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What to worry about in buying a used plane?

It seems difficult for guys leaving the RAF engineering side to qualify as civilian light aircraft mechanics. Retraining doesn’t seem to be available.

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom

The RAF has a policy of actively discouraging its engineering staff from getting civilian qualifications untill immediately before discharge from the RAF for fear they will jump ship to a much better paid job that does not carry the joys of the secondary duty that involves wandering around the base at the dead of night carrying a rifle.

The other thing I have found with ex-RAF guys is they don’t have much in the way of deep repair and heavy maintenance experience as the RAF now puts most of this work out to civilian companies. The result is if you take on an ex-RAF guy you can expect it will take some time before he is fully up to speed.

Here in the US there’s a big pilot shortage, as we know. But there’s also a very big A&P shortage. The airlines and bigger maintenance facilities are offering starting pay for new mechanics in the $55K+ region and very quickly these guys can see $80-90K and a full benefit package. That’s very hard for the little mom-adn-pop GA maintenance shops to compete with. One of the facilities I used said he was so backlogged with annuals but just couldn’t find any mechanics to hire (as the airlines snapped them all up). Even worse, many of his longtime mechanics had recently left for them too.

A small facility can’t really compete with those salaries. I actually think they need to increase their hourly rate a bit. Here I tend to pay between $100-135/hr. As much as I don’t want to pay more than necessary, if it means that GA shops can retain a quality workforce, it’s a price I’m willing to pay.

Last Edited by AdamFrisch at 27 Jan 22:42

AdamFrisch wrote:

Here in the US there’s a big pilot shortage, as we know. But there’s also a very big A&P shortage. The airlines and bigger maintenance facilities are offering starting pay for new mechanics in the $55K+ region and very quickly these guys can see $80-90K and a full benefit package.

I understand AA is hiring 200 or more A&Ps at the moment. One of their mechanics mentioned something about his union currently negotiating $50/HR pay, don’t know at what level of experience that would apply. Of course in some urban areas that is not ‘getting rich quick’ wages, but in other areas it would support a family well.

By my observation, A&Ps working on US hobby planes are also doing it as a paid hobby themselves, either literally or in the sense that they could make substantially better money turning wrenches on Toyotas. The better ones in terms of piston engined GA seem to drift slowly into something more lucrative as they age (whatever it may be) while keeping their hand in on their own planes, planes they like, planes owned by friends etc.

Last Edited by Silvaire at 28 Jan 00:24
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