Aircraft Maintenance Engineering - Facts and Facts

I have been getting a lot of queries on Quora regarding Aircraft Maintenance Engineering, the course, opportunities, and the future. Thought of putting all the answers together here, so that it might be a help for many.

I categorize students who have completed +2 into 3 types:

1. Students who has an interest in something and who want to pursue that.
2. Students who don't have any particular interest but want to pursue a course that has got good ob opportunities.
3. Students who just want to do something.

I was into the 2nd Category then and instead of doing a survey on the courses, I did a mistake of blindly following one of our School toppers who was a brother figure to me. The problem here is, when you follow someone blindly, you tend to ignore all the negative advice people give on the decision that you have taken. It is right in a way to stick to your choice, but it is equally good to listen to the negative at times as we can be wrong too!

I was wrong there.

I was wrong in choosing Aircraft Maintenance Engineering. Even if I was a full-fledged Aircraft Maintenance Engineer today, still I would regret taking that course. 

The intention of this blog is to escape you from this trap.

Who is an AME?

An AME is the one who certifies the aircraft that the aircraft is fit to fly. Sounds fancy right. Read on.

How you can be an AME?

There is no such course that makes you an AME. To become an AME, You need to clear certain exams conducted by DGCA.  These papers are called as license papers. These papers are conducted yearly thrice or four times and any candidate with certain experience in aviation industry can write these exams.

There are X number of papers and after completing those you gets a Basic License. 

Then the airline should send you for an approved course and after clearing an interview by DGCA, you becomes full-fledged AME and will be eligible to certify an aircraft.

Who are eligible to write DGCA License papers/AME License papers?

Basic qualification to write License papers is +2 with certain Aircraft Industry Experience.
For each paper, the aircraft industry experience is different. For instance, for paper 1, the experience required is 1 year or so.

How to be eligible to write DGCA license papers/AME basic paper?

As I mentioned, to become an AME all you need to do is clearing DGCA papers and approval course through an airline or an aircraft maintenance industry.

To get aircraft experience you need to get into Aircraft Maintenance industry. This can be achieved through acquiring a Mechanical Diploma, or B tech. 

You can write these papers directly during AME course!!

What is AME course? Why people do AME and not Diploma/BE to get into Aviation/Aircraft industry?

AME course is a 3-year course that makes you eligible to write Basic AME papers. That means after the 1st year of AME, you will be eligible to write certain DGCA paper. After the 2nd year another set of papers, and so on. 

That means AME course is a short cut to get the eligibility to write DGCA license papers and no need to complete a degree to get into the industry, gain experience and then write those papers.

In short, this is a short cut.

How to be an AME without doing AME course?

Get a diploma/B Tech. Get into an airline industry/MRO (Jet Airways/Spicejet GMR MRO, NAL, HAL, Indian Airforce, Indian Navy aircraft division, Indian Army aircraft division ....etc). After 1 year of experience, start writing DGCA papers (visit DGCA website for applications). Clear one by one. After acquiring the basic license, request your company to send you for Approval course. Clear the course. There you go! You become eligible to certify the aircraft 'Fit to Fly'

Disadvantages of AME course

>>>>>The biggest disadvantage is that this is neither a degree nor a diploma and i just a plain certification course that just makes you eligible to write DGCA license papers without getting into the aviation industry.

That also means, if you don't clear those DGCA papers, the only choice left for you is to get into an airline/MR as a technician and keep trying for a lifetime to clear DGCA papers.

If you don't get a job in an airline, your certificate is just a plain paper and becomes useless.

>>>>>>NO COLLEGE LIFE. This is just a course and does not comes under any university. A building and an old trash Aircraft is required to conduct this course. Hence a proper campus is not required to conduct this course. 

>>>>>>> Will not be eligible to write any Govt exams.

>>>>>>>>>Will not able to pursue higher education in any of the approved institites around the world and in India

Advantages of AME course.

Just a shortcut that makes you eligible to write DGCA license papers!

Opportunities in India

Limited.

Opportunities Abroad

Limited.

To summarise:

PS: I came across this new course last week and this sounds interesting. A 5-year course by Hindustan Aviation Academy Bangalore where you get a good amount of practical experience to write EASA international license papers and also you can get BSC AME + MBA while undergoing this training. BSc in AME is there since 6 years and is anyday better than AME. But this 5-year stuff sounds pretty cool.