WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
Jeff Cavarra | Contributing Author Introduction by R. Fred Polak
A HELICOPTER MECHANIC APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAM
COULD IT WORK AT YOUR PLACE OF EMPLOYMENT?
If you have been following our articles on the global helicopter mechanic shortage, then you know this is a
very real and urgent situation for our industry. As with many issues that we face today, there are many possible ways to tackle a problem. Some are easy, some less so, some expensive and some are less expensive. There is more than one way to deal with this shortage. In
this article and a few others that will appear in future issues of HMM, we will talk with some individuals who have a helicopter mechanic apprenticeship program at their place of employment. It works for them and might work for your company, too.
What is an Apprenticeship? An apprenticeship is a combination of on-the-job training (OJT) and related classroom instruction under the supervision of a journey-level craft person or trade professional in which workers learn the practical and theoretical aspects of a highly-skilled occupation. After completing an apprenticeship program, the worker’s journey-level status provides an additional benefi t of nationwide mobility at journey level scale.
In my travels to schools that off er airframe and powerplant (A&P) or aviation maintenance technology (AMT) programs, I get asked one question more than any other: “All the possible employers that I have contacted want to know if I have at least three years of helicopter maintenance experience. I have my license, but how do I get that experience?” That is a great question and I don’t have a great answer. However, a partial solution might be a helicopter mechanic apprenticeship program.
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HelicopterMaintenanceMagazine.com April | May 2015 One such company that is having great success with
an aviation mechanic apprentice program is DynCorp International (DI). Its apprentice program is at McClellan Air Park, just outside Sacramento, CA. I use the term aviation mechanic rather than just helicopter mechanic as their apprentice program supports both fi xed-wing and rotary- wing aircraft. Having said that, let me turn it over to Jeff so that he can explain how their program is so successful.
CAL FIRE There has been a slow, yet steadily increasing shortage of licensed, qualifi ed mechanics to provide aircraft maintenance for the many diff erent aircraft types operated by the U.S. military, as well as commercial airlines, business aviation and specialty aviation providers. This decline is moving like an unstoppable lava fl ow toward becoming a “critical mass.” The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection
(CAL FIRE), a specialty aviation provider, operates more than 50 aircraft for use in the suppression of wildland fi res and has faced this challenge head on. CAL FIRE operates a mixed fl eet of aircraft, 40 fi xed-wing aircraft and 12 UH-1H “Super Hueys” rotorcraft. All maintenance work is contracted out to help them be mission ready and minimize costs at the same time. Its current maintenance provider is DynCorp International.
Due to the highly-specialized nature of the aircraft,
fi nding mechanics that had previous experience performing maintenance on these aircraft types was, and still is, diffi cult. “Most of the aircraft in CAL FIRE’s fl eet are 1960s vintage
aircraft that have been signifi cantly modifi ed,” sayes Tim Huber, operations manager for DynCorp International’s
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