AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2020 - 99

when it was placed next to a 3/8-inch drive
rachet and a torque wrench. So, my search
continues.
Somehow, we need to start getting kids
interested in working on airplanes, and
we need to get owners to accept shop rates
high enough for us to compete for good
mechanics.
Another colleague who owns a 10-person avionics shop in Colorado told me:
It's especially hard to find new avionics
technicians. It takes more than two years to
train a new hire to earn his FAA repairman
certificate. Unless I hire a local person and
train them, they won't stick around. Even
that's no guarantee.
I hired a local kid right out of college who
wanted to stay in the area, a really smart
young man. I spent $5,000 sending him to
AEA avionics wiring classes this summer,
and told him I expected him to stay at least
a year. Two months later, Intel hired him
to work in their plant in Oregon for almost
twice what I was able to pay him. How do
I compete?
We are in a specialized part of a highly
regulated industry, but our customers are
cheapskates who are looking for highquality work at bottom-end pricing. We
shop owners need to have the courage to
start charging more so we can compete in
the labor marketplace. But airplanes are
highly mobile, so if my bid comes in too high
the owner will just fly the airplane to New
Mexico to have the work done. It's a very
difficult balance.
Finally, this from a colleague who
owns a piston GA maintenance shop in
Tennessee:
In today's very mobile society, many
technicians only want to chase the money.
They are willing to pull up stakes and travel
to wherever the grass appears greenest.
When I hire a new kid, I must pair him with
one of the more experienced mechanics in
the shop. This means that two people are
getting paid to do the work normally done
by one person, and they're probably doing it
slower. Of course, we can't pass this higher
labor cost along to our customers. So, the
cost of training a newbie is quite expensive.
Then after a year of intense training, the
new hire may take his newly gained skills
and experience to another shop.

So, we try to hire people with local bonds.
I'm happy to hire anyone with good tactile
skills-car mechanic, tractor mechanic,
lawnmower mechanic, et cetera. I find they
are much easier to train to work on piston
GA airplanes than an A&P just out of school,
the military, or the airlines.
Small piston GA shops like mine must up
our game significantly to compete with the
Deltas and FedExes of the world. Healthcare
coverage is one of the most difficult issues
for us. What this means to aircraft owners
is that shop rates must go up and scheduling
lead times will be longer. My shop presently has annual inspections scheduled 12
months out with very few openings left on
the calendar. Structural repairs and engine
conversions are on a four-month backlog.
We'd love to expand but we just can't find
or train enough qualified technicians.
Several colleagues who own shops in
or near major metropolitan areas told me
that they have raised their shop rates quite
significantly and not seen any serious loss
of clientele. One of them who owns a shop
near New York City put it this way: "When
we finally bit the bullet and raised our shop
rates to $125/hour for piston and $140/hour
for turbine, the only thing that happened is
that we lost a handful of customers we really
didn't want anyway, and never heard a word
of complaint from the rest."
WHERE WILL NEW MECHANICS
COME FROM?

The COVID-19 lockdowns have been
a disaster for A&P schools. According
to the Aviation Technician Education
Council, one in five A&P schools has
suspended operations, with many other
schools voicing concern over their longterm viability. Forty percent of the
schools expect a decline in 2020 graduates averaging 28 percent. Half expect
that enrollment will decline in 2020 and
2021 by 31 percent.
The long-term trend seems to be a deterioration of the maintenance infrastructure
for piston GA airplanes, and that should be
of concern to every owner.
AOPA
MIKE BUSCH is an A&P/IA.

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AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2020

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of AOPA Pilot Magazine - September 2020
