Duffster,
Historically, airline apprenticeship schemes have usually had a bigger intake of A+C apprentices as opposed to Avionic ones. Also the A+C guys used to only need two licences - Airframe and Engines to get by. Avionic used to be split up into individual trades of Electrical, Instrument, and Radio. This was o.k. on older aircraft but todays digital aircraft are very integrated when it comes to avionic systems so you really need to have all the avionic licences to function properly. (This is also better for employers who only have to employ one avionic guy instead of three)! To be a really useful conehead you would need to have the CAA LWTR's in Electrics, Combined Category Instrument/Autopilot, Radio Comms and Nav, Radio/Radar, and Compass compensation. Thats 5 licences for avionic guys to get and only two for A+C guys. The net result is that A+C guys could be fully licenced within a year or so, but it would take an avionic guy at least two years but usually longer.
Magnet,
Yes I'm Shamrock qualified from the early eighties. I also work on 146's but for a different outfit to Cones-r-us (I think).
[This message has been edited by somefokker (edited 26 August 2000).]