Learning to Fix It or Fly It

Embry-Riddle: the Harvard of the sky

At busy airports, the blue and white coveralls of the nation's 130,000 aircraft mechanics used to fade unnoticed into the background. No longer. After the crash of an American Airlines DC-10 on Memorial Day weekend, investigators called attention to the disturbing possibility that cracks in the wing engine mounts could have been put there when mechanics routinely overhauled the engine.

Ever since the crash, air travelers have been worried, as never before, about the quality of aircraft-mechanic training. The fact is that airplane mechanics must meet federal license requirements that are in some ways tougher than those for pilots. A weekend light-plane flyer needs only a minimum of 35 hours' flight experience before taking the test for his federal pilot's license. Even to replace a wheel, legally, on a single-engine plane, a mechanic needs a Federal Aviation Administration airframe and power plant rating (known as an "A&P"), which requires a minimum of 18 months' training.

One of the best places to get such training is Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla. Embry-Riddle (E-RAU) is the world's only accredited four-year college devoted solely to aviation. Some 3,400 students enrolled this spring at its Daytona campus, most of them working toward a B.S. degree by studying subjects such as pilot training, plane design and aircraft maintenance. The school also offers courses in history and basic science. "Embry-Riddle is to aviation what the Harvard Business School is to the corporate world," boasts Vice President Dick Queenan, a former executive of Pan American World Airways.

The glamour of piloting attracts many of the students, who receive flight instruction (at a minimum of $32 per hour) in the school's fleet of 63 general aircraft. But many, 300 this year, also earn their A & P after completing the five-trimester program in airframes and power plants.

"I preach that the responsibility of these mechanics is greater than that of a doctor," says Bob Olson, chairman of E-RAU's maintenance technology division, as he watches a class learning how to slip a stubborn rubber seal over a propeller flange. "Maybe they don't need all the training a doctor gets, but if you make one mistake, you might kill 273 people, not one." Says E-RAU Dean Chuck Williams: "It's a little different from working on an automobile or a truck. Students sense that the bolt they tighten down is going to be flying 400 miles per hour."

Aviation mechanics with the airlines average $22,000, or half of an airline pilot's salary. Prospects for work in both fields are bright, partly because the last wave of World War II-trained men are approaching retirement. "Look around the airports," says Olson. "Most of the people working on planes are gray-haired." He is right: the average age of airplane mechanics is 57. Most E-RAU graduates get their first jobs in aviation working for charter operators and servicing business planes, rather than going direct to airlines.

Embry-Riddle is easy to get into for students who can pay $1,050 per trimester, plus flight fees that can top $20,000 over four years. It is not so easy to stay in; only 65% of those entering survive to earn a degree. So high is the FAA'S confidence in the school's instructors that the agency allows faculty to give and grade most of the Government's flying examinations; E-RAU maintenance instructors double as officially appointed FAA examiners, subject only to agency spot checks.

Since the school first opened in Daytona in 1965, Embry-Riddle students have logged 600,000 hours in the air with only six deaths. Says President Jack Hunt: "We've had three times that many die in motorcycle accidents."

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