Top 5 Reasons Why Being a New Airplane Mechanic is Awesome

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I was recently hired as a full time line mechanic at a major airline. Yay! This week I’m spending some time at the mothership getting fleet training on the Airbus 330 (sorry Boeing) and it has given me some new reasons to contemplate my good fortune. So, here are my top 5 reasons why my current job situation is amazing:

1. When attending meetings and training at the mothership of my previous employer, a wrong turn down a hallway never resulted in my wandering into a flight simulator.

2. There are airplanes everywhere in my new life. Seriously, I spend 10 hours a day with them and even this week, while I’m spending my days inside a classroom, the airplanes are nearby – close enough to hear from inside the classroom, and close enough to watch on takeoff from just outside the building.

3. I used to be an armchair airplane enthusiast. I gleaned a bit of information about planes from publicly available sources, but when discussions on forums got technical I got lost. Now I’m one of the technical geeks, capable of confusing laypeople. Not that I would ever gloat about that …

4. I get to spend my days thinking about airplanes, learning about airplanes, taking tests about airplanes. Airplanes used to be a guilty passion, but now they’re my life.

5. Over the years I have come to realize that I like being part of a large company. Just not that company any more. Now I get to be part of a large company, but also pursue my dream. There’s something cool about being the airline’s hometown and seeing colleagues all over the place, getting the knowing nods as I walk from my hotel to the training room, talking to other mechanics in the elevators, saying things like “yeah, you check that through the MCDU, don’t you.” Or as I put it to people who asked why I left my old job, “Microsoft doesn’t have airplanes.”