Tricky Tree
The Ge’s job and that of the Air Engineer require a different mindset.
It is one thing diagnosing and rectifying faults on the pan with the steps in. It is quite another handling emergencies, or appreciating the repercussions of perhaps several unconnected faults, when at 35000ft three hours flying time from the nearest suitable airport.
It would take longer than a couple of weeks as the conversion to type alone would be in the region of 20 sim’s plus flying training. Add on all the essential extras such as met, navigation CRM and other aviation related subjects and it’s easy to see where a figure of six months come from.
I have worked with many GE’s who I thought would have made excellent Air Eng’s although I myself would make a lousy GE. (could never sleep on an aircraft) It would be possible to train suitable GE’s, we used to get a lot of our air eng’s from the ground trades anyway, but it would not be a quick crossover.
Remember. Being an Air engineer is like driving a Wells Fargo Stagecoach. You spend most of your working day sat behind two horses ar@e! :
