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What They Do
About This Career
Diagnoses, adjusts, repairs, or overhauls aircraft engines and assemblies, such as hydraulic and pneumatic systems.
This career is part of the Transportation, Distribution and Logistics cluster Facility and Mobile Equipment Maintenance pathway.
A person in this career:
- Examines and inspects aircraft components, including landing gear, hydraulic systems, and deicers to locate cracks, breaks, leaks, or other problems.
- Conducts routine and special inspections as required by regulations.
- Inspects completed work to certify that maintenance meets standards and that aircraft are ready for operation.
- Reads and interprets maintenance manuals, service bulletins, and other specifications to determine the feasibility and method of repairing or replacing malfunctioning or damaged components.
- Maintains repair logs, documenting all preventive and corrective aircraft maintenance.
- Modifies aircraft structures, space vehicles, systems, or components, following drawings, schematics, charts, engineering orders, and technical publications.
- Inspects airframes for wear or other defects.
- Measures parts for wear, using precision instruments.
- Obtains fuel and oil samples and checks them for contamination.
- Maintains, repairs, and rebuilds aircraft structures, functional components, and parts, such as wings and fuselage, rigging, hydraulic units, oxygen systems, fuel systems, electrical systems, gaskets, or seals.
Working Conditions and Physical Demands
People who do this job report that:
- You would often handle loads up to 20 lbs., sometimes up to 50 lbs. You might do a lot of lifting, carrying, pushing or pulling.
- Work in this occupation involves use of protective items such as safety shoes, glasses, gloves, hearing protection, a hard hat, or personal flotation devices
- Exposure to pollutants, gases, dust, fumes, odors, poor ventilation, etc.
- Requires getting into awkward positions
- Lighting is either extremely bright or inadequate
- Conditions are very hot (above 90 F) or very cold (under 32 F)
- Work in this occupation involves using your hands to hold, control, and feel objects more than one-third of the time
- Exposed to hazardous equipment such as saws, machinery, or vehicular traffic more than once a month
- Sound and noise levels are loud and distracting
- Work in this occupation involves standing more than one-third of the time
Working in this career involves (physical activities):
- Picking out a particular sound in the presence of other sounds
- Identifying color and seeing differences in color, including shades and brightness
- Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching
- Detecting sounds and hearing the differences between sounds of different pitch and loudness
- Seeing clearly up close
- Speaking clearly enough to be able to be understood by others
- Identifying and understanding the speech of another person
Work Hours and Travel
- Overtime work
- Rotating shift work
Specialty and Similar Careers
Careers that are more detailed or close to this career:
- Aircraft Maintenance Technician (Aircraft Maintenance Tech)
- Aircraft Restorer
- Aircraft Technician
- Aviation Maintenance Technician (AMT)
- Aviation Mechanic
- Helicopter Mechanic — Regularly inspect parts of helicopters such as propellers, landing gear, hydraulic equipment, engines and bodies, making needed repairs or replacing malfunctioning parts.
- Airframe and Powerplant Mechanic (A and P Mechanic)
Every year the U.S. Department of Labor conducts national surveys of wage data by occupation in every state and in all industry divisions. These surveys are conducted through the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program.
The statistics collected for one year are published the next fall. For example, 2013 wage information was published in the fall of 2014.
There are over 800 occupations in the surveys, and these occupations cover the entire U.S. labor market. The surveys ask for reports in a scale of ranges for both hourly wages and annual wages.
In many cases, these occupations are broad enough to cover many more detailed specialties of an occupation. A specific occupation may be included in a broader occupational category for which labor market data is available. When you look at the statistics for a broad category, be aware that the salary data for a specific career may differ.
For more details about how wage information is collected and calculated by the U.S. Department of Labor, visit their website at http://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm.
Every year the U.S. Department of Labor conducts a national survey of over 400,000
employers in every state and in all industry divisions. This survey is conducted
through the Occupational Employment Statistics (OES) program. Every other year the
department publishes outlook information based on these surveys.
Each outlook period covers 10 years. For example, in 2003 the outlook information
was published for 2004-2014. Employers are asked to report the number of employees
in about 770 different occupations that cover the entire U.S. labor market.
From this information, staffing patterns for different industries are established.
Industry growth is projected into the future based on past trends and current economic
conditions. Industry staffing patterns are then applied to the industry projections
to obtain occupational projections.
In many cases, these occupations are broad enough to cover many more detailed specialties
of an occupation. A specific occupation may be included in a broader occupational
category for which labor market data is available. When you look at the statistics
for a broad category, be aware that the employment data for a specific field may
differ.
For more details about how employment information is collected and calculated by
the U.S. Department of Labor, visit their website at http://stats.bls.gov/news.release/ocwage.tn.htm.
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