Apprenticeship Opportunities - Darwin?

[CoodaShooda]

No. 1 son has expressed a strong desire to leave high school at the end of this year and pursue an apprenticeship in an aviation-related field, preferably mechanical or electrical.

He's academically bright and doing the air cadet thing but is one of the 20% of boys not suited to the current mainstream education system; so I think he's come up with a good idea. However, I'm buggad if I know how he goes about chasing down the elusive opportunity.

I'd appreciate any advice from those in the know on how he should proceed.

[Woomera]

I'm going to sticky this, because it is important to us all.

There is much emphasis here about wannabe pilots looking for training and newbies looking for jobs.

Hopefully the industry is training replacements for the other important part, lest it founder for lack of resources and the wannabes and newbies have nothing serviceable to practise on.

Lets hear about it for Darwin and wherever else, in OZ.

[High Altitude]

:O
A valuable person is a good engineer,
a valuable person is a good pilot.

If one is thinking of an engineering career in GA then looking to do the pilot lic makes you very attractive. After all you can fly to a remote place to fix a defect and fly home. Now if you have your CPL and LAME ticket I would hate to think what salary you would command but you would be a very very valuable employee to any charter organisation.

I have seen few engineer/pilots over the years all have progressed very quickly to what they want to be doing.

Only problem with this is that engineers hate pilots, pilots hate engineers so what do you do hate yourself???:cool:

[Torres]

Cooda, PM me. May be a possibility through Group Training.

[Travelair]

Yes I agree it must be an attractive combination. Nevertheless, being both a driver and a toolshaker, I can say it is a difficult situation sometimes. In the hangar you might be seen as odd, same within pilots. But if what you love is aeroplanes and flying, then there really should not be any boundaries, the more you learn, the better you can be at both fields.

Many prospective employers may be interested in the combination, but more likely than not, its for the engineering side of things. At least that is what my experience has been! And still looking for a job!

Go for it I say!
T/air

[Willie Nelson]

CS,

with that many posts you probably subscribe and have already read the news; anyone who is interested in the "big stuff"; Australian Aviation's latest (March) issue writes of more apprentices. From what I understand that job would be very worthwhile and highly competitive.

And while we are on the subject of the old Engineer/Pilot debate, it has been my experience that Engineers are a little like the French; you only have to speak a little bit of their language and they will fall over backwards to help you. It's those idiots who have a complete lack of understanding of their aircraft and the job that an engineer has to do that will struggle to gain respect.


Given the above, I am not so sure that the dual qualified wannabe would do all that well in G/A. Those that enter the game with both tickets that want to fly are usually flat out like a lizard drinking in the hangar and therefore gain little, if any experience other than when a plane is broken down in the field. It ends up being very much an engineering job with a small amount of flying on the side. You only have to look at the cost of a LAME compared to a junior pilot. If I had one it wouldn't be worth my while to have them looking out the window of a C206 for too long.

Willie.

[Dog One]

suggest you give the Chief Engineer a ring at Airnorth. They appear to employ quite a large hangar workforce and may employ apprentices looking at the long term.

[Capt Claret]

Did you receive my P.M.?

[CoodaShooda]

Many thanks for the responses and suggestions.
Its good to see that there may be hope in a traditionally pesimistic industry. :)

(Or is PPRuNe changing the way we see ourselves? ;) )

[Torres]

Cooda ...... check ya PM. Hope that helps!:D

[CoodaShooda]

Torres

Have to place on record that... yep!!!, its a great help. :D