The two and a half years will fly by, it will also give you a good grounding in basic engineering practices hand and technical to becoming a competant aircraft engineer, many licenced schemes do not put high enough emphasis on this anymore.
I completed a non-licenced apprenticeship and then proceeded to complete my tickets off my own back using Licence by post,
www.club66pro.co.uk etc.
Moaning unfortuanatly is the engineering culture, im fully licenced and typed but most of the old boys still and will always have a chip on their shoulder with regards to a pup coming through the ranks. None the less they moan but but most have VAST experience you cannot dream of so use it to your advantage and LEARN.
As you have guessed i am relatively young but really enjoy the job, I work unplanned maintenance/Casualty that really keeps you on your toes! Pay is pretty good too when you get your licences and can get to higher grades.
Any other Q's just write them up!
B
