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Pro tip: found out the average A&P is 51 years old and it kind of hit me
Was reading through the 2023 FAA AMT awards booklet at the shop last Tuesday and came across a number that stuck with me. The average age of an active A&P mechanic is around 51, and only about 2 percent of us are under 30. I started on DC-9s back when you had to actually understand the fuel system instead of just swapping a box, and now half the young guys we hire come from a two year program with barely any hands on time. Anyone else seeing the age gap in their hangar, or is it just my part of Ohio?
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colegarcia22d ago
That 2 percent number scares me more than the average age does, honestly. We had a kid come through last summer who could pull a fault code like nobody's business but couldn't tell a bad cannon plug from a good one just by looking at it. I handed him a logbook and asked him to check control cable tensions and he looked at me like I was speaking Latin. The old heads are retiring and taking all that feel for the airplane with them, the stuff you can't teach from a slide deck. A 51 year old average means in 15 years half the crew is gone and nobody's left who learned on round dials. And no, it ain't just Ohio. Talk to the line guys in Dallas or Phoenix and they'll tell you the same thing.
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