Going The Pilot/engineer Route? Any Advise

[JLMG]

Hi all

I am an engineer working on AS and 206s for some years already... I have been thinking on going the pilot/engineer route for some time now... I enjoy my career as an AME but sometimes think about the challenge of going into the bush by yourself as a P/E.... There are some guys in the company I work for who are P/Es and some of them seem to like it going out alone, some of them prefer to take an apprentice with them for the dirty jobs.... My company seems to like (to some extend) having P/Es, specially the ones that have trained at one of the company's three flying schools (hint).

So what do you maintenance guys think about it, pros, cons?, just trying to gather as much input as possible before spending (getting in debt) the $50,000 something for the trainning.

Have a nice day you all.

[Skidz]

It won't cost you that much. Apparently Boomwang AMEs get a 25% discount on flight training...

[JLMG]

It is actually 10%

[Skidz]

I guess it changed. Did a ferry flight two weeks ago with an ex-CHL P/E. He did his CPL(H) in 1999 at Buttonville and they discounted him 25% at the time...

[Mole]

Pilot/Engineers are good combinations in low fliying enviroments but you still need a signature for those pesky independant inspections. So you will need someone else around when flight/engine controls are disturbed.

If you want to be a pilot then focus on that.

[Reddog]

I have a question.

 

How can a P/e fly all day and then wrench after that and still stay within the pilot Duty Time limits?

[skywrench1]

I have a question.

 

How can a P/e fly all day and then wrench after that and still stay within the pilot Duty Time limits?

 

 

And how can you do either job justice? One of the two is going to suffer and from my observations it appears maintenance normally takes the hit. For what it's worth, most p/e's I've known ultimately gave up the wrenches (hey, I'm not sayin', I'm just sayin', ya know!).

[MD500]

i've thaught of doing this in the future too, the idea of flying in the summer and wrenching in the winter is what i was thinking.........

[Helilog56]

MD500.....I did it for years, flew summers, and worked for a MDHC AMO in winter, it was great....huge satisfaction doing a total rebuild on an aircraft then being able to fly it. As advised earlier though, I would strongly urge to "NOT" work out in the field doing both.....putting in days/nights that are to long can cause both ends of your work to suffer.....that I learned the hard way

[JaJR]

That certainly had an effect on my departing the last job. Flying a base, then pulling wrenches on three machines. Evenings and weekends, still wasn't enough for that boss. I work a base by myself, which works well for the P/E thing though I am rusty on the wrenching. But it has bailed me out of a few snags to keep the old girl on line.