Originally Posted by
JohnBurke
"Give away their trade?" Meaning what?
Aviation maintenance isn't a secret. A number of experienced mechanics provide online and direct counsel. Mike Busch may be one of the best known today. There's no trade to give away.
Those of us who are experienced mechanics and who earned our A&P and do have training, tools, and a working background have no qualms about sharing it. My experience, however, has been that few pilots express much interest in investing the time and effort to learn. Cover memory items, cover just enough answers to pass an oral, hit the aircraft limitations, and they're happy. For those, why would an experienced mechanic waste his time?
The trade secret is in effect whenever a mechanic happens to know something that the pilot/owner doesn't. That's the only way he can turn $20/hr into $200/hr. Anyone who likes to talk about technical aspects is not trying to earn a living as a mechanic. Any airline pilots out there want to teach a groundschool an instruct for free?