r/aviationmaintenance

Finishing up my first year of a 4-year AME course (2 years theory + 2 years practical) in Dubai for both B1.1 and B2.

Found out I was red-green colorblind a year ago. Got rejected by one college because of it but passed another one, but the school I'm at now (also another one) accepted me and the manager told me not to worry. I also asked some classmates to check with their dads who work as AMEs here, and they confirmed there are definitely colorblind engineers working in the hangars right now.

But I still get hit with anxiety because I know places like the Philippines will instantly kill your career over a color test.

Are there any active B1 or B2 AMEs in Dubai/UAE who are colorblind? How did your GCAA medical or practical trade tests go? Did you get slapped with any limitations, and has it actually affected your hiring or daily work with airlines here?
Appreciate any real insight from guys on the floor. Thanks.

I'm looking to buy, build, carve, 3D print, something, a stand that I can put the magneto into to retime the points.

1. Pull mag from engine.

2. Set gear into stand to hold magneto upright while I take the back off and retime it.

Does anyone have plans, an .stl file, a pic of what they use... anything that can help me out?

I fly small ultralights that use 2-stroke engines which tend to vibrate a lot.

Since the spark plug is a high-temperature environment, are there any Torque Seal-like visual indicators that can be used on them to quickly check if one has loosened or not?

I’m thinking I can divide each drawer into 10 modular panels. Then when my dykes break and I can’t find a set that fits in the spot, I only have to redo one or two panels instead of the whole drawer. What do we think?

I am a current AMT student and sometimes check JSFirm just to see the jobs in my area.

Before there used to be a map of stuff nearby, now its filled with sponsors and listings not even near you and you cant even search for stuff near you reliability now.

Also the "Find Jobs" page requires you make an account (which I am unable to make since they won't send me a verification email).

The site was perfect before but now they made it unusable.

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post this but I don't know where else to post it.

Edit: All the job listings that were previously on JSFirm are also removed so its basically impossible to click the old links on Indeed or google and it just goes to a 404 page.

Hi all, doing some informal research into how line maintenance really flows day to day, from people who do it rather than from manuals or scheduling software. Genuinely curious about a few things:

1. Do you actually get idle time between aircraft, or is that rare? If it happens, can you see what else is waiting nearby, or do you just wait for your next assignment?

2. When a short notice job comes in, or one needs a specific rating and nobody with that ticket is free right then, how does anyone figure out who's actually available? System, radio call, or mostly memory?

3. Ground time / turnaround windows, how often do you actually run over, and what happens when you do?

Not selling anything, not affiliated with any vendor, just trying to understand the real gap between how this looks on paper vs how it works on the ramp. Real examples and unofficial workarounds genuinely appreciated.

I'm in a bit of a debate with the company I work for. Cfr 43.13(a) clearly states that using recommended equipment in the manual is a requirement. However the FAA can approve an equivalent alternative.

I work on 737s, and the company has Pittsburg jacks for the nose gear on all of their planes, and at all of their stations, and although they do meet the tonnage requirement, the fitting is not quite ideal and there is no loss of pressure safety feature as far as I'm aware. We are a 121.

The company has assured us that the jacks are legal, which I can only assume means they've been given permission to do so by the FAA, but if that's the case then what proof do I have if questioned. There's nothing in the company gmm I can find about it, so it's basically just he said she said right now, and the company is refusing to just buy one of the recommended jacks.

We apparently have some faa reps that we work very closely with at our main operating base, and the explanation I've been given is that we've been given permission to use them but if anything goes wrong, it's on the company, which sounds like BS to me, because they would obviously throw the mechanic under the bus in that case.

Is this one of those things where if I go to the FAA and ask myself to verify that they have been approved for use, that they will essentially just not care, whether is has or hasn't, or is it actually a big deal.

I just don't want this to blow up in my face over nothing, any advice?

I was a line maintenance guy for a few decades, loved it and i realize that some people don’t. As in they fucking hate it.

I recently overheard someone adjacent to aircraft maintenance say that everything is in the manual, all the steps of maintenance are clearly laid out. I know that to not be the case, but I’m wondering how you all would illustrate the limitations of all the approved technical documents?

Has anyone ever tested a manual fuel gauge that act like a pipette - ie FuelHawk - to see if they are an accurate representation of fuel in a Piper Cherokee? The dihedral wings keep the fuel bladder at an angle so technically it should always read too low and maybe that increases safety to underestimate. The FuelHawk only reads down to 5 gallons so maybe the guage already takes the angle of the tank into consideration. I’m just curious if they are accurate or anyone has any thoughts.

That’s all. Start looking elsewhere pls. Enough comments about the airlines