AVIATION-related career advice needed

[kyleandhisIH]

Intro:

I'm 19 years old, attending my second semester of college, and I'm not satisfied that I made the right decisions.

First, a little background. I was a lego kid. I'm here, right? It all stemmed from innate ability to disassemble household appliances as quickly as possible. It was always great frustration for my Dad, who often didn't appreciate seeing his old pioneer in pieces on the floor.

Flash forward, and I'm a senior in high school, with the opportunity to learn to fly under cfi-mei don g, in a 2005 g1000-equipped c172sp. From what he could tell, it was the first program in the nation that offered highschool students actual logged flight time, Instead of just the ground-type classes (which he had previously taught) and this really changed my ideas about a career. No longer did I want to be a chemical engineer, I wanted to work in the aviation industry. Really, I want to work with and be knowledgeable concerning all types of powerplants and mechanical systems (and I guess learning about these new computer screens wouldn't hurt)

so now I'm into a pre-engineering program for the second semester, with initial plans to transfer into rolla's engineering college and specialize in mechanical apps. My first semester was not so good - I got good grades at first, especially in chem, but calculus was crippling. I tested above the refresher math course with act scores, and I have never had any trigonometry classes. Ultimately, I failed calculus and got a c in chem (because of a little slump of educational depression, translation: Lazy) and my gpa is now a 1.7.

This makes my scholarship (~$13,000 over 4 years) funding seem dicey, since they require a 3.0. Their holding period will last until the next fall semester, however, so I have this semester and all summer to make up my grades.



Now the problem:

I don't want to be an engineer, after finding out from my "career advisor" that my intended career path was not what this engineering degree would point towards. That probably didn't help me motivate myself to succeed, and neither did his hearty laughter when I told him I was having trouble in calculus.

Appointed advisors are awesome. Anyhow, I have recently looked into an out-of-state school ($$$$$$^2 if they don't have some kind of shared-border agreement with mo) that has a two-year a&p certification (not incredibly valuable in itself) which can be furthered with a bachelor's of applied sciences in aviation technology, and they offer three branches of this bs, one of which is "advanced maintenance." this degree is my primary concern.


My question is this: would this other school (no doubt more expensive, regardless of nonresident status) be worth the time if I wanted to specialize in aviation maintenance? So far, this semester's re-take of calculus isn't good. I know this because the first exam, which should have been review from my failed semester, netted me 25 of 50 available points.

This is a big decision, and if it smells right I might end up enrolling as soon as this summer in the aviation-ready school, instead of wasting 4 years on a more general bs that distances me from aircraft.

 

[MarkO]

At age 19 you have a lot of choices that being middle aged doesn't allow.

I congratulate you that you are smart enough to step back to re-evaluate the choices you have made already.

The least expensive way in which to become certified to work on airframes would be to join the armed forces and get a billet in some air wing. All of the different services have some sort of air wing, including the coast guard.

Another area you May want to investigate is to go to your local fbo to find out what they would like to see in prespective employees. There is no sense in spending time and $$$ pursuing something that is not salable in the job market.

Just know that jobs in the airplane business tend to be affected by the economy more than other industries. When the economy slows down the jobs in aviation industries tend to be some of the first to evaporate and the last to return when the economy trends upward.

Good luck.

 

[IronScout]

I second the idea of the military. I spent 21 years in the navy and learned a lot in my field. My field was electronics engineering on a submarine. I liked my job and had a good time. The only problem was that type of work was not my passion. Aviation is my passion. At age 37 I went forward with my passion. It would have been nice for the navy to pay for the training but I had to do it for my self. It sounds like you have a passion for aviation. If you can get into the aviation training at school, go for it. The question is what part of aviation do you want. Pilot, airframe a&p, or avionics. If you go for the pilot route then plan on paying about 70 - 80 k. Then you will be flying as an instructor for about a year. Then you have to make the decision corporate or the airlines. For the a&p route, you can start at your local airport and work under an a&pi as an apprentice. I'm a corporate pilot and I work at a maintenance shop as a apprentice during my non-flying time. Good luck.

 

[kyleandhisIH]

Forgot to mention that military isn't option, for personal reasons that some might find offensive...



To be a little more clear, I am interested in becoming the guru of aviation power production, in every sense of the word. My real passion lies in the art of perfecting combustion, producing rotation, and translating that into a magnitude and direction. Ideally, I see myself working for rolls-royce, pratt & whitney, or even ge (depending...) in some type of development or testing facility. I realize that without an engineering degree, it's unlikely that I could become part of a design team, but that is also something that interests me.

I do realize that aviation is a scary job market, due to the dependence on people that feel like blowing tons of money. Regardless, I worked washing planes at the local (or more like north of local) fbo, and I know the staff to a degree. I also quit showing up to wash their planes for $7.00/hr when I found out that the 6-man-hour job of shining up their pilatus earned the previous year's pair of flight students $150 each... My friend tommy and I were getting $21.00, and they really didn't need us more than twice a week in most cases. There were slight benefits, one being that I did get to unofficially test fly a plane that had been leaking oil (which I cleaned up three times) when they finally figured out someone had pinched off a crankcase vent.

The people who service the kcgi fleet are a father/son pair who run the business and work with three or four other technicians. I really don't think they have the room for more people, but then again it never hurts to ask. I'll look about setting up some kind of meeting with the Dad to strain out all the info I can.

Thanks for the replies.

 

[JohnnyC]

It sucks to hear or read about people that aren't willing to serve their country, even though they reap the benefits of those who sacrifice so much....

 

[kyleandhisIH]

it sucks to hear or read about people that aren't willing to serve their country, even though they reap the benefits of those who sacrifice so much....

I try not to think of the us as "my" country, because it isn't. The young us government stole it fair and square years ago. I am only privileged To live, hunt, and die here. I am under the impression that we all pay for this through taxation, which sounds fair enough to me.


Here's to hijacking your own thread with one sentence.

 

[SR2dude]

Dude calc sucks. I'm in business calc and we are in the first week and I am already lost. About to go see my prof for help actually. However, I cant help you with your decision but I wish the best of luck to ya!

 

[1975IH200]

Kyle, if you want to work in aviation, then a college degree is very useful. Even if it is in education or a non-aviation related field it is still very valuable.
An engineering degree to work for one of the engine manufacturers is imperative!!!!
Any engineering degree would put you two legs up over 75% or more of the people in aviation, whether they are pilots or mechanics or some other support staff.

You May want to decide between a&p maintenance and being a pilot unless you want to stay in the ga field where you can do both, and May need to do both to survive.

I've been in aviation for over 30 years and there has never been a shortage of pilots or pilot wanna-bees.

If you get a degree first, then decide which way you want to go, (pilot or mech) I think things will work out good for you.

 

[kyleandhisIH]

kyle, if you want to work in aviation, then a college degree is very useful. Even if it is in education or a non-aviation related field it is still very valuable.
An engineering degree to work for one of the engine manufacturers is imperative!!!!
Any engineering degree would put you two legs up over 75% or more of the people in aviation, whether they are pilots or mechanics or some other support staff.

You May want to decide between a&p maintenance and being a pilot unless you want to stay in the ga field where you can do both, and May need to do both to survive.

I've been in aviation for over 30 years and there has never been a shortage of pilots or pilot wanna-bees.

If you get a degree first, then decide which way you want to go, (pilot or mech) I think things will work out good for you.

Any piloting I do will be purely for pleasure purposes, which means I won't be a pilot until I get plenty of money. The main focus is being a mechanic at this point I guess, and perhaps moving up to something more advanced.

I realize an engineering degree is a great idea when it comes to this, but I don't have the math background to do calculus. Hell, I can't even break apart simple algebraic equations because I just don't think that way. It's incredibly difficult and tiresome for me, and it will be another year in my current major before I even begin to apply the math I'm learning.

From what I understand about myself, I can learn the math more easily when I'm applying it - it gives me a reference point in memory that relates to something I enjoy, like physics. Couldn't get into physics until I passed calc I, and only 30 minutes ago in that very same class, I was learning about the squeeze theorem. It makes sense in an image or drawing, but there is no easy way for me to look at an equation or expression and know what I have to do to it, as far as algebraic "moving about" goes. I just learned less than a semester ago what happens when you divide a constant by a fraction...

Which is why I figure I could stand the substantially smaller income, as long as it meant I didn't have to deal with calculus. I don't see me passing it this semester, and I just spoke to the woman in charge of the math department. She says I can't switch out.

I don't seem to have much more than two options: drop out entirely and waste money because I don't like one of my three classes (limited to 12 credit hours because of academic probation), or struggle through calc I, make a c or d grade, keep the low gpa, and fail calc II once or twice.

This stuff makes me incredibly tired. I appreciate all the responses though, and I apologize to anyone who I might have rankled with the military talk. I have considered it, I have researched what is available, and I have friends who are doing it. I just don't think I'm even physically capable of getting in at this point.

 

[Michael Mayben]

Over the last 20 years, if a yung'un doesn't have at least three "career paths" to fall back on, then they will end up on unemployment until it runs out!

Follow your heart now where it takes you in order to secure future employment. Anyone in this country can make changes any time they want to and are willing to accept the risk.

My father had one career and was unceremoniously dumped after giving 45 years of his life for one of the largest industrial complexes in the world. I've had four longterm "careers" and got the same treatment from the last "multi-national" corporation I sacrificed everything for over 12 years.

But in the big picture, all the careers I've had revolved around the ability to make things happen with my hands and my head. Without that, I would have been an "engineer on paper" without a clue of which way a water faucet turns in the northern hemisphere!

You can do whatever you want to do! Scruu this "career path" shit! That simply lays the ground work for future long-term employement for tenured "professors" inna university who have never tasted the air outside their ivory towers. But train yourself to do at least three lifework skill sets really well! At least one of 'em should not be related to the other two, that is called insurance for when whatever latest government entity has sold us out and destroyed your chosen occupation, you can then go where there is employment even if it's temporary.

I did the same sukkin' "professor" job for 14 years in my ivory tower, but during my "off time" I still fixxd broke shit so I could make a livin' no matter where the latest whims and winds of the politicos of higher education blew. You think the freakin' gummint is out of control now????...ya oughta be on the inside lookin' out of the politics behind the public educational system in this kuntree!!! Whether it's the local "public school system" or the state-run university system, it is a snakes in a basket deal.

An a&p makes ya a job right now! Git some life under yore belt, then you can always pursue whatever at any later point you decide what is best for you!