Do you want to be an Aviation Maintenance Technician?

If you want to acces the only school of Aviation Maintenance Technician (TMA) in Mallorca you only need to be over 18 years old or at least turn 18 during the first year of the course and choose one of these three methods:

- Baccalaureate diploma for seventy percent of places available.
- An intermediate level of a vocacional course for twenty percent of places available.
- Or pass a specific entrance exam for the ten percent of places available.

You need to be interested in a practic course which offers you possibilities of working straight away; the right attitude is a requirement, you have to want to learn a lot of material and be able to work in team for the practices.

A good scientific background of Maths and Physucs help as well for the course, technology too. But English is more important yet because all the manuals are in English.

You should be aware that you have to go to
all the classes as non-attendance means that you won't be able to pass. And you will need  to travel to two different places at 7:30am or 8am in Globalia or Son Pacs school.

How are Globalia classes?

The Globalia classes is a combination of theoretical and practical classes every day and with a lot of different subjects above all the first year. The schedule divide the days and you never will start the new subject without having finished the previous subject.
The first year the subjects are:

Modul 1
Maths: you don’t have classes but you have an exam for which you have to study by yourself.

Modul 2
Physics: you are in the same situation like maths.

Modul 3
Electricity: we study generators and functions, electric motors, batteries, Ohm’s law, Kirschoff’s law, circuits and transformers.
70 hours

Modul 4
Electronics: diodes, transistors, converters, amplifiers, logic gates and syncros systems.
24 hours

Modul 5
Digital systems: electronic avionic systems and digital techniques.
95 hours

Modul 7
Maintenance practicals: everything related with the maintenance, workshop and safety at work. Like tools, manuals, precautions...
150 hours

Modul 8
Aerodynamics: atmosphere, Benoulli’s law, properties of aerodynamics on a plane, wing surface, controls,..etc.
42 hours

Modul 10
Legislation: here we learn specific parts of the aviation laws related to the maintenance.
42 hours

Modul 15
Engines: different types of engines, how they work, parts, maintenance and materials.
123 hours

Modul 17
Propellers: different tyoes of propellers, how they work, their positioning, parts, maintenance and materials.
36 hours

And in the second year:

Modul 6
Materials and hardware: ferrous, non-ferrous, wood, plastics, rivets, screws, fittings, etc.
160 hours

Modul 9
Human factors: humans practices and limitations at time to work.
42 hours

Modul 11
Airplane aerodynamics, structures and systems: everything related with  the plane explained with ATA’s.
316 hours

Attention: 90% of compulsory class attendance 

A day at Line Maintenance

A day at line maintenance could start at morning, afternoon or evening. The work to be done day or night is very different.

 In the day job the TMA carries out transit works on the planes that have designated to you checking parameters of the aircraft like oil or hydraulic levels; the pressure of the tires; a visual check of the fuselage, wings and engines; the technical logbook; the automatic reporting system of the aircraft and repairing these problems if is possible or dispatching the aircraft according MEL (Minimum Equipment List) with the objective of give the OK to the aircraft for do the next jouney with the minimum delay.

 At night the planes do not fly, they are on land and the job of the TMA is do the Daily Check or A-check to 3-4 aircrafts and is a more exhaustive check and fixing the problems that had been dispatched according MEL during the day.

Maintenance Task: Removal/Installation of a battery

First we have to read the technical logbook or the task card to know which is the problem of the aircraft. This time we see how the pilot has reported a failure of the plane’s battery.

 We will go to the maintenance manual (AMM) of the airplane to know what we have to do and read:

REMOVAL / INSTALLATION
1-Locate the batteries of the airplane with the Ilustrated Parts Catalogue (IPC).
2-Take the safety precautions by disconnecting the circuit breakers of “Batttery” and “DC System” and marking with a card where we can read “DO NOT OPERATE”.
3-Remove the cover panel of the battery placement.
4-Cut the lockwire of the battery’s connector and disconnect the battery.
5-Remove the battery.

1-Install a new or overhauled battery.
2-Connect the battery and lockwire the connector with a 0,021’ diameter of copper wire.
3-Install the cover panel.
4-Connect the “Battery” and “DC System” circuit breakers and remove the cards.
5-Test the DC System and the battery indications.

Air Florida flight 90 - Boeing 737

Causes of the accident

The biggest snowfall the pilots had seen. A non-recommended proportion of de-icing mix used on airplane. The layer of snow that accumulated on the wings after use the reverses to leave the parking. Have the system of anti-ice of the engines off and that freeze the inlet of the engine pressure sensor and caused a false reading of power in cockpit. But overall the unconsciousness of the captain to commit all these errors like not doing another de-icing knowing they had got snow on their wings and unfollowing the procedures.

Heroes of the accident

The police helicopter team of the city of Washington DC for the rescue of the survivors in the iced river. And Lenny who jumped into the iced river to rescue Priscilla Tirado to die frozen.

Crashes caused by maintenance errors

The flight of a McDonell-Douglas of Alaska Airlines in January of 2000 finished into the sea with 0 survivors. A bad maintenance for the Alaska Airlines engineers on the screwjack of the horizontal stabilizer caused the imposibility of control the aircraft. Another flight of Air Canada in June of 1982 landed emergency in Cincinnati after a fire into the cabin caused for a bad union and maintenance of the electric cables, died 23 people. 

DEICING PROCESS

ALASKA AIRLINES SCREWJACK

Why am I studying this?

I am studying aeromechanical maintenance because after 2 years of trying a university career in the UIB, I saw that this was not done for me. I looked for the offer of professional training that exists in the Balearic Islands and the only profession in which I really saw myself working and I liked it was this aircraft mechanic.

THE FIRST GIANT OF THE AIR. BOEING 747

The Boeing 747 is the icon of the world aviation, with its 4 engines and its second floor make it recognized wherever you go.

Nicknamed "Jumbo", in 1970 it was the first wide-body aircraft built in the world, that is, it was the first double-aisle airplane. 

It has a maximum capacity of about 600 people. The cargo version was able to load about 180,000 kg. And a modified version was able to transport the space shuttle over the fuselage.

The Jumbo gets its power from 4 turbofan engines Pratt & Whitney with high bypass ratio. Once again a pioneer in his time. It also had the largest comfort and entertainment system on board with 170 miles of cable inside its walls.

My new lesson

The control reversal:

Is an advers effect on the controllability of aircraft when the flight controls reverse themselves  in a way that is not intuitive.
This problem occurs at high speeds when the airflow over the wing becomes so great that the force generated by the ailerons is enough to twist the wing. For example the aileron is deflected up for make the wing move down, the wing twists in the opposite direction, the airflow goes directed down it and the wing moves upward.