Voyageur Maintenance

[LesterLester]

Lots of info on here for flight crew in Africa but anyone have any info for maintenance? Accommodations, base, pay scales.

[Youngback]

I don't know the pay scale for maintenance guys but it's pretty decent from what I've been told. If you are an ACA, the pay is apparently comparable to what Captains make. Accommodations and schedule are exactly the same as flight crews. 2 months on, 2 off. The schedule in country is a bit different however. You go in, help the flight crew get the aircraft ready, be on standby for any problems that crop up and then see the airplane off for the day. Do whatever maintenance duties are required while the aircraft is away (ie paperwork, inventory) then do whatever you like until the aircraft returns. Then the regular, routine maintenance is done and after that you are off. If the plane doesn't fly, that might be an opportunity to get a major maintenance item done. If the crew has the day off, and the plane is sitting pretty, it's your day off too.

That's one thing I've never understood. Maintenance is an important job where attention to details matter and fatigue can result in serious consequences. However, under CARS, I'm not aware of any duty limitations for maintenance guys. If the plane breaks, sometimes guys will be out for a good chunk of the night trying to get the plane fixed and then do the regular stuff during the day. When I was flying medevacs, sometimes our paramedics had been working 4 or 5 days straight with no breaks. Pilots complain about duty limits but we sure don't have the worst of it.

[LesterLester]

Thanks for your reply, very helpful. And I agree on duty, been there. Operator I apprenticed at seemed to thrive on that. I've had it pretty good over the last 15 years.
I am ACA'd on 2 of the types so that should be a plus. I would like to find out what bases they are at. I'll keep digging,

[Clearedtoland]

I am a pilot, and worked extensively overseas, much of the work similar to what Voyageur is doing. Personally, I couldn't agree more with you fellas regarding duty limitations. From what I see from the overseas stuff is that the engineers have pretty much the whole day off while the aircraft is out flying, and I guess it would be difficult to consider this duty time when in fact a person could be getting some shut eye.

In any case, I guess when you work overseas (like on UN contracts), you all just need to work together and be understanding. For example, if a guy works well into the night, I certainly wouldn't expect him to get up in the early am just to come to the airport for 30 minutes to take some covers off and say good bye. I like to think most 'crews' would approach the job this way.

That being said, it can be a problem when there is a more serious technical issue and you have a skelaton crew (i.e. a single engineer)... but this doesn't happen often since you guys are so switched on and keep our a/c purring nicely!

We appreciate your effort fellas - keep up the good work!