to cram in an A&P.
I graduated last year feeling very sad about aviation’s future - like visiting your friend in hospice: you hope for the best but it’s not looking too good.
I have several “real” degrees that are well compensated for in my day job, but getting an A&P was the hardest thing I’ve done. If you really want to know what the heck you’re talking about as an A&P you need dedicate years to absorb even a fraction of what you’d need to know about all the systems, materials and processes that make up even a “simple” GA plane that is based on 1930s technology. I trust the signature of maybe 4 of my 40 classmates to fix my plane. The other 90% have years of apprenticeship ahead of them to be competent, even with their A&P ticket in hand.
What jobs are my new A&P friends getting in this “Hot” labor market? Crappy ones! They are getting offers at local FBO for $17/hr with lousy benefits, or at non-union regionals for $21/hr graveyard shift. (My local school district starts $24/hr for school bus drivers with benefits, and has admin assistant jobs needing only basic skills that start at $30/hr. so I find A&P pay laughable considering the work) The top end of A&Ps at major airlines is around $45-50/hr (plus benefits). So it can be a decent paying career outside of GA if you want to spent the ten years it takes get your training and to get to that seniority level at a major, but most people can think of easier ways to earn $90k /yr after a decade.
Only the most avid aviation lovers would choose to be an A&P for this pay, but these young people don’t exist. There is not the same amount of younger people who grew up dreaming of aviation - they are at home in the modern “virtual” world and the physical world is dirty and boring. There was no one in my class that had been in a GA plane. The whole idea of wrenching these grimy 60-yr-old spam cans with orange plush interiors and Narco avionics was distasteful to people who grew up on an iPhone and watched CGI Marvel Universe movies. They can’t understand why a 30-yr-old used muffler costs $800, a GPS from 1996 costs $5000, or a gas cap for a C421 costs $96. Is a carbon pile voltage regulator for real or just borrowed from a museum?? There is not one manual that has been written since 1963 and the definitive references for many subjects are literally from WW II. Uh did you just say microfiche?
The whole GA thing to younger people seems like the guys who go to antique car shows and talk about whitewall tires on their Model-A Fords or people spending the weekend waxing their 70-yr-old teak sail boat - a niche hobby of weirdos who are hiding from their wives or creepy single dudes. Hanging out with cat ladies sound more normal and appealing than GA.
Mike Busch had a great EAA webinar that’s on youtube about GA’s problems holding onto A&Ps while keeping your FBO’s shop rate under $150/hr - it is almost impossible to do. If you can be a decent A&P there are a dozen industries that can use your demonstrated abilities of following specific procedures, regs, comprehending complex documentation, troubleshooting, repair, maint., documenting your work etc., so a lot of Part 147 grads get poached by mining, oil/gas, manufacturing plant maint., amusement parks etc.
There is a huge lack of decent repair documentation in GA, so if you did not have someone to show you how to do a repair, it can be really hard to understand how to do it properly and not kill people. Instead of just one brand like back in 1970s, most shops are expected to know how to fix a dozen brands of planes, so an apprentice A&P might be shown how to do a repair the first week on the job and then 8 years later he sees that repair again and can do it him(her)self properly. But once these experienced people are dead and gone, even a million new A&Ps won’t be useful since so much of what you need to know is not written down anywhere and has to be taught by experience.
I know we complain about $5000 annuals, but I am honestly amazed that anyone can keep a FBO going these days. If none of this rings true and you have a great A&P or two and pay $60/hr shop rate, count yourself lucky - you don’t know how good you have it until it’s gone! So don’t bring donuts and coffee for your beloved FBO A&P, get him some bran muffins with unrefined organic local sourced honey, an acai smoothie, take him for a walk, maybe get him a massage. Make sure he’s taking his BP and cholesterol meds. Keep him going, 'cause once that guy’s dead, trust me, the next guy don’t know squat or (more likely) doesn’t exist and never will.
To Carl R.: BULLSEYE!
*for there to be
I agree 100% with everything Carl R. said. 25 years ago I took advantage of my night shift job to work with the flight school mechanic where I learned to fly, to get experience so I could get my A+P. Even if enough A+P candidates were to be getting experience or going to a school, there are not even enough examiners out there to handle the volume needed to replace those who are retiring. After getting signed off by the local FSDO, I went to a school in Nashville to finish and prep for the exams. It amazed me how many candidates were there from the airlines that were not yet certificated working under supervision of another or under a repair station certificate.
And keep in mind most automotive dealers charge $120+ an hour labor rate to work on your fancy new car!
I’ll say not destined to guide the plough, which has to be in the right line. :-o)
Dang it, I just started taking BP and cholesterol meds last year. How did you know?