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Ron, I got my A&P the hard way: 2 years
apprenticeship, then went through the whole Part 147 school thing too. I
now teach aviating at Richmor Aviation in Schenectady NY, 61 & 141, Private
thru CFII. Some day I'll open my own shop, but for now, I'm just enjoying
flying my butt off, and now fixing up my very own Coupe.
I helped a talented friend of mine get his
A&P by working with him through a couple of restorations- a Navion and a
Stinson 108. We documented every twist of the safety wire, every brrrrp of
the rivet gun. George also had some prior experience, which we also documented,
and had some folks vouch in writing for the past experience. He studied
hard, took his written, oral, and practical tests, and now is happily rebuilding
Tiger Moths.
Experience requirements for both airframe and powerplant
ratings: 30 months total practical experience, of which 18 months aircraft
engine and 18 months airframe experience can overlap. You could also just
get one or the other rating with 18 months. The interpretation that our FSDO
took was that "experience" does not imply full-time employment (or
employment at all for that matter); instead that over a combined (not
necessarily continuous) period of at least 30 months, the applicant was
"active" as an apprentice mechanic. We managed to document that
amount of work experience, without "too much" inflation of times
involved (we were very, slow, very careful mechanics!). Experience
satisfied, the battery of tests for the A&P ratings are fairly arduous, and
even if you are a mechanical wizard, you will need to know the applicable FARs,
aircraft hardware & materials, basic structural repair techniques from rag
& tube through wood, metal, and composites, etc, and etc. But it's all
airplane stuff, and it's mostly useful and interesting. There are week-long
finishing schools that can cram you full of short-term knowledge sufficient to
pass the tests (or also provide a great review of what you have learned
hands-on).
I think the largest challenge for the
"non-traditional" A&P applicant is getting enough variety of
experience. My school had a Stearman, Beech 18, lots of ingenious systems
mock-ups, radial engines (tortured corpses of W-670s we could combine and bring
to life), scary old ex-military turbine engines (I cowered behind hangar I-beams
when we really wound 'em up), boxes of mysterious relics from all the military
planes that once lived at Griffiss AFB...Heaven on earth! I'ts sorta hard
to find all those goodies (and permission to mess around with them) at the
average local airport.
Another excellent source of experience would be putting
together a homebuilt- That will take more time and money than school, but you
can go at your own pace and have an outstanding airplane in the bargain.
You will need to consult an A&P OFTEN and document it as an
"apprenticeship" to get the most mileage out of homebuilding toward an
A&P. Build a plane and you're an FAA licensed Repairman; an
A&P is just a Repairman licensed to work on more than one specific
airplane.
I'm not trying to discourage you with all this talk of
requiremenst... On the contrary, general aviation is in dire need of real
mechanics (as opposed to the common "parts changers"). But you
will have to want it bad enough to take a sabbatical, or build/restore a plane
or 2 or 3 under supervision. And in either case, you will need to study a
lot. Pilots, and even most owners, have NO IDEA how byzantine the FAA is
until they walk a mile in an A&P's moccasins.
If you're considering A&P certification to do work for
yourself, you would be better off (in my opinion) just getting to know a
friendly A&P/IA, earning his trust, and employing his/her inspection
authority: Start by assisting with your next annual. Then progress
to a small project: Agree on what you're gonna do and how, make sure he's
present for any complex or hard-to-inspect assemblies, and then let him inspect
and certify your finished work. With a good working relationship, this
process can be fun and stress-free for both parties. Don't EVER do anything
mechanical without communicating with the A&P first (his butt's on the line
every time he signs your logs). An A&P can legally make your
work FAA-kosher on a project-by-project basis- but there's gotta be trust and
cooperation.
I hope that you do apply your skills to flying machines,
Ron. Machines are machines, but the satisfaction of making them work is
all the sweeter when the machine you made better actually levitates. Hard
to get the same feeling fixin the ol' forklift. Or maybe even the
Mercedes.
-Rob
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