Well I am about to ship for basic and I really want to do AMT or maybe AST, eventually I want to work my way towards being a pilot. blah blah blah I am sure you've heard it before...

What I really want to know is what you guys do everyday, nothing cut and paste from the job description I have already read that but an actually AMT saying what they do everyday of their life.

thanks

Whetsel

This message has been edited. Last edited by: bucketofsoupyum,

quote:

Originally posted by bucketofsoupyum:
Well I am about to ship for basic and I really want to do AMT or maybe AST, eventually I want to worm up to be a pilot. blah blah blah im sure youve heard it before...

Whetsel

Worm up to be a pilot? Actually that's about right.

Wow, I went back over that post and found about 6-7 typos, I guess I need to go back over my posts 3-4 times when I decide to post something at 3 in the morning...

Any AMT's have a response to this?

A basic day as an AMT? I've been an AMT for just under 4 years now, as an AMT you do all sort of jobs, from hydraulics, landing gear systems, working on engines, gearbox, structual and so on. We do maintenance on the helicopter by hourly and calendar, meaning we do 7 day, 14 day, 30 day, 90 day inspections which all it is just inspecting certain parts of the airframe. The major maintenance is the hourly aspect which is removing/inspecting and re-installing engines, driveshaft, gearbox, tail gearbox and whatnot. At first it seems overwhelming but after awhile just like anything else, it becomes easy. And typically when there's not much work going on, there's some days we get cut loose at 1:00 or so (usually not during the summer months due to such a high amount of flying we do).

Other things that AMT's do is you will get qualified as an Basic Aircrew member and then get qualified as a Flight Mech so you'll go out on cases to save or assist those boaters out there. All in all it's a very good job, aviation is the best part to get into in the Coast Guard.


As for AST's, I can only tell you what I see them do.....the GLORY part of their job is jumping out of helicopters into the water to help others out......but shoplife, they don't do as much as AMT's or AETs. They do inspections on the gear inside the helicopter (liferaft, lifevests, rescue basket etc...) They also sew, hand out flight gear and do flight gear inspections. Also they workout pretty much everyday and go to the swimming pool I believe twice a week.


We'll, hope all this helps and goodluck in basic (its not so bad)

Yeah that was very helpful! Thanks for the info, I know what you mean about the AST, thats why I am not so set on becoming one, yeah sure the jumping out of a helicopter and saving people part would be real fun but all the stuff I have heard about them doing when they aren't out on SAR sounds to be really really boring...

What do you guys usually do when you are working Duty? I am assuming just emergency stuff?

I am hoping to get stationed at an airstation in my first duty station so I can see what looks like a better fit for my personality, I am probably going for AMT though.

Thanks Much!

oh and I am not to worried about basic, it will be a good time I think, I have been working out hard so I will be ready, and I am an Eagle Scout so most the other team building stuff should be nothing new.


Whetsel

Duty during the weekdays...we work 8 to 4 and then were "off" for rest of the night..meaning, we can't leave work, but we just watch movies, tv, play video games, work out, just whatever you want to do. When there's a SAR case, unless your flight crew, you just pull the plane out and then put a thru-flight and refuel it when it comes back/ or fix it if theres something wrong with it...just depends. It's not bad. Don't get your hopes up on going to an Airstation out of bootcamp, odds are it won't happen. In my company/sister company, there were around 120 of us and like 6 people went to an Airstation including myself...just got lucky.

Thanks for the info!

Doesn't sound to bad.

I know what you mean about an airstation after basic, but I figure it cant hurt to request it, maybe I will get lucky, maybe not.

Thanks again for all the info