electrician change of career

daludo

hi folks,looking for some advice.im a self employed electrician(for my sins!!)i've always had an interest in aircraft and im giving serious consideration to possibly training as an aircraft electrician.im 38 yrs old with 3 young kids,so do ye think this is a good idea??what are the future employment prospects??how long to train up??also i read somewhere that the wages are poor,is this true??thanks in advance:)

xflyer

My brother in law is a sparky. Things are not going well for him. My brother is an AME, he's doing well.

To be fair it's a long hard road to bridge the gap and there's no guarantee. With three kids. I don't know. I have two. You have have to have a very considerate wife.

But it's doable as long as you are prepared to spend a long time working abroad until you get the local job which is not guaranteed.

Aviation is very international. If you can move it's a practical career. If you can't........well I've know lots of people whose relationships are stormy to say the least.

lintdrummer

daludo wrote: »

hi folks,looking for some advice.im a self employed electrician(for my sins!!)i've always had an interest in aircraft and im giving serious consideration to possibly training as an aircraft electrician.im 38 yrs old with 3 young kids,so do ye think this is a good idea??what are the future employment prospects??how long to train up??also i read somewhere that the wages are poor,is this true??thanks in advance:)

Go for the apprenticeship, best route into the business. Get yourself a b2 (avionics) licence. Engineering apprenticeship is 4 years with about half that on the job. if you think age is a concern, it really isn't, a couple of lads on my apprenticeship are pushing 40 and have families. With an apprenticeship your employment prospects are good. Wages vary company to company but are generally decent. Don't forget that you will end up doing shift work so you'll have to take that into consideration too.

Celtic Mech

daludo wrote: »

hi folks,looking for some advice.im a self employed electrician(for my sins!!)i've always had an interest in aircraft and im giving serious consideration to possibly training as an aircraft electrician.im 38 yrs old with 3 young kids,so do ye think this is a good idea??what are the future employment prospects??how long to train up??also i read somewhere that the wages are poor,is this true??thanks in advance:)

As you already have a trade/apprenticeship served, you are classified as a skilled worker. As it stands, if you were able to get a company/airline to recruit you, you could actually work on aircraft after a basic course familiarizing you with aircraft. While working, (if possible with obtaining a job) you can then do the exams to enable you to sit for the EASA B2 licence. While working, you will be gaining the required experience to apply for the license. As mentioned above, its tough, but still do-able.
There may be some modules such as Module 3 you could seek to get an exemption from as you would have met the required standards - im not 100% on this - would need to be followed up with the IAA.
Anything else you may have a question about, PM me.

daludo

hi lads,first thanks for the good advice,ive a lot to consider there.i dont think working abroad is an option for me.i dont live far from shannon so maybe i could look for something there,is there many others besides shannon aerospace??ideally training on the job would suit me best.there is an avionics course available(distance learning)in a dublin college,any opinions on this??finally is there any website where i could find out more about course content etc??thanks again,this is a good start.;)

Darius.Tr

Air Atlanta(Transaero) were recently looking for unlicensed engineers, so you should have a look in to that, though I'm not sure if they still need people.

daludo

just checked out the air atlanta website,they still recruiting all right.im debating the big wage drop though.any idea what apprentice wage is??

Darius.Tr

Phase 2 €242.58 Phase 4 €363.87 Phase 6 €525.72 4th Year €647.01 Includes:

• Aircraft Mechanics
• Electrical
• Electrical Instrumentation
• Refrigeration & Air-conditioning
• Instrumentation

Atleast thats what fas website says.

daludo

thanks darius,ive a lot to think about there,maybe i could supplement the wages with some electrical work on the side!!do you know anything regarding difficulty level of this course??can i 'specialise' in the electrical side of things or does it all come under the umbrella of aircraft engineer??thanks again

Darius.Tr

No I haven't got a clue of how difficult a course is, I'm myself looking for a way into aircraft maintainance.

CaptainSkidmark

IM thinking of Applying to shannon aerospace myself, I aint worked in ireland in 3 years, Been all over in Holland, Norway, Germany and Wales in the OIl and Gas sector.sick of traveling now though, gonna take a month or two off at the end of this job and see what comes up.

lintdrummer

If you want to get an aircraft engineering license you'll be covering everything really and specialising in B2 (avionics) later on. A lot of the EASA modules that you need to pass exams in are common for B1 and B2. There are only 2 extra modules that you need to have that will give you the B2. There's a list here of the modules required to get the different licenses.

Here is a breakdown of the syllabus for each module.

The course is not overly difficult. Different people find different modules more taxing than others but overall it's not too bad. Electronics would be one of the harder ones so you'll have an advantage there! Basically if you've a good interest in it you'll fly it.

A320

lintdrummer wrote: »

If you want to get an aircraft engineering license you'll be covering everything really and specialising in B2 (avionics) later on. A lot of the EASA modules that you need to pass exams in are common for B1 and B2. There are only 2 extra modules that you need to have that will give you the B2. There's a list here of the modules required to get the different licenses.

Not entirely correct regarding just two extra exams,some exams are higher in B2 than B1 eg Module 4&5 and likewise for B1 to B2,Its easier just to do them all

B1 and B2 is still 12 exams each not including the 4 essays,common modules are 1,3,8,9,10 the rest are different

lintdrummer

A320 wrote: »

Not entirely correct regarding just two extra exams,some exams are higher in B2 than B1 eg Module 4&5 and likewise for B1 to B2,Its easier just to do them all

B1 and B2 is still 12 exams each not including the 4 essays,common modules are 1,3,8,9,10 the rest are different

I didn't say two extra exams, I said two extra modules

What I meant was that there are only 2 modules specific to the B2 license that aren't required for B1.

Stovepipe

@captskidmark, I did oil and gas equipment myself for two years. Have a look at www.jtc.ie. They overhaul aircraft and industrial turbine units, such as pumps, FCUs and so on.
regards
Stovepipe

A320

lintdrummer wrote: »

A320 wrote: »

Not entirely correct regarding just two extra exams,some exams are higher in B2 than B1 eg Module 4&5 and likewise for B1 to B2,Its easier just to do them all

B1 and B2 is still 12 exams each not including the 4 essays,common modules are 1,3,8,9,10 the rest are different

I didn't say two extra exams, I said two extra modules

What I meant was that there are only 2 modules specific to the B2 license that aren't required for B1.

Fair enough but theres still conversion exams to do!!! I'd recommend just do them all anyway,conversion exams leave a lesser margin of error for that 75%

CaptainSkidmark

Any one know what the break down of the wages are in shannon aerospace over the 18 months and what you get once your finished the term?

b757

The most Shannon Aerospace will train you to is the A EASA license. You work on the aircraft and could only have one B1/B2 signing you, and about 15 others off..

Transaero also just announced that they will be looking for apprentices.. Don't know much but they the place they took over were formerly known as Air Atlanta Aero Engineering..

More info on the website..

A320

b757 wrote: »

You work on the aircraft and could only have one B1/B2 signing you, and about 15 others off..

And your point???

CaptainSkidmark

transaero.ie does not exist!

Celtic Mech

CaptainSkidmark wrote: »

transaero.ie does not exist!

Maybe try again....I just logged on to it at www.transaero.ie not branded as Transero yet on the webpage...still in as Air Atlanta Aero Engineering.

lintdrummer

A320 wrote: »

lintdrummer wrote: »

A320 wrote: »

Not entirely correct regarding just two extra exams,some exams are higher in B2 than B1 eg Module 4&5 and likewise for B1 to B2,Its easier just to do them all

B1 and B2 is still 12 exams each not including the 4 essays,common modules are 1,3,8,9,10 the rest are different

I didn't say two extra exams, I said two extra modules

What I meant was that there are only 2 modules specific to the B2 license that aren't required for B1.

Fair enough but theres still conversion exams to do!!! I'd recommend just do them all anyway,conversion exams leave a lesser margin of error for that 75%

Agreed!

op, If you have an interest in aviation then this would be a great career for you.

lintdrummer

Just a note about Transaero, they are a Russian organisation as far as I'm aware and have taken over the aer Atlanta business in Shannon. There are apprentices training to b2 standard at the moment who were taken on by Atlanta last year. From what I hear they are a great company to work for. They are a base maintenance organisation so you'd be seeing a good variety of aircraft.