Hangar Heroes | Rachel’s Journey
Launching a future in aviation maintenance
Young people face significant challenges finding their career paths in the new economy. The reality of having to choose between money and passion is real for some of those young people. What if you could have both?
Our ACES Systems team recently stumbled upon a bright young person contemplating such things.
Rachel Guntner is 20 years old. She had gone to traditional college for a couple of years, but the experience didn’t really spark her imagination. After her friend’s father showed her around his airplane and then later applying for a customer service job with Cycle Aviation in Leesburg, Virginia, Rachel found something she could get excited about. Aviation Maintenance.
And she may have found a way to join a career field she loves without the high student loan burden many of her peers will carry.
Fortunately for her, the owner of Cycle Aviation, Mark Granger, was open to the idea of offering Rachel an internship as a mechanic’s helper hoping she would later enter a formal training program to complete her training.
The Journey
“Her dad and I could just tell she was not loving college,” said Rachel’s mother Lynn Guntner. “When this opportunity came up to work in the aviation industry, we could see that she was completely excited. She has an incredible passion for it and comes home excited every day.”
There will be challenges along the way, however.
For one, there are specific skills the industry recommends a mechanic-in-training must have. The Aviation Institute of Maintenance blog post “What does it take to become an aircraft mechanic“, for example, states that a student should possess the following:
- Dexterity – this is a hands-on job so mechanics need to be able to use their hands to work accurately with various components, including pulling things apart and putting them back together.
- Detail-orientation – mechanics have to work to very high, precise standards. The ability to pay attention to the smallest detail or component and ensure every little part is in good condition and in place is important.
- Technical skills – part of the job will be about reading different types of instruments such as gauges. The ability to understand how instruments work and how to use diagnostic tools is therefore important.
- Troubleshooting – A mechanic must also be able to get to the cause of a problem and how to go about setting things as they should be.
According to the FAA’s Mechanic Testing Standards, though, anyone who wants to be an aviation maintenance professional must:
- Be at least 18 years old;
- Be able to read, write, speak and understand English;
- Acquire 18 months of practical experience with either power plants or airframes, or 30 months of practical experience working on both at the same time; and
- Pass a written, oral and practical test.
Nancy Jones was the 2014 Aviation Institute of Maintenance (AIM) Instructor of the Year and the 2003 Instructor of the Year for the Association for Women in Aviation Maintenance. She knows a few things about the aviation maintenance industry and what it takes to succeed as a student.
“They have to overcome their own lack of confidence and be willing to open their minds to new concepts,” Jones said. She further explained that stepping into the world of aviation maintenance can be overwhelming and learning everything they need to know to be a qualified technician can seem impossible for many students.
“It’s like being a bricklayer,” she said. “You don’t have to know everything all at once. You just lay each row of bricks until you’ve finished the wall. It takes time and experience to learn everything.”
And apparently it’s not a career for everyone. According to a study conducted by the Aviation Technician Education Council (ATEC) in 2015, one out of four graduates from FAA-certified training schools go on to pursue a career in something other than aviation. This statistic was listed by ATEC as the key challenging facing the aviation maintenance community in the near future. Regardless, the same study indicated that most of these schools expect enrollment to stay the same or rise slightly over the next three years.
Some have also suggested there is a growing labor shortage in this field, but several studies have been unable to conclusively say this is true. For example, the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation; the Committee of Transportation and Infrastructure; and the Government Accountability Office worked together in 2105 to study the demand and availability for aviation maintenance laborers.
After looking at BLS, U.S. Dept. of Education, FAA and Dept. of Defense statistics, though, researchers sta
ted they could “make no strong conclusions.” (Read study here)
Regardless, the money is pretty good.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average female between 20-24 years old in the United States with only a high school education makes $29,796 per year. Those who have some college or an Associate’s degree earn a little more per year at $34,164. But the average wage for an aviation maintenance professional (male and female) in 2014 was $56,990.
That’s a $23,000 increase Rachel is willing to reach for in a career field she’s very excited about.
Female in a Male-Dominated Career Field
But Rachel is also female entering a career field dominated by men. Jones knows something about that as well.
For one thing, there aren’t very many women in the field.
AIM Chesapeake Campus Executive Director James Luck pointed out that this year there are 16 female students in a class of 220 at his facility. Most women in the United States of all ages head toward professional degrees (29.4%) and office support jobs (21.6%).
According to the FAA’s Aeronautical Center, there were 7,917 women with current A&P certificates in 2013. Of those who possess certificates, though, the U.S. Department of Labor Statistics estimates are only 3,000 are currently working in the field of 155,000 total workers. That’s means women make up just 2% of the labor force in that field.
Aside from the challenges of being a minority, though, there are others to overcome too.
“They have to find the self-confidence to believe they can do the job as well as a man,” Jones said. “In some case, they can fall into stereotypes, but they don’t have to keep themselves locked into the image of being a woman who isn’t supposed to get dirty.”
Rachel is just one example of women who are passionate about aviation maintenance and are ready to tackle the challenges.
There are several organizations that support the needs of aviation maintenance technicians, including the Aviation Technician Education Council (ATEC) and the Professional Aviation Maintenance Association (PAMA). But the Association for Women in Aviation Maintenance (AWAM) is a nonprofit organization specifically supporting the needs of women.
“For us to thrive, we need to seek the companionship and support of others like ourselves as well as other members of this industry that we have chosen to be a part of,” said Lynette Ashland, President and Convention Exhibit Coordinator for AWAM. “We are a nonprofit organization formed for the purpose of championing women’s professional growth and enrichment in the aviation maintenance fields by providing opportunities for sharing information and networking, education, fostering a sense of community and increasing public awareness of women in the industry.”
Follow Rachel’s Journey
When we met Rachel we were inspired by her enthusiasm and thought you might be too. We drove to Virginia to meet her and to shoot the video you may have already seen at the top of this post.
Maybe the best part of this story is yet to come.
Each month Rachel will share her experiences as a newbie working in the hangar at Cycle Aviation with experienced aviation maintenance professionals. She’ll also write about the challenges she faces day-to-day at school. We are committed to following her story wherever it leads simply because we want to know what it’s like for a young person to get a foot in the door these days…
We are hoping you want to know too.
Sign up for our newsletter to be notified when her blog posts are published. We don’t share our list with others. We work hard to be a company you enjoy doing business with and appreciate that you trust we can help you solve complex problems with simple solutions.
Learn More!
