I realize that is the case with a lot of places with the current shortage. My ideal is to find 6-12 reputable places to apply, do you have any recommends?

The only places with a shortage of help are places you do not want to be. I know that pilots have to take whatever is available and do so because the time has value toward the destination. An A&P has very little more to offer than any other highschool drop out. The cert is too easy to obtain to have any value. None of the highest paying airlines care about a mechanics experience. These are the only companies that come close to paying a living wage. So that is why I.say that working as an A&P is just a temporary gig. I have been told by a Fedx manager that he would not hire an experienced 40y/o mechanic. They recruit box throwers who have the ticket. Major airlines do the same thing with their bag smashers. Delta hired 18y/o kids as fully fledged mechanics. That's all you need to know about the value of an A&P. It's just a little plastic card that checks a box. This is great for a kid but worthless for an adult. Almost any other type of technician or tradesman make more money with far better QOL. On the job market, a middle aged pilot is just hitting his stride. A middle aged A&P is damaged goods. I would slap any kid with potential that spoke of aviation maintenance.

A perfect summation. His insults and vindictiveness go beyond a rational opinion of the pros and cons of the profession and likely result from some very negative event or personal failure in his past. (I am not an A&P myself).

Everts Air Alaska in Fairbanks. They fly a couple PC-12s and C-208s. They have an override for people with A&P license when you do A&P work. Once you build your time up (2000-2500 hours) we'll consider transitioning you to Everts Air Cargo flying the MD-80 or DC-9.

Then again, you could start as a DC-6 flight engineer and move up to the right seat of the DC-6 as well. Your A&P license would be of great benefit to you there. Most of the DC-6 flying is in ANC.

Check out www.evertsair.com for more info.

True. Anything with a round engine screams "maintain me."

You got that right. I forgot to mention he could fly with EAA and wrench on the DC-6 and C-46 in Fairbanks when he isn't flying. They do a lot of maintenance on those birds in FAI.

Who hurt you?

I looked on there website and currently they advertising DC-6 FO positions. Also, went through the forums and saw a lot of previous postings for FE and FO positions.

Postings from a few years ago had starting pay at $55 and 60 hr min.

Does anyone know a current pilot for Everts? Get the current lay of the land.
Thanks

With an A&P you should be a decent candidate for ag since they do a lot of maintenance during the off season. Right now in CA rice season is in full swing and the sky is dark with operators seeding fields. A pilot can make $125k easy out here, but it's a grind right now. Farmers need their crops taken care of like yesterday so it's frenetic, so much so it's risky trying to fly into their strips like I have to do because they're constantly landing, reloading and blasting off again. I basically orbit at 1000 feet until I see a window and dump my C-182 down before the next guy lands. Radio communication is non existent.

But this is the allure of ag flying. The last real seat-of-your-pants flying job. But you won't fly IFR and rarely climb above 500 feet. The equipment is battered and repaired countless times. In the season you may ball up an Agcat on take off, leave it there in a heap to hustle back to another airplane to finish the jobs for the day. If this sounds appealing, then make connections at NAAA. I know for certain that there is work for the right pilot/mechanics. Some guys even take low timers and train them up. Now this is specific to California, not sure about the Midwest/south. If I had to do it all over again, I'd get into Ag flying/wrenching. I'm a comm pilot/A&P as well...but then I got married.

I'm just letting everyone know about aircraft maintenance after starting out there first. The demarcation between mechanic and pilot is incredibly huge. The two never meangle for good reason. The time and money spent on my A&P was a complete loss even at a blue collar level. Not to mention the incredible damage it inflicted to my ultimate career. Anyone with an average IQ that actually finished a crappy public highschool and is not a felon, is far overqualified to work as an A&P mechanic. That's the nicest thing I have to say about it.