Originally Posted by geosync

I'm a Comm pilot/A&P, that does neither professionally currently. However, I'm in claims and talk/visit shops and operators on a weekly basis. Obviously I'm one of those rated airmen that is not actively in maintenance, and we have several other claims guys in our company that have A&Ps but don't work as one. I've also worked in the space industry building satellites, and that industry has tons of A&Ps no longer in aviation. In the field currently, I talk to maintenance managers that are dying for help, from large corporate iron down to entry level GA. They can't find A&Ps to save their lives. And boy, if you know avionics you can name your price. So the official numbers might say one thing, but on the ground the landscape is quite different, at least from my perspective. Ok, that's all I got, I'll extract myself from the running argument now.