leaving aviation for a new trade

[AMEwannabe]

Can anyone recommend a new trade to start in the gta? I'm licensed M2 but never really loved to work on airplanes. I am facing a layoff on the Jan 22 and thought this might be a good time to get out. I don'tmind doing a 4 year aapprenticeship for better pay.

[conehead]

Check out the wind-turbine maintenance business...

You need to climb.

Wind Technician – Comber & Gosfield Wind Project
http://ca.indeed.com/viewjob?from=appsh ... f9f81e7711

[5x5]

Leprechaun Chaser - during training you get to meet lots of beautiful red-haired girls, dink good beer and once you succeed you will have lots of money. And it won't be Canadian dollars, but good, hard precious metal.

Or a plumber - people always gotta go.

[Broken Slinky]

Mortician or funeral home owner. I hear most people need their services at some point.

[NAT2]

dink good beer and once you succeed you will have lots of money.

Son, you do what to your beer?
You seemed like the kind of person I'd like to sit down and have a beer with until I read that

[5x5]

dink good beer and once you succeed you will have lots of money.

Son, you do what to your beer?
You seemed like the kind of person I'd like to sit down and have a beer with until I read that

Here it is, I found it.................'r'

[hoptwoit]

You could try auto mech or heavy duty mechanical. If you talk to the apprentice card you can probably get a year or two credit from your AME licence.

[wrenchturnin]

I left aviation last year after 8 years as a mechanic. I am now a 1st year HVAC mechanic AKA Refrigeration Mechanic. Couldn't be happier. Its definetly not as exciting as aviation and it was a very tough change the first 6 month's. By no means boring though. Lots of new , fresh and interesting things to learn. No shift work, 2x the salary once a journeyman, hell I almost make now as a 1st year apprentice than what I did after 8 years as a AME and I didnt work at a small company and seen almost every aviation scene in those 8 years. 100% employer paid pension and health benefits, company paid truck and gas, mon-fri 8-4 only. Go for it and stay the course. Youre aviation experience will help you tremendously. Trust me though nostalgia for aviation will always make you miss it, but remember nostalgia clouds the bad parts.

[AMEwannabe]

I left aviation last year after 8 years as a mechanic. I am now a 1st year HVAC mechanic AKA Refrigeration Mechanic. Couldn't be happier. Its definetly not as exciting as aviation and it was a very tough change the first 6 month's. By no means boring though. Lots of new , fresh and interesting things to learn. No shift work, 2x the salary once a journeyman, hell I almost make now as a 1st year apprentice than what I did after 8 years as a AME and I didnt work at a small company and seen almost every aviation scene in those 8 years. 100% employer paid pension and health benefits, company paid truck and gas, mon-fri 8-4 only. Go for it and stay the course. Youre aviation experience will help you tremendously. Trust me though nostalgia for aviation will always make you miss it, but remember nostalgia clouds the bad parts.

Thanks for the replies. HVAC is one trade that crossed my mind. I'm very torn. Rough it out in aviation or start something new.

[Pat Richard]

I left aviation last year after 8 years as a mechanic. I am now a 1st year HVAC mechanic AKA Refrigeration Mechanic. Couldn't be happier. Its definetly not as exciting as aviation and it was a very tough change the first 6 month's. By no means boring though. Lots of new , fresh and interesting things to learn. No shift work, 2x the salary once a journeyman, hell I almost make now as a 1st year apprentice than what I did after 8 years as a AME and I didnt work at a small company and seen almost every aviation scene in those 8 years. 100% employer paid pension and health benefits, company paid truck and gas, mon-fri 8-4 only. Go for it and stay the course. Youre aviation experience will help you tremendously. Trust me though nostalgia for aviation will always make you miss it, but remember nostalgia clouds the bad parts.

Thanks for the replies. HVAC is one trade that crossed my mind. I'm very torn. Rough it out in aviation or start something new.

Unless you're into roughing it out, there's not much to think about. This industry continues to get shitier and plenty now know about it. Cut your your losses while you can still afford to because you will most likely reach a point where you wont be able to if you stay long enough.

[Schimunga]

Search "Turbines" in the Yellow Pages. Check out what companies are in that list and see if they perform maintenance on those turbines. With your experience in aircraft turbine maintenance you could easily use that knowledge for other applications turbines are used for like power generation.

Also check out industrial air compressors(Sullair, Atlas Copco). Some of your turbine knowledge can be used for maintaining them. These types of compressors are used in manufacturing. Probably a lot of them in the GTA area.

[wrenchturnin]

Anything to do with turbines outside of aviation requires an engineering degree and 4 years university. Ive looked into it also and forget it. Unless you did your highschool with intentions to goto university. If not you need to upgrade all your highschool and 4 years of university. One of the Engineering trades is called Rotating Equipment Engineer. Those are the guys that work on power generation equipment. Its sad i know but you will soon realize your aviation counts for NOTHING in any other trade. You need to start from square one again. Your experience will help you immensly though for learning and schooling for another trade.

[Schimunga]

Anything to do with turbines outside of aviation requires an engineering degree and 4 years university. Ive looked into it also and forget it. Unless you did your highschool with intentions to goto university. If not you need to upgrade all your highschool and 4 years of university. One of the Engineering trades is called Rotating Equipment Engineer. Those are the guys that work on power generation equipment. Its sad i know but you will soon realize your aviation counts for NOTHING in any other trade. You need to start from square one again. Your experience will help you immensly though for learning and schooling for another trade.

Not the companies I talked to. One guy was very interested in having me come aboard because I knew PT6's(only to have his bid fall through and didn't need more guys). He knew I was an AME. You do not need an engineering degree to maintain a turbine for power generation.

Look under minimum qualification.

https://sjobs.brassring.com/TGWebHost/j ... 2&GQId=883

[tellyourkidstogetarealjob]

In answer to the original poster. I would not recommend any trade where you are forced to work in certain areas, is seasonal, or reliant on the economy. That takes care of most of them.

One of my sons went for plumbing for exactly those reasons. He figured whether people are making money or not, they still have to go.

Power Engineering I could also see being a reliable future. Available anywhere so you can live wherever you want and, with an expanding population being packed into more and more condo developments (and old age homes) is likely to see a steady increase in demand. In some areas Power Engineering can be taken as a co-op program so you can try before you completely buy in.

[chowda]

http://www.bbc.com/future/story/2013112 ... e-smart<br abp="778"><br abp="779">I won't worry about you being offended. If the article is right, you'll be incapable of realizing it is about you.

there it is, scientifically explained. Great article! For the OP, some good advice given already given and all I might add is looking at safety or SMS type industrial courses. That area in any industry seems to be constantly expanding. Ontario might be different than out West, but I'll also second that your time in aviation will most likely officially count for nothing. I have had the same experience.

[blackbird_007]

Hello AMEwannabe :

About becoming a power generation turbine technician / engineer; I know of one guy that did exactly the same thing transferring from aircraft technician to power generation turbine technician. However, that didn't happened in Canada nor did it happen very recently (more than 10 years ago).

In my opinion, either Transport Canada or Professional Engineering Ontario (or other engineering bodies) make it very difficult for anyone to transfer from one trade / professional to another. My guess is even professional engineers having difficulties finding jobs in another engineering field.

Hope it helps you a little bit.

[AMEwannabe]

Hey guys. Thanks for the replies. I'm leaning towards HVAC. Anyway, this thread has gone off course.

[Schimunga]

Sorry everyone. It looks like the link I provided doesn't exist anymore. My bad.

For AMEwannabe the link was for "Solar Turbines". They are a division of Caterpillar. They use turbines for all sorts of uses and operate across Canada. The link was for a field service technician servicing turbines and one of the qualifications was being an AME. Also if you are interested going into another trade I suggest going to the trade school and ask directly if your experience as an AME can be used. Don't trust hearsay on a comment board. Some of that information can be wrong. Maybe you can even challenge a few of the exams and leap frog into a second or third year apprenticeship. Anyway, if you are going to make the change good luck in your endeavour.


Why does it always turn into a monkey shit throwing fight with some you guys?

[AMEwannabe]

Sorry everyone. It looks like the link I provided doesn't exist anymore. My bad.

For AMEwannabe the link was for "Solar Turbines". They are a division of Caterpillar. They use turbines for all sorts of uses and operate across Canada. The link was for a field service technician servicing turbines and one of the qualifications was being an AME. Also if you are interested going into another trade I suggest going to the trade school and ask directly if your experience as an AME can be used. Don't trust hearsay on a comment board. Some of that information can be wrong. Maybe you can even challenge a few of the exams and leap frog into a second or third year apprenticeship. Anyway, if you are going to make the change good luck in your endeavour.


Why does it always turn into a monkey shit throwing fight with some you guys?

Thanks for the meaningful post.

[North Shore]

Gentlemen, please police yourselves. We all try to conduct ourselves in a professional manner at work - I see no good reason why that manner should not continue in this forum.

Carry on...