block30

I had a chance to talk to our MX personnel for a bit recently (regional mechanics). Sounds like they are being worked extra hard due to staffing. Lots of mechanics have left, and according to the mechs I talked to, finding A&P applicants is hard. They also said many A&P schools have closed. They cited high training costs and low pay as reasons for this. All of this sounds like the problems we seeing in the pilot world.

Anybody notice similar problems?

Being a pilot in civilian life, I tune into pilot and FA issues more than our maintenance folks. I do MX for the Guard, but I'm not an A&P and don't know of many A&Ps personally.

Mods- if this is already on the forums, please move as you see fit.

Ewfflyer

I believe it. My wife's uncle works for a certain 'brown' company and he has to go all over the place to provide extra hands where needed. He at least gets compensated for it, but he knows how others are dealing with it in the industry and its not good.

bozobigtop

Many community colleges offer the Aviation Maintenance Technician program, I am a product of one of them. If people are having problems locating one where he or she lives than moving is the answer. Yes a shortage of mechanics because other industries such as ship building, automobiles, trucking, railroad, utility companies, and a host of other industries love A&P's as well. They also pay much better than most aviation maintenance jobs as well as being johnny on the spot recruiters!

Herb Flemmming

When I started A&P school in 2002 the parking lost was 3/4 full, when i left it was 1/4 full and has been that way everytime i have been in town the past few years. Aviation doesnt pay. Seems nothing in the USA pays anything anymore.

thndr8

There isn't really a shortage. As a former A&P now turned pilot I still know many maint guys furloughed from major airlines and GA. It's no secret that the ones that are employed are working their tails off because every operation is running so lean. Lower stock on parts, longer hours for same pay, lots of TDY's, etc. The delays we take for maint problems is factored into their bottom line. It's cheaper to be late than pay for another full time employee. I left when we started flying our airplane overseas to get our heavy checks done. They saved a million dollars a plane but came back more messed up than when they left. I still tool for friends on the side but I won't go back and do it for a living even if I lose my medical.

JohnBurke

There is no "shortage."

I've been turning wrenches as long as I've been flying, and I know a number of others who have done/do the same.

If one doesn't want to put up with regionals, there are plenty of other places to go.

Aviation maintenance has notoriously paid low, and it's a lot more involved than what's required of an ATP. I often hear ATP's opining that holding the ATP is the equivalent of a doctorate in their field. It's not. It's the commercial and instrument rehashed, which is mostly the private pilot rehashed. The A&P ratings on a mechanic certificate, particularly with some experience behind them, are involved and require a great deal more complexity, to say nothing of liability. When one can take that training and experience and move from twenty five dollars an hour on the line or in a repair station to eighty dollars an hour at a car dealership, where do you think the worker will go?

There's no shortage of mechanics, but there's a shortage of good paying jobs, and there may be a shortage of good mechanics.

There's no pilot shortage, but we see employers crying about one; those who do are usually the ones for whom nobody wants to work; the only shortage of pilots seems to occur at their company. The same rings true for the maintenance industry.

block30

Thanks everyone for your replies. I don't believe in a true A&P shortage just like I no longer believe in a pilot shortage, but I figured since shortage is the vogue term, I'd use it. (I did at one rime think we would see a pilot shortage, but I think upper mgt has way too many tricks up their sleeve.)