I continue to be blessed with the environment I’m surrounded by every day I walk in and start working with who I consider the best mentors I could be paired with. What I enjoy most about my mentorship compared to others is that my mentorship is all hands-on. I work in the maintenance department of the Lanier Flight Center at the Lee Gilmer Memorial Airport (GVL) in Gainesville, GA. I am blessed to work with three well-qualified, extremely knowledgeable A&P (airframe and power plant) mechanics and one A&P-in-training. My coworkers keep me on my toes with jobs that need to be completed and some tasks that could help out while they do maintenance on the aircraft that I may not be able to perform. What are some of the jobs I do? I have changed the oil for aircraft several times, I help take panels off the aircraft for inspections every 100 flight hours, cleaning and gapping (and testing) spark plugs, changing out bad lights, packing wheel bearings, and numerous other simple tasks. My mentors appreciate the help and I enjoy working with aircraft. I may not be the mechanic-savy person and understand everything, but I enjoy getting my hands dirty and learning the aircraft progressively over time.
When the other mechanics seem occupied with tedious maintenance on the aircraft, I make myself useful and take out the trash that quickly builds up, make a trip to the oil reservoir to empty the used oil, and I’ve been slowly introduced to the inventory and paperwork side of things and start to help out in that capacity when I can.
No class in high school could have prepared me for what I handle at my work, but my experience as a student pilot has help me greatly understand the basics to the aircraft which helps out the mechanics that I work with. If they need me to start up the aircraft and run it for a minute or two after an oil change to make sure there are no leaks, they can count on me. What I learn at my mentorship has helped develop me as a pilot in understanding the aircraft, and has made me more aware of how important aircraft mechanics are in maintaining an aircraft in safe condition.
chrisolmsteadhmp 