Engineer Shortage?

[s61fixer]

Great Thread, It is nice to hear the perspective regarding apprenti from some "old-timers" POV

 

I have a couple comments that may shed some light.

 

I am a 4th year apprentice ( AS350B3, s61, 206, 206L) and have been lucky to even stay employed in the fling-wing industry since 2008.

It is overwhelming when you come out of school green and get put in the bush on a machine. To have an engineer and an apprentice in the field would have been a huge help. Sure you are paying 2 guys for the job of one, but the experience the apprentice will gain is exactly what they need. And with what an apprentice is getting paid per day at my job, its more expensine to fill up the work truck with gas.

 

Paperwork - I had a 15 minute training dvd on paperwork, Thats it. I remember doing an avionics class in college and leanring boolean expressions, I mean come on, take the class out of the curriculum and have class on paperwork. Logbook entries, flight reports, deffered defects, red tags, green tags, bingo sheets, engine sheets, workorders, parts requests...I could go on.

 

I am not complaining about my pay, and I love my job but am I getting low balled with $144/day plus a 50 per dium, no flight pay ?

[Lunchbox]

I am not complaining about my pay, and I love my job but am I getting low balled with $144/day plus a 50 per dium, no flight pay ?

 

How many days are you working? If you're working 5 days a week (250 days/year), that works out to 48K/year. Pretty good for a 4th year apprentice I'd say. I didn't quite make 40K my last year apprenticing (which I thought was resonable for what I was doing), but that was 7 years ago.

 

Also, good point on the paperwork. I don't actually remember having anything at all when I was in school. Don't know what they get nowadays, but documentation/paperwork is more and more important.

[ThreePer]

I slightly disagree. Thats $36k a year + expenses. I think of per diems as completely seperate from income as it is a re-imbursment and not taxed. My last year of apprenticship I made about the same (but in annual salary) too S61fixer, but I was rarely in the field.

[212wrench]

Great Thread, It is nice to hear the perspective regarding apprenti from some "old-timers" POV

 

I have a couple comments that may shed some light.

 

I am a 4th year apprentice ( AS350B3, s61, 206, 206L) and have been lucky to even stay employed in the fling-wing industry since 2008.

It is overwhelming when you come out of school green and get put in the bush on a machine. To have an engineer and an apprentice in the field would have been a huge help. Sure you are paying 2 guys for the job of one, but the experience the apprentice will gain is exactly what they need. And with what an apprentice is getting paid per day at my job, its more expensine to fill up the work truck with gas.

 

Paperwork - I had a 15 minute training dvd on paperwork, Thats it. I remember doing an avionics class in college and leanring boolean expressions, I mean come on, take the class out of the curriculum and have class on paperwork. Logbook entries, flight reports, deffered defects, red tags, green tags, bingo sheets, engine sheets, workorders, parts requests...I could go on.

 

I am not complaining about my pay, and I love my job but am I getting low balled with $144/day plus a 50 per dium, no flight pay ?

 

At Northern Lights College in regards to paperwork this is an example of the amount of Basic initial training that is provided

 

16hrs on How to use the CARS

16hrs on technical records plus you are required to do tech records for all heavy maintenance that you complete in the shop

8hrs on stores plus one week working in stores

16hrs on flight authority

16hrs on AMO operation and inspection process

and there are more opportunities to learn how paperwork works in aviation

 

I think you were taught you just didn't understand the importance.

By the way as a fourth year, you don't have signing authority yet and therefore are getting paid pretty good.

[s61fixer]

At Northern Lights College in regards to paperwork this is an example of the amount of Basic initial training that is provided

 

16hrs on How to use the CARS

16hrs on technical records plus you are required to do tech records for all heavy maintenance that you complete in the shop

8hrs on stores plus one week working in stores

16hrs on flight authority

16hrs on AMO operation and inspection process

and there are more opportunities to learn how paperwork works in aviation

 

I think you were taught you just didn't understand the importance.

By the way as a fourth year, you don't have signing authority yet and therefore are getting paid pretty good.

 

Just a quick question, was the program at NL a 3 year course or just 2 ?

When I think back to my $13/hr construction job, working a hard 15 hour day, Life is good now

[212wrench]

Just a quick question, was the program at NL a 3 year course or just 2 ?

When I think back to my $13/hr construction job, working a hard 15 hour day, Life is good now

 

62 weeks basic training which gives you 18 months credit for your required 48 month time requirement for a M license.