A&P License using Amateur Built Experience - Page 4

merlin3 · #31 07-07-2020, 08:08 PM

My wife and i are in a&p school right now and to be honest I already know most of what we have learned in our classes over the last year. I definitely learned about turbines as i had no knowledge of those. But to be honest some of these a&p schools don't teach as much as what someone would learn compared to working on aircraft for a few years part time. I have had to end up helping teach some of our classes as the a&ps teaching the classes have no knowledge other than airliners.

jrs14855 · #32 07-07-2020, 08:13 PM

in the day a typical homebuilt was welded steel tube and wood with fabric covering. Today only a very small minority of A&P's can perform any oof those skills.

Dave12 · #33 07-11-2020, 06:30 AM

After spending 3 years working at a local maintenance shop, taking the 3 written exams locally, I enrolled in a 1 week practical prep course at Baker?s in Tennessee. All of my classmates were much younger and most of them had just completed a two year course at various locations of a nationwide A&P school. It was absolutely astounding to me how unprepared these kids were. They had each paid around 40K for their two years of ?education? and many were in debt for it. The course started on Monday and by Wednesday they had started sending students to the examiners. One by one these applicants were failing, some miserably. Upon failing the test, Bakers will retrain the student in specific areas until they pass, if they are willing to continue. Some of these students felt that they were so unprepared for the practical test, they gave up and went home. My test was scheduled on Saturday morning and I was told that I was the first of that class to make it through. A young Canadian kid also made it through on Sunday. The other twelve applicants failed. I do know of two guys that did stay and continue until they passed.
While working at Cecil Aero, the shop that I served my apprenticeship at, one of the young fellers I worked with named Bear, was attending one of the same A&P Schools in Philadelphia. He is a sharp young man and was encouraged by one of the instructors to quit and just go take his test. He felt that this school was a waste of his time and money and the instructor agreed with him. Bear had been working at this shop since he was 14, so he did have the required experience to qualify to take the tests.
I know I?ve rambled a bit on this, but all A&P schools are not created equally. Be careful, you can throw away a lot on money. If you would like to know the name of this nationwide chain of schools, send me a pm.
BTW, the examiners told me that they were going to contact the FAA regarding this school.

rocketbob · #34 07-11-2020, 07:31 AM

FWIW I have two good friends that are/were DMEs. Both have had attempts by FAA FSDO "investigators" probing them in various ways to see if either would pass applicants by paying extra.

Northernliving · #35 07-11-2020, 08:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 74-07

I went to two years of all day classes and studied harder than I did in AF pilot training. As another stated, there are no excused absences. If you miss a day, you have to make it up. It's a very tough course (as it should be) but very rewarding when you finally get your tickets. After a lifetime of personal and professional flying, it was a bucket list item for me.

East Coast Aero Tech has a similar program in the Boston area. It?s 18 months full time, but during that time you complete the requirements for you A&P. Cost is around $36k from what I?m told. It?s also a bucket list item that I may do In retirement.

oaklandaviator · #36 07-11-2020, 12:23 PM

About 25 years ago I worked on my A&P under supervision of an experienced mechanic. I used the time my father and I built a small homebuilt plus the on job experience with the mechanic. No questions from anyone about the homebuilt time. If anything, that was a huge plus.

The FBO hired a couple school graduates and they were woefully unprepared for anything other than doing an oil change. I'm sure there are good schools, but as with most things in life, I'm a big believer in experience under an old master. Trying to get trained by spending a bunch of money in a puppy mill seems to do nothing but empty your wallet.

74-07 · #37 07-11-2020, 01:16 PM

I just have to jump in and say that after I retired, I went to Greenville Tech in Greenville, SC. The school facility is world-class as are the instructors. I went there to learn (bucket list item) and studied harder than I did in USAF pilot training. It was a VERY challenging course and I passed the orals and writtens all on first try. The school would not authorize you to take the exams until you demonstrated three consecutive times that you could pass their practice exams with a score of 90 or above. Were there weak students?............yes, but it was usually caused by their lack of effort. The school offered all kind of retraining and help. Did they get some sort of pass?........absolutely not. Most of the non-serious ones simply quit coming.