AA2631

I work for a major making $53/hr now and in less than 2 years I’ll be at $70/hr. The problem is I’m miserable. Graveyard shifts, workplace drama, and stress on my body are all starting to affect me negatively.

I have an opportunity to switch careers from aviation to project managing at a marble contracting company. M-F normal daytime shifts, small and family like work environment, and zero stress on the body. I have been drinking daily since I started aviation maintenance 5 years ago.

The thing is I’ll be starting at $40/hr until I learn the ropes, and potentially making $65+ in a year or two.

Would it be a smart move to switch over for my health and happiness? I’ll be giving up medical, strong 401k, flight benefits, and a strong union.

I have worked 2 weeks at this marble company and it has been great. Getting lots of sunlight, great sleep, and best of all I stopped drinking.

I’m 32, engaged, no kids. What would you do?

Edit: I really appreciate each and every one of your insightful feedbacks. If nothing else, the industry has been rough, but the community has been the best thing to come from it. Thank you all.

Dirty cabin evaporator.

This thing cooked at 90psi and 300f.

Looking through this IPC for mounting hardware for an aileron on a 172 and I cannot read this full part number. What's yall's opinion?

Why does F/A-18 Super Hornet has transparent parts in it's nose landing gear door?

Let’s see your snack stash!

One too many chip lights. pretty far up north in the middle of nowhere. only down for a few days. flew the engine in by twin otter but had to float it to shore on some empty barrels. All went well and back up the next day. This was the easiest engine install I have done. The counter balance of the pilot made it so i could move the engine with one hand and If you've installed these before the bolts are kind of hard to get in. Counter balanced hoists are not a thing but they really should be. Imagine lifting a transmission or engine with your pinky instead of the kchunk kchunk of an electric hoist.

Hey all! This is my first commercial flight since going to A&P school. I couldn't stop staring at these trails behind the rivets on the inboard leading edge of the wing. In the clouds they were a bit subtle, but they became really obvious when we broke through cloud cover and the sun hit them. Are these smoking rivets or just dirt from rivets that aren't flush? Would this be cause for concern?

Our hangar con-man known as George did it again. Something simple, something he's done before, something incredibly hard to fuck up and he fucked it up gloriously.

One of our training birds was coming out of annual, a C172N. I ran it up. Post run it was noticed that there was a running leak from the fuel strainer bowl. Fuel valve was set to off. Upon closer inspection it was noticed that there was no safety wire!!! Thinking the retaining nut was simply loose, I tightened the nut and opened fuel to both for a leak check. This did not stop the leak, set valve to off again. Attempted to remove the retaining nut and the whole damn strainer bowl came off, complete with the standpipe. THE GODDAMN STANDPIPE WAS LOOSE!!! Had to damage the internal threads at the top of the standpipe in order to remove the retaining nut. Retaining nut was removed, backing ring was not properly seated. Why? The o-ring was incorrectly installed and had been cut as a result, causing the leak that I saw. Got a new o-ring. Got a tap with proper thread pitch and cleaned up the standpipe threads. Reassembled, leak check passed. Safety wired and reinstalled drain tube.

Forty five goddamn minutes wasted because George didn't bother to do a leak check on the aircraft after monkeying with the fuel system. Owner had to lose out thrice. Paying George for the labor to do the fuel bowl initially. Paying me to correct the fuel bowl. Losing out on any revenue that would have been generated had I not needed to correct George's fuck up. And that's all before parts and materials are factored in.

This comes one month after George nearly killed a CFI and student because his incompetence caused a gear collapse upon landing. Had I not caught this the airplane could have suffered fuel starvation at altitude and the outcome would have been at best bad, at worst fatalities would have occurred. A post annual runup is NOT THE FUCKING TIME FOR THIS SHIT TO BE DISCOVERED!!!

There is, maybe, a happy epilogue to this. That gear collapse? NTSB and FAA got involved. My IA's ticket is in jeopardy. But the FAA is digging deep, they acknowledge he is desk bound a majority of the time, and so they're looking at the individuals who did the work.
Another 172N school bird was in for some brake work. After burning in the new linings I was doing the administrative shit to release the bird. I was present in the office while the FAA guy was talking with my IA. The IA and FAA dude were discussing George, his incompetence, lack of a certificate, owner's unwillingness to fire him. My IA was spilling all the beans concerning George, to the point that it came up while I was in the office that I went off on George over one of his other fuck ups I posted about. So the silver lining is that now they're aware. Whether they can and will do anything remains to be seen.

As I promised in comment to another post, I found pictures and a video of a fuel tank stored incorrectly, without enough fuel, biocide and sumping.

Sadly, reddit reject the video, I'll try to upload it some other way, but here are the pictures.

i went to a trade school in PHX as a high school student, and i’m sure there’s more around the country. everything was payed for, i just spent a few hundred on books. just something to keep in mind for the younger crowd.

I've tried to take my written exams, but it's really hard to memorize 1,000 questions per exam. Could you give me some advice? I enrolled in an online school! But I can only watch videos, and it's very tedious. I'd really appreciate it if you could guide me! I'm from California! Regards!

Obviously I think i need calculator to solve math.. but any calculator should be fine though?

So the Cessna 680A has a RECOG (I'm guessing recognition) and 2 landing light buttons, the recog button also turns on the landing lights though. Can anybody tell me why they have this button and not JUST the L LDG and R LDG??

Hey guys, i recently bought this fanblade from the delta surplus sale in Atlanta, GA. I’ve been trying to identify the engine it goes on (my guess is CFM), and the plane model it was on. I’ve attached pictures here (lighter for comparison) Any help is appreciated!

i have an interview next week for a position to go direct as a lead and continue running my current program along with a few others, plus the additional duties leads would have.

i've been breaking planes for around a decade now but never moved into leadership, so any advice/insight to get through this interview would be super appreciated!

some insight; i've been here a lil over a year (mro) handling a customer specific program as a structures mech. my interview is with my supervisor who i'm 90% sure has already been grooming my coworker (with less experience) for the position. we both have a questionable track record with attendance but we're also two of very few people in the building that don't constantly destroy shit.

i'm ready to not get it, but i'd like to not embarrass myself if i'm being asked about 5S or some shit. so, what have you guys been asked?

Hi guys as the title mentions above, I failed my Powerplant practicals, I fortunately passed my orals with flying colors however I had trouble with the questions on the practicals and luckily I went through all 11 practicals and know somewhat of the questions that were asked. I’ve been on the FAR,43.13, and AMT but to no avail have not found most questions I am looking for. Anything would help in terms of links to help me find my answers or help me locate would be gratefully appreciated. Thank you all!

Has anyone used this item ?